Pi in the Sky

Casshern

Posted on May 26th, 2007 at 12:16pm by Pi.
Categories: Cinema.

Casshern
Science-fiction. Japan, 2004
Director: Kazuaki Kiriya
Writers: Kazuaki Kiriya (screenplay), Dai Sato, and more.
Cast: Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao, Hiroyuki Miyasako

Stunning visuals, absolutely classic anime-style with live-action actors, epic soundtrack, awesome dialogues, and beautiful moments. Casshern is a fine example that original means “old stuff presented in a new way”, without forgetting quality.

Casshern is a science-fiction movie based in the 70’s anime series (also live-action) called Shinzo Ningen Casshân. In an apocalyptic future raged with wars, a scientist tries to discover a way to create artificially organs and body parts to help heal the numerous epidemies resulted after the war and contamination. His experiment goes beyond control when the body parts get combined by an unknown force, and living people come out of the cultive tanks.Humans promptly kill them, but a few of these neo-humans escape, and start to get revenge against humanity using an army of robots and weapons. But a human, resurrected in the same way, uses his new powers to fight against them.

Pero un humano renacido de la misma manera usa sus nuevos poderes para luchar contra ellos.

That really sounds like the classic manga or anime, and in fact it is. But it is done using CGI for all the scenery and sets. Casshern is one of the movies released in 2004 which were made using green backgrounds and then mounting 3D CGI scenery behind the live action. Although this technique has been used a lot of times, not until 2004 were entire movies done like this. One reference is Sin City (althought it had three complete sets built for real, and was released one year later), but Immortel (ad vitem) is also from year 2004, and was released more than a month before Casshern (but it’s uncertain which movie was finished first).

One would say that the 3D CGI would make the movie appear cheap; I’d have to say that for a very few scenes, it kind of does. But in general, the images are greatly done and provide a great environment and background for the story. The scenes and camera movement are done exactly like hand-drawn anime, with some manga references (still images with actors speaking). The design of the cities, sceneries and rooms is wonderful, and the beauty of some of them (like the scenes in the woods) is certainly stunning.

The actors perform great, and the plot is quite interesting, with many climax moments, superb dialogues, and emotional moments. There’s also some impressive action, although action is not the vehicle of the movie; dialogue is. The movie deals with subjects like the point of war, the nature of humanity and its inherent violence, the people in the power who are only interested in themselves, cloning, love… It’s a movie which makes you think about these and more. If you were looking for some mindless action, or pseudo-profound movie with katana-handling miniskirts, get Azumi instead (which is entertaining, but nowhere near Casshern in quality terms, even if you count Aya Oueto).

Another remarkable point is the soundtrack. Although I’d say that sometimes it’s a bit excessive, it’s a greatly epic music, very powerful but also very beautiful. The rest of the elements of the movie, from editing to color treatment and effects, are also really good. The movie pours quality everywhere.

It’s a bit long, 140 minutes, but at about the middle of the movie I was really hoping it would be longer and longer, I was fearing the moment it ended. In my opinion, the ending is a bit bland compared to the rest of the movie. It’s good, but not awesome. That’s why I didn’t give this movie an 8. But I truly recommend it to everyone, it’s entertaining, thoughtful, beautiful and powerful.

My punctuation: 7/10. Good to watch and rewatch.

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