Casshern

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre foreign Starring Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso Directed by Kazuaki Kiriya Publisher Paramount Home Video External Links Official Casshern Website

Casshern is a visually stunning film. This is apparent from the start. The art direction is, to my knowledge, one-of-a-kind. Washed out, warm colors illuminate one of the bleakest-looking post-apocalyptic worlds I've seen in a film. Light is overdone, but in a very intentional, artistic way -- it causes colors to smear, and makes everything feel more stylized. Really, kudos to whoever was in charge of making this film look the way it does.

Still, while Casshern may be interesting to look at, my biggest problem with it lies in the most important area, at least for me -- the story. It's not a bad premise: in the future, after terrible wars that have devastated mankind, Neo-cells are discovered that can regrow human tissue. Dr. Azuma works to discover all the secrets of these Neo-cells. His son, Tetsuya, newly engaged, has decided to join the military. He doesn't feel that he should be exempt from battle, not when all his friends are fighting and dying.

On the homefront, Dr. Azuma continues his research. Suddenly, out of the primordial-esque soup that is the vat of Neo-cells, a large group of humanoid creatures emerge. They escape from the laboratory and band together, calling themselves Neo-Sapiens. They plot to destroy humankind.

Tetsuya is killed in battle. His father, in his sorrow, dips his son's body in the Neo-cells. Tetsuya returns to life, but the cells in his body threaten to destroy him. So he is placed in special body armor. Now, with superhuman abilities, he alone stands against the Neo-Sapiens.

Initially, the Neo-Sapiens really threw me off. All of a sudden, these human-like creatures emerge from this ooze, and they can speak, and wax political, and plan to take over the world? It seemed like the creators were asking me to suspend a little too much disbelief. By the end of the film, there is an explanation given for the Neo-Sapiens and why they are the way they are. Still, I had a hard time connecting with the film throughout, because I thought the villains were ridiculous.

And despite that the visuals are impressive, they sometimes get in the way. More than once I was confused as to what exactly was going on because the visuals can be so difficult to interpret.

Looking back on the story, it's not as bad as I thought I was going to think it was, if that makes any sense at all. The wrap-up of the story fixes some of the problems I mentioned above. My advice: watch it with an understanding that, though it may seem ridiculous, there was at least some amount of thought behind it.

Watching Casshern is something like watching a live-action anime. The action is fast and frantic. It's only occasionally gory, but I would still not recommend the film to the more sensitive viewers. It has that same stylish feel, though that might turn some off, particularly those who aren't at all interested in anime. But if you're not interested in anime, you might not even be watching the film. I'm not sure how popular Japanese science fiction films are with the general American public, but my guess is not very.

The subtitles were translated just fine, though a little dry -- but I imagine the source material was fairly dry, too. It's a science fiction movie that wants to make statements about politics, war, genocide, and it does. It basically says "War is bad," and "Genocide is bad," and "Politics are corrupted." So, it's not saying anything too revolutionary. But it's good to see some thought in genre film, nonetheless.

On the technical side, I sometimes had trouble reading the subtitles. They are in white, and don't seem to be too heavily outlined, so when the background was light, the subtitles faded. Not a huge issue, of course, but something to note.

As a live-action update of an anime (an anime which I have never seen), it's an interesting movie. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about the art style, or about anime in general.