Casshern

Infobox Film
name = Casshern


director = Kazuaki Kiriya
producer =
writer = Kazuaki Kiriya
starring = Yusuke Iseya
Kumiko Aso
Toshiaki Karasawa
Mayumi Sada
Jun Kaname
Susumu Terajima
Akira Terao
Tatsuya Mihashi
music = Shiro Sagisu
cinematography = Kazuaki Kiriya
editing = Kazuaki Kiriya
distributor = Shochiku
released = April 24, 2004 (Japan)
April 25, 2005 (UK)
October 26, 2005 (France)
July 14, 2006 (Italy)
runtime = 141 min./USA:117 min.
country = flag|Japan
language = Japanese
budget = $6,000,000 US
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:303671
imdb_id = 0405821nihongo|"Casshern"|キャシャーン|Kyashān is a 2004 Japanese tokusatsu superhero film adaptation of the anime series of the same name. It was written and directed by Kazuaki Kiriya. It stars Yusuke Iseya as Tetsuya Azuma/Casshern, Kumiko Aso as Luna Kozuki, Toshiaki Karasawa as Burai, Mayumi Sada as Saguree, and Jun Kaname as Barashin.

Plot

The movie opens with a narration stating there has been a fifty-year war consisting of the Eastern Federation against Europa using an array of different weapons: Nuclear, biological and chemical, which have heavily polluted the environment. A photoshoot follows, introducing Tetsuya, his father Dr. Azuma, Tetsuya's fiancée Luna, her father Dr. Kozuki, and Tetsuya's mother Midori. Tetsuya is in the war to spite his father; Dr. Azuma is a lead scientist to the Eastern Federation's new dictatorship government, and in a presentation towards investors he reveals that he has discovered Neo Cells, human cells that can form any body part and be transplanted without rejection. These are only found in an initially undisclosed ethnic group, but with the right funding, Azuma hopes to cure his wife, whose health is rapidly deteriorating due to a pollution-related illness. The council quickly dismisses Dr. Azuma's claims, however, a military adviser named Naito comes to Azuma and offers him the sponsorship he requires for his research and the development of his Neo Cells.

While walking away from a fight on the battlefield, Tetsuya hears a child's cry and pulls the child from the arms of its deceased mother. It transpires that the infant is booby-trapped, as the deceased mother is clutching a grenade with the pin seemingly connected to the child. The pin is released when Tetsuya lifts the child, but the ensuing explosion is unseen. In the next scene, Midori, now blind, is in her garden with an assistant, and while she checks outside for visitors, it appears she is visited by Tetsuya's ghost. Dr. Azuma, in the presence of Dr. Kozuki, receives a call informing him of his son's death.

Shortly afterwards Tetsuya's corpse is delivered to Dr. Azuma's laboratory under military escort.

As Tetsuya's corpse rests outside, disaster—in the form of a giant stone-based, mechanical lightning bolt—plummets from the sky, crashing through the roof of the research building and into the culture of Neo-Cells that Dr. Azuma is researching. This causes the organs in the culture to combine into "Neo-sapiens". They are instantly slaughtered by the government, with a select few escaping. While in a car en route to Azuma's lab, Midori and her fellow passengers are caught in the crossfire of the unfolding slaughter. Only Midori survives the barrage, however she is abducted by Burai and the other surviving Neo-sapiens.

Having escaped the laboratory, the Neo-sapiens venture into the frozen wilderness and discover a derelict castle. Inside the castle the Neo-sapiens find a battalion of dormant robots. They vow revenge upon humanity, which rejected them, and reactivate the battalion for their ensuing war.

Meanwhile, Dr. Azuma carries his son's body into his laboratory and submerges it in the Neo-Cell culture. Tetsuya is then resurrected as a superhuman, but his condition is unstable, and he is brought to Kozuki's residence to be treated. Kozuki, a molecular engineer, had been working on advanced battle armour, which he then uses to stabilise Tetsuya. Kozuki's residence comes under attack by the Neo-sapiens, who are seeking out scientists to contribute to their war effort, and Tetsuya, who is still being treated in a life support chamber, is awoken in the ensuing chaos. He kills a female Neo-sapien, Saguree, but cannot save Kozuki who was fatally injured. Before dying, Kozuki broods on Tetsuya's unfortunate existence and ponders his fate.

Tetsuya and Luna escape into the streets where they are confronted by a battalion of Burai's robot army. After eliminating their attackers Tetsuya battles Burai only to be beaten and consequently lose consciousness. When he comes to, he and Luna set off on a journey to a place called Zone Seven, but the route is hazardous due to heavy radioactive contamination, and Luna falls ill.

Tetsuya is found in the forest by a doctor and led to a nearby village in Zone Seven, where the doctor treats Luna. It is revealed the people of Zone Seven aren't terrorists at all, but have been slaughtered for decades because of the Government's discriminatory policies. The doctor, in conversation, informs Tetsuya of a local legend of a protective deity named "Casshern"-a deity whose statue makes numerous appearances in the movie. Tetsuya fights Barashin as the village comes under attack by the military and Neo-sapiens, and it is here that he first refers to himself as Casshern. While both suffer injuries in the fight, Casshern is the victor and Barashin is killed. Fighting Barashin has caused Tetsuya to lose Luna, who escaped with a Neo-sapien and eventually found her way to a train full of captured villagers from Zone Seven. Here, Luna and the Neo-sapien are confronted by a bereaved scientist who blames the Neo-sapiens for the loss of his daughter. Luna is rescued by Dr. Azuma, but the Neo-sapien is injured.

A coup d’état takes place and General Kamijo's son takes over, while in the laboratory Naito reveals that Neo Cells are not what they seem. The Neo Cells were acquired from the slaughtered "original humans" of Zone Seven for the purposes of prolonging General Kamijo and his cohorts' lives, and the Neo Cell culture did not in fact create the Neo-Sapiens. It simply rejoined the body parts that were harvested from the victims of Zone Seven after being struck by the stone lightning bolt. Even though Dr. Azuma had been spearheading the macabre experiments, he is unable to explain what has happened. As they talk, the stone lightning bolt crumbles and Casshern appears to fall from the sky into the laboratory, which is now in ruins.

Burai arrives with an airship and abducts Luna, Casshern and the dying Neo-sapien, leaving a now fatally wounded Naito, Dr. Azuma and General Kamijo's son alone. Burai gives his reasons for hating humanity, and Casshern finds his mother, but she's apparently dead. Burai launches a giant machine that appears to be set to self-destruct, which slaughters countless soldiers. Casshern uses all his strength to stop the machine, although it still detonates, albeit away from any urban or heavily populated area.

In the finale, the General's son kills Burai with a grenade after revealing he was human all along, and it is learned that Tetsuya, during his military service, slaughtered Burai's family. Casshern stops his father from resurrecting his mother, so Dr. Azuma retaliates by shooting Luna in the head. Luna is revived by the blood of Burai, only after Casshern kills his father. Casshern and Luna embrace each other, and Luna rips out Tetsuya's containment suit. The screen goes white, and then shows all of the dead souls gather to eventually be reborn in another life.

The film ends with home footage of the characters in happier times.

Production

The film is based on a 1973 anime television series, "Shinzō Ningen Kyashān" (translated as "Neo-Human Casshern" and known as just "Casshan" in the United States) from animation studio Tatsunoko Productions. Along with contemporary films "Able Edwards", "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "Immortal", and "Sin City", it was among the first feature-length live action films to be shot on a digital backlot, with the actors performing in front of a greenscreen and all but the simplest stage elements added digitally after the fact.

As well as being influenced by Shakespeare's Hamlet, director Kazuaki Kