Casshern (2004)

Strong and Moving!

Load of rubbish!!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Lat ANYBODY watch ANY 5 minutes of the movie and they will say "holy sh**t that is amazing". And at least back in 2004 it was mind-blowing what Casshern delivers in visuals and style. The director was a fashion designer or something and by all means: that shows. Casshern is a beauty.But a beauty that feels like 6 hours and has nothing interesting to say. At some point you just end up being exhausted and bored. And it really is a pity.We need Dario Argento to make an European cut with 75 Minutes runtime and have a blast with the outcome.

The past decade exploiting superheroes, their adventures and their origin stories has become a trend. It's rare that you will find a film depicting the truth behind the legend since, I guess, where is the fun in telling a story that has already been told?!It has angered me many times to see a perfect comic book character or anime character ruined by the poorly unoriginal efforts of writers, producers and directors in their bid to appeal to mass audiences and all because they had absolutely no faith in the character to begin with. As a more mature film viewer I appreciate films that speak in volumes, films that both have a fair amount to say, yet allow me the opportunity to think for myself. So most superhero film directors I wouldn't trust to read my weekly shopping list correctly let alone my comic book collection.One film that actually flourished from a little audience-friendly editing was V For Vendetta but I'm not here to talk about that. One the one hand, V was mellowed out and softened for mass audiences. The character in question was actually darkened and made so anti-heroic that the film he was given was hardly a superhero film at all. Instead it was a work of genius...One sadly overlooked film released in 2005 under the title 'Casshern' (pronounced Kyashaan). Based on a 70's anime series about a cybernetic human's attempt to save the world from all out destruction, the live action film throws one hell of a curve-ball, not avoiding the original story but rather telling the tale from a different perspective and cleverly being chock full of action while avoiding any glorious sense of heroism whatsoever.All credit to Kazuaki Kiria as Writer, Cinematographer, Editor and Director who succeeded in moulding the film perfectly into his own unique vision, proving him an auteur to be taken very seriously.Kiria was a music video director before producing Casshern, which should have been a warning sign as music video directors these days tend to have little imagination beyond intertextual references and sticking cameras up women's arse cracks and labelling it artistic expression, but Kiria managed to take his knowledge beyond greater boundaries than those, surpassing 'Sin City' before it was even made.Casshern is something of a heavy metal fantasy opera that utilises the green screen to the fullest and combines it with trick photography, stunning visual effects, colourful epic set pieces and comic book styled animation not so much to wow the audience but to tell a story in the best way Kazuaki Kiria knows how. He has read his comic books clearly and what isn't an establishing shot is either a body shot or a close up of intense facial expressions. Only difference is you're reading from subtitles instead of speech bubbles.Casshern tells the story through a multi-strand narrative and follows them from humble beginnings, establishing their places in the world, and so the plot unfolds and their agendas slowly spread out in different directions as they all head unwittingly towards the same dramatic conclusion with methodical similarities to your average Coen Brothers film. It's a family affair which is fitting as it deals with the consequences brought about by hatred, tragedy and selfishness. Even your easily pinpointed villains have their secret agendas which they hide from their own families before eventually betraying them and Casshern becomes rife with Machiavellian surprises at the end of every scene.With a heavy metal/orchestral/ethereal/techno soundtrack playing over the vastly panoramic visuals, you're drinking up the similarities between the original soundtrack and the memorable sounds of Michael Kamen, Vangelis, Brian Eno and Massive Attack. You find yourself moved often by the sweeping orchestrations but the film also gladly knows when to shut up just for simple dramatic effect. But Casshern boasts some of the finest music ever committed to film.Kiria's take on Casshern is utilised to overall tell an anti-war story, to protest heavily against violence and to show just why it's so important to. Indirectly telling you the story (by not spoon feeding it to you), you are left to make up your own mind about a lot of the events that occur throughout. The context is universal and reaches one simple and very honest conclusion. Themes of religion, politics, science and the paranormal are brought together in relation to the story's take on love and war, life and death, greed and poverty, justice and injustice, revenge and tragedy etc. and the one thing it all begins and ends with is how discrimination blinds us all. Upon discovering the bombshell delivered in the penultimate scenes of the film, upon seeing where that massive curve-ball was aimed at, I damn near bawled my eyes out, not for the protagonist but for his greatest and most powerful nemesis; he who Casshern holds so much anger and contempt for.Casshern is a genius piece of film that should be remembered always and something that ought to be passed onto the younger generation. I recommend you watch it when you realise your life sucks and you're feeling a bit vulnerable from it!

Casshern is a spectacular visual extravaganza. The futuristic world it brings to life is vivid and unlike any other sci-fi future I've ever seen. We are shown a vaguely steam punk dark future, with Russian, Chinese, and (I suspect) North Korean stylistic elements. The visuals practically justify the existence of the movie, which is good as the remaining elements of the work aren't up to the same level.First, there are occasional visual tricks in the movie (such as mystical-looking symbols flashing on screen, or CGI robots becoming 2D animations) that are more distracting than impressive. They're few and far between in the movie, but distracted me from enjoying the movie itself.Second, the screenplay could have used a few more rewrites. I understand the points the movie was trying to make well enough ("War is bad", "People are cruel to each other because they don't think their enemies are truly human", etc.), but the movie just plods along, repeatedly trying to make a point over and over again.On the subject of the themes of the movie, I have an additional comment. I think the movie has good intentions, and honestly wants to explore the nature of humanity, but it doesn't really succeed. It falls into the problem that I think many movies, especially anime, suffer from: they don't really address a big important issue so much as they make some statement on the subject over and over. For instance, it's all well and good to repeatedly say that war and violence are bad, but many times the hero of the movie will then go on to stop the villain of the piece by defeating him in a fight...without even touching on the inherent contradiction there. In short, stating a philosophical point over and over again doesn't make the point any more meaningful; it just makes the movie longer, and makes the audience less receptive to the message you're trying to get across.Ultimately, I feel that Casshern isn't really as deep as it seems to consider itself. Many of its deep philosophical points tend to be illustrated with blatant examples that show a situation in as one-sided a way as possible, and the movie seems to plod along at times. In spite of this flaws, the movie isn't a complete loss. As I said, I think it means well, and I have to respect that, and the visuals are spectacular when they work. I would suggest that people with an interest in special effects or visual art buy the movie, and that other people who are curious might want to rent/Netflix it to check it out first.

I/ve just watched this film on SBS at 2am. This film will go down as a Japanese classic simply because it covers so many aspects of life outside the film than in. The ending left me speechless and i cannot wait to see this film on a surround sound set up. Truly one of the best modern sci fi classics i have seen in a long time. Brilliant. 10 out of 10. I loved how they used the theme that humans were the ones to blame for the existence of the human race. Kinda calling the kettle black. Plus blaming ancestors for the way the world is today is a bit harsh. Evolution is evolution. But the old us versus them debate once again became the center of the movie were simple existence between the two is the simple answer!