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Casshern (2004) More at IMDbPro »

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150 comments in total

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92 out of 115 people found the following comment useful :-
Powerful stuff, 1 May 2004

Author: matsutaro (k-leahy@mti.biglobe.ne.jp) from Japan

I saw "Casshern" yesterday at a packed theater and I was blown away. I went in looking for a black-and-white head-busting superhero flick, but I got a lot more than I bargained for.

First off, the photography is gorgeous--as director, cinematographer, and editor Kazuaki Kiriya makes excellent use of color and grain in his film. At times it's a fuzzy, glowing dream, while at others it's stark, black-and-white sandpaper on your brain. It's an ingenious device to change the mood of the film instantaneously.

There are hints of any number of films here--Metropolis, Frankenstein, Mononoke Hime, Terminator, Tetsuo--and yet the film definitely stands on its own. By no means a slavish adaption of the original animated series, it does contain a number of nods to elements of the original that fans will surely recognize (I leave it to other viewers to catch these for themselves). I was particularly impressed by the first appearance of Luna, who looks like she stepped out of a painting by Tatsunoko alumnus Yoshitaka Amano in that scene.

The action scenes are backed by a driving rock score which reminded me of "The Crow" for some reason. Hardcore action fans who are hoping for a "Matrix Reloaded" bumper-to-bumper slugfest will be sorely disappointed, though. The fight scenes actually run counter to the message of the film--that, as one character states, "War makes humans inhuman." There is a long tradition in Japanese fiction--and animation, in particular--of the hero becoming what he hates to triumph over his enemy. The perfect example of this is Devilman, who becomes a demon to do battle with other demons. There is also a saying in Japan, "kokoro wo oni ni suru" or "steel your heart with resolve," and "Casshern" proves that some decisions will indeed set us on the road to having the hardened heart of a demon. In the end, most conflicts can never be won--even if you win, you lose, as you have more than likely sown the seeds for the next conflict.

I have no idea how foreign audiences will take to the message in this film, but I could hear a number of people crying in the darkness around me, and the crowd was uncharacteristically silent as they left the theater. As a translator, I hope this gets the treatment it deserves when it gets subtitled--the dialog isn't particularly difficult for those with a moderate knowledge of Japanese, and there are vast stretches of film with no dialog at all, but there are also a number of nuances that might be lost. The omnipresent Chinese and Cyrillic characters of the Asian Federation create an oppressive mood that'll be difficult to convey--the nearest example I can think of is the subliminal messages in John Carpenter's "They Live." Some of the other devices used in the film, such as multiple voices repeating portentous words "You don't know what war's like," might also be difficult to convey with normal subtitling. Nevertheless, I hope to see this film made available to a larger audience soon.

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91 out of 130 people found the following comment useful :-
A great film, 4 January 2005

Author: Splattii from A Region Free World

After reading the comments on IMDb I was second guessing getting the DVD. It was getting average scores, and many complained about the lack of action. I actually went into this film expecting some nice effects and that's about it...

Luckily I was wrong. The story was actually pretty entertaining. There were a couple of minor points I would have liked more information on, but living in North America I'm used to brainless plots because of Hollywood. In the end I thought the story was more than acceptable, and shouldn't cause anyone to pass by this film. It was the best attempt (at least it my eyes) thus far in creating an Anime movie with real actors.

I've been an avid fan of Asian cinema for a little over eight years now. I've seen a lot of good films, and a lot of bad ones. This is one of the good ones, and I hope people take time to view this film.

It's really a shame that crap like Azumi can score a 7.5 or higher on here, and something as beautiful and jaw dropping as this gets a lower score.

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97 out of 142 people found the following comment useful :-
Fantastic, thoughtful, beautiful film, 7 January 2005

Author: LuxVesperis from Hamamatsu, Japan

Easily one of the best movies I have ever seen.

I am disappointed and yet not surprised at the low score given to this movie. It's not a typical action flick, as the trailer may lead many to believe. It is about so many things and the weak point is that it takes up so much, it is slightly difficult to follow.

I can't even express all the themes and things that flow through this movie. It takes up questions such as: Why do we fight wars? What is ethical? What would you do for love? What does it mean to be a father, a son, lovers, a citizen of a nation, a national leader, human, alive? Visually the movie is just breathtaking. It's gorgeous. Kiriya is not afraid to do what he feels does justice to the scene. He was the one behind the camera, not a common place for the director, to get the shot exactly the way he wanted it. Quite scenes are thoughtful and even the fight scenes are purely intense. Fantastic.

The movie is based on a 70s anime which is quite different. But it is interesting to note the places where the movie pays homage to the original anime.

