000066 - iReview - Casshern

CASSHERN (2004)

Directed by: Kazuaki Kiriya

Starring: Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao

Runtime: 141 minuties

Synopsis: "In a world with an alternate history, a great war finally comes to an end leaving the earth diseased and polluted. The geneticist Dr. Azuma vies for support from the government for his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. The government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma's lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world. Now only the warrior known as Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation." From IMDb.com

Casshern is a visual feast for the eyes. This film is pacted full of details in almost every scene. Originally a live-action series in Japan that got turned into an animated series called 'Shinzo Ningen Casshan', this movie is actually considered to be in the live-action anime genre. While this film is awesome to look at, unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the plot or the way the story is being told. Japanese music video director Kazuaki Kiriya makes a convoluted feature film directing debut in my honest opinion. War is a very hard and complex theme to deal with, and perhaps in some ways he's done a competent job with Casshern but boy did he beat around the bush to give us the point!

There are two problems for me with enjoying Casshern as a film rather than just a movie with great eye-candy and CG special effects and whatnot. Firstly, I found it hard to personalise with a specific character within the movie. It seems like almost every character is a protagonist. From the way it was scripted to the way it was shot and editted, you are almost made to feel sympathetic for all the key characters in this movie. I found this very confusing and kind of makes it look like the writers of this movie were always on the fence. Yes, I understand the concept that in war, nothing is as clear cut as good and evil or heroes and villains. There are no winners or losers. But it seems like the real conflict was between the original clear cut concept of the live-action anime series and the serious realities and casualities of war and destruction. I think if it was more from Tetsuya/Casshern's p.o.v. it would have been easier for the audience to relate to this movie, rather than a flashy and jumping left and right, from character to character music video collage ordeal (there were a couple of over dramatic death scenes, too).

The other problem I had with Casshern was that it was just a tad too long. Again, I don't think it was really necessary to get into every characters' backstory in this movie. I certainly didn't think it was necessary to suddenly introduce and develop an antagonist/villain of this movie after the whole middle has just gone and past.

In summary, I really liked the visuals and even the audio of Casshern. It's quite inspiring in many ways and achieved a much more interesting and innovative visual flare compared to what Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow tried to attempt. Story-wise and execution-wise, it failed in my opinion to keep me glued to my seat. It could have been great and could have been 30 mins shorter. I felt like it just tried way too hard to impress.

- 2.5 out of 5 stars