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Cast:
Yusuke
Iseya
Kumiko
Aso
Akira
Terao
Kanako
Higuchi
Toshiaki
Karasawa
Jun
Kaname
Mitsushiro
Oikawa
Action:
Yuta
Morokaji
Writer:
Kazuaki
Kiriya
Dai
Sato
Shotaro
Suga
Producer:
Hideji
Miyajima
Toshiharu
Ozawa
Toshiaki
Wakabayashi
Director:
Kazuaki
Kiriya
Score:
 
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CASSHERN
AKA:
N/A
Year:
2004 Reviewer: Mike
Banner
In
a dystopic (aren't they all?) future world, a war that has
raged for 50 years between Europa and the Eastern Federation
has come to an end with the latter finishing as the victors.
Professor Azuma has been granted funding by the government to
begin research on his proposed neo cell bio-technology that
will allow him to grow human organs and body
parts to cure any illness. He aims to use this technology to
cure his terminally ill wife, Midori, but the government want
to use it for military purposes. After a year of fruitless
work a freak accident causes the pools of useless body parts
to form together. Hordes of fully grown humans start emerging
from the ooze and are soon slaughtered by the governments
soldiers. While this is happening Azuma takes his dead son's body,
who was killed during the war, to the lab and puts it in the life
giving mixture. He's miraculously brought back to life and
with the aid of some high tech body armour is reborn as
Casshern. Meanwhile, of the newly created super humans only
four manage to survive and escape, taking Casshern's mother
with them, to a castle in the mountains. They name themselves
'neo-sapiens' and vow revenge on all mankind.
'Casshern'
is based on a 1970's Japanese animated television series
called 'Neo Human Casshan' created by Tatsuo Yoshida. This
live action version is brought to life by first time director
Kauaki Kiriya who is a veteran fashion photographer and music
video director. There are certain elements you may come
to expect from movies that are directed by music video makers
and the first is flashy and slick visuals. In this
respect the film isn't likely to disappoint as in order to
bring the story of 'Casshern' to life Kiriya has employed many
different techniques. The film is a green screen production
like 'Sin City' and 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'
which means that computer images create almost everything you
see on screen. Within this there are many different animation
techniques on show including 2-D animation, cell shading and
even stop frame animation. It works though as 'Casshern' is a
stunning looking film. From the orange hues of the cityscapes,
the glowing, ethereal woods to the grainy black and white war
scenes everything is richly detailed, filled with visual
flourishes and superbly lit (Kiriya acted as cinematographer
as well). It's a treat for the retinas. Another thing you may
expect, although it isn't always the case, from a director of
music videos is a good soundtrack. For 'Casshern', there is
some beautiful, haunting music throughout the film, some European
classical music and some pumping distorted guitar tracks when
a bit of action as about to flare up. Japanese popstar Utada
Hikaru, wife of the director Kiriya, also supplies a suitably
tender and moving song over the closing credits.
Although
the dazzling visuals are the main draw this isn't a case of
all looks and no brains. The main themes are the futility of
war and how violence only leads to violence. These are rather
obvious and too simplistically presented to carry any real
weight. Where the film does work is as a tale of love, loss
and compassion. This gives the film some much needed heart
that prevents it feeling like a 2 hour technical demo. There
isn't a great deal of action on show but what there is mostly
very good. The first action sequence, a one on one fight with
a female neo-sapien, utilises choppy editing which makes the
scene a little confusing and unsatisfying. The real action
highlight is when Casshern gets stuck into destroying an army
of giant robot soldiers. He chops, rips and shoots through the
legions to explosive and exciting effect. It's just a shame
there aren't a few more scenes like this.
Kiriya
has created a sumptuous and pessimistic world (on an
apparently meagre budget of $6 million) where men are selfish,
warmongers and the cause of the worlds problems and women are
the compassionate, caring heart. It's certainly worth spending
some time in even just for the fantastic visuals on offer but
may also draw you into the melancholic characters and the
sombre story right up to its tragic conclusion.
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