The English subtitles are quite good and quite accurate. There are a few parts that I would have translated it differently, but over all, the integrity of the film is totally intact.

I highly recommend this film for true lovers of sci-fi who are looking something that is more than mindless battle scenes.

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48 out of 65 people found the following comment useful :-
Amazing work of art, 11 September 2005

Author: moechae from United States

"At last I understand. We hurt others by our very existence. That's just the way we live." I began watching Casshern with absolutely no idea of what to expect. Seeing a preview for it on the internet, I ordered the DVD and waited. Hearing extremely mixed reviews, I was tense. Did I spend my money stupidly? Would this movie just sit on a shelf collecting dust after I watched it? Then it came. I put it in, fiddled for about five minutes getting the subtitles to work in English (the entire DVD menu was written in Japanese), sat back, and was promptly blown away. Casshern was a visual feast for the starving moviegoer. After Star Wars, Matrix Trilogy, and other sci-fi movies that have butchered CGI special effects to the point where they should now be called "normal effects", Casshern utilized the technology brilliantly. Stylistic and visually stunning, the visuals could be compared to other recent Asian imported movies such as Hero or House of Flying Daggers. The comparison ends there, though.

Based off of a 1970's anime, Cashan The Robot Hunter, Casshern is set in a futuristic alternate universe, where after fifty years of stressing warfare, the country called Greater Eastern Federation triumphs over another country called Europa and has gained control of the Eurasian continent. It is a hollow victory, though, as the years of warfare have left the continent devastated with nuclear waste and new diseases have decimated the already exhausted population. Out of this rubble one man, a Dr. Azuma, has proposed a plan using "neo-cells" that are like stem cells on steroids, in order to regenerate humankind. Scoffed at by the government and scientists, Dr. Azuma is forced to receive his funding from a shady branch of the military. During his experiments, Dr. Azuma realizes that his "neo-cell" theory is absolute bull, but unwittingly stumbles upon a well of eternal youth/strength/reanimation. Thusly, he creates a race of mutant beings called Shinzo Ningen, that vow revenge upon the humans after the military slaughter all but four of the creatures.

Casshern was dumbly marketed and labeled as an action-adventure movie, when in fact, the movie has only three real action scenes in it. It instead focuses on the moral issues surrounding warfare. Whether it is ever right to utilize war and destruction, and it brings up many thought-provoking issues such as what is ethically and morally right? How far can one go for love? What does it mean to be part of humanity as a whole, to be alive? That was one of the reasons why Casshern received such low ratings, especially in America. After being raised on Hollywood cookie-cutter plots and car chase scenes, Casshern was an interesting break from the norm. It doesn't dumb down its plot or sugarcoat the issues it deals with, and even leaves many answers up to you to interpret. The movie rarely lets the viewer stop and take a breather, nor wastes time with superficial plot lines. Casshern wants to get its point across in the most dramatic and breath-taking way that is possible, and boy does it deliver.

This is Kazuaki Kiriya's directorial debut, and he certainly brings his unique style to the movie. Having previously been a music video director, you can see the influences of it in sharply contrasting scenes and surrealistic narrative. Casshern understands what it means to be a movie, mainly, a visual art form. That is what it is, a visually stunning piece of art with an intriguing plot line.

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40 out of 56 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful, 31 August 2004
Author: Mike Paines from Portsmouth, UK

If I hadn't already seen Zhang Yimou's Hero the previous week, I would have had to say that Casshern is one of the most beautiful-looking films I've seen in years (or ever). However, it'll have to suffice with second place. The CGI is highly stylised, with some green-screen shots looking purposefully false, but the real joy is in the production design - very evocative of Metropolis. Visual references are also made to the Nuremburg rallies of the 1930s, the Holocaust, Orwell's 1984 and those retro wind-up robots. A massive twenty-storey building is suspended in the air by hundreds of propellers like some overgrown zeppelin, and there's shots of a train so wide it requires five strips of rail side-by-side to accommodate it. The battle scenes are particularly awesome, and the combat scenes between Casshern and the Neo-Sapiens equally sharp.

However, the story primarily revolves around the drama of two families and there's very little affinity made with the main characters. Perhaps it was because the action scenes were so bombastic, but I found it very difficult to spur my interest in the character-driven moments, and this consequently made the two-and-a-half-hour running time feel a tad too long.

The final closing message, which runs contrary to the adrenalized mid-section of the film, is presented rather clumsily. But in true Japan-fashion, you can't help but be charmed by the sincerity of the whole thing.

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50 out of 76 people found the following comment useful :-
speechless (almost), 24 August 2005

Author: gunterhausfrau

My wife and I watched this movie last night. I love anime, for the most part, but realize that quite a bit of it is rehashing the same topics. Visuals are important, and I can look past some of the more trivial and view the entertainment. She likes some, but is more "willing" to see these movies than "eager".

Having said that. HOLY COW! this is one of the best movies we have seen. Visuals were stunning, the message real, the topics more than timely, the human story was touching. Even the non-special effect type shots were beautiful. You can tell that the filmmakers were not concerned about dumbing down the story for the audience. I fear for an American release (please quite assuming we are morons).

This was not "good anime" or "good superhero" or "good science fiction". This was a excellent movie and story that was told using all those as medium.

You can see aspects of "Blade Runner", "The Matrix", maybe "2001" even film noir but this movie does it right. Please give it a chance. The first thing we thought of after the viewing is that we want run out and tell everyone we see "see this movie".

See this movie.

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52 out of 82 people found the following comment useful :-
War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Just like this film., 21 March 2005

Author: Focal_Logic from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I bought the CASSHERN DVD after reading the plot description and positive reviews on this site. I was sorely disappointed and angered by this film. This is a masterful mistake and a narrow minded attempt at bringing the anime and manga experience to film.

WARNING: THIS NEGATIVE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Firstly this film is directed by a person who makes music videos. Already there is a conflict from the beginning due to the inherent contradictions of both visual genres. My impression is that this is a surrealistic narrative. I understand that given such a structure there are bound to be elements of the story that will be lost or left up to the viewer to define and gain meaning from. But this film is incomplete in its execution. In the first thirty minutes it fails in establishing both setting and character development. The few scenes portraying the different conflicts are not enough for the audience to gain a moderate understanding of the story and appreciation for the individuals involved. Yet towards the final hour of the film the main characters begin to partake in long winded monologues of why war and hate are bad. The lack of story and character development in the beginning of the film leads to an oversimplified exposition on the central concepts at the end.

Then there are the standard action flick clichés. Moments after his awakening the villain decides to escape to the mountains and miraculously finds a castle with a seemingly inexhaustible army of robots. When Casshern and the villain first meet in battle the villain conveniently leaves Casshern bruised but alive. Each main member of the NeoSapiens is eventually killed with the main villain saved for the bitter end. Many sequences are telegraphed, every time the music builds up the viewer knows something "grand" is going to happen (i.e. a battle, a last minute comeback, or a moment of revelation).

All in all this film is meant to be a visual feast. But it fails in this aspect as well. Many of the scenes look as if they were given to a Japanese Chef for editing. There isn't enough time to soak in the details because of the incessant quick-cuts from one scene to the next. This hurts not only the action sequences but the emotional melodramatic scenes as well. The eye is not given enough time to relax and appreciate the costume design, the set design, and even the CGI sequences. There are only two instances when this type of quick- cutting makes cinematic sense: The initial battle between Casshern and the robot army and The montage of the robot army attacking the humans.

The incessant music does not help matters either. This is a clear indicator that the film cannot stand on dialogue and visuals alone. It needs to "pump up" the audience in order to keep them interested in what's happening on screen. Frankly, throughout the entire film I cared not for the fates of any of the characters. They were all one dimensional in my view again for the reasons I stated above.

In conclusion the film CASSHERN is an attempt at bringing to life the vision of anime and manga. And for me it remains merely an "attempt". As for teenage and younger audiences I think it has succeeded. But to more mature viewers of cinema CASSHERN suffers from over-saturation of popular culture and having a music video director at the helm is also a sure sign of that. Mind you director David Fincher who directed ALIEN 3 and FIGHT CLUB brought his music video eye to film and succeeded in creating visual works of art that had stellar narratives so I am not biased against music video directors. There are those that say that narrative isn't everything, that film is primarily a visual art form and I would agree. But let us be aware that if we let works become too abstract then we risk being saddled with meaningless art.

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31 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful Imagery hiding an absolute mess..., 17 March 2005

Author: MovieGuy from Boston, MA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

What can I say about Casshern? The movie is essentially a beggar parading about in the clothing of an emperor. But beneath all of the CGI-enhanced effects and varied bits of an alternate world that Casshern creates, it fails to deliver any cohesive storyline (albeit a very thin one). The movie is completely disjointed, there is absolutely no character development, and the pacing is choppy and disconnected at best. The different camera techniques used here make the movie seem more like a music video than a 2-hour feature length film, and these techniques get old fast.

From what I can tell, our lead man Casshern was once Tetsuya, the son of a doctor involved in "neo-cell" research. However, he hates his father (we're not really sure why) and decides to fight in the remnants of a 50-year war with Europa, the loser of the battle against the Eastern Federation. His fathers research is not going so well, when suddenly something happens which spawns a mutant humanoid race from his experiments, so aptly dubbed "neo-sapiens". Some of these neo-sapiens escape (kidnapping Tetsuya's mother in the meantime) and go to the North, to a so-called sector 7, to set up their stronghold. Meanwhile, during the war, Tetsuya dies; his father is so overcome with grief that he brings his son back with neo-cell technology, thus re-making him as a superhuman. This leads Tetsuya on the path to becoming Casshern. Plot doesn't sound TOO bad, huh? Well, unfortunately, there's not much else by way of story line for the remainder of the film, aside from clichéd progressions which lead to the inevitable apocalyptic climaxes followed by the "why must humans destroy each other?" questions so often found in Anime (not surprisingly, this movie is based on an old Japanese Anime series of the same name). And considering the movie has a runtime of 2hrs 20min, the story is definitely spread far too thin.

The only things that keep me from giving this move the lowest rating are the sometimes breathtaking effects sequences, some of which are quite memorable. However, since this film is essentially spawned from an anime, even some of these sequences tend to meander towards the absurd and cartoonish. But I digress: there are some very interesting representations of future cities, weapons and assorted devices that keep the movie from being unwatchable.

I would suggest this movie to anyone who is either a fan of this anime series or enjoys some serious CGI-aided visual stimuli. If you like MTV, you might be a big fan of this short-attention span, audio-visual bombardment...there is certainly plenty of eye candy. But if you enjoy a riveting storyline, deep and thought provoking characters and themes, and, basically, anything else that turns a series of images (beautiful or not) into a cohesive movie, you probably will want to steer clear of this...it is basically an expensive fiasco, and not surprisingly I heard it was recently voted one of the worst movies of the year in Japan.

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35 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful movie, fantastic scenes, average fighting and massive death., 8 December 2004

Author: thesociety from San Pedro

This movie grabs you right from the beginning with its audio/visual bombardment that keeps your eyes and ears at maximum capacity. This doesn't last all the way through, there's interspersed moments of artistic pause. Those frozen moment scenes looked like a master's canvas come to motion, if not life. Don't blink.

The plot of the movie revolves around a battle of life and death, with the love story subplot on the main character. As many scripts set in Japan do, they revolve the drama around "honor" and whatever twisted concept the characters have of it. Often "honor" demands that everyone dies. A lot of people die, but the violence is pretty good, more conceptual than graphic, and it delivers its intended impact well. But it eventually gets over the top, and you start wondering if anyone is going to live.

There's more than a few plot-holes, and they are big enough to drive a Honda through. You get the idea they shot reels of film and thought about how to piece it together afterward. People do things for impossible reasons, and unlikely motivations (twisted sense of honor becomes a generic excuse). To their credit, with such a twisted plot piecing together scenes, they don't make the mistake of turning the plot on a dime anywhere, so you won't get lost. You know who the bad guys are (3 different groups!) and who the good guys are (the hero, his immediate family, and all innocents), and you know who it's going to come down to in the end.

To anyone who watches this with subtitles, blame the incoherent reasons behind character's actions on bad subtitle translations.... and it becomes a better than average movie, even good. Turn out the lights and crank the volume. Sci-Fi fans, this is a don't miss.

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42 out of 69 people found the following comment useful :-
eye-mazing and original, 4 November 2004

Author: The StarDogG Champion from Vienna, Austria

In an alternate reality a military regime has taken over the eurasian continent. War and pollution threaten everyone's life and so a project is started to find "the" cure for all those people's problems. A scientist suggests his Neo-Cell technology, which is capable of rejuvenating, reassembling and reviving dead or injured men. A military sponsor is found and the early experiments produce a group of neohumans, who get loose and flee into the mountains. That is the point where the story throws in two ecstasy pills and the anime comic basis of Casshern breaks through and doesn't let go of our eyes ever again. The movie is extremely stylish and schizophrenic, it has a touch of the video clips in computer games, merged with a screen style like a musical (Pink Floyd The Wall)and action scenes that are a so unbelievably perfect "realization" of anime that it seems you are watching GhostitShell2 with TheMatrix layered over it. Don't even think you'd be able to follow the seemingly simple comic plot every scene, you can consider yourself lucky if you manage to process who is currently in the picture in front of which stunning background. Not everyone will like this, for sure, it far too outlandish and a real challenge, at the same time the seemingly comical story might scare some viewers away or the overall style of the movie, that seems almost like the distinct brushstroke of a painter, might not please everyone. Even animefans will need some time to get used to the fight sequences, as realism always steps behind for style and effect here. From an artist's point of view a great, challenging anime comic on screen.

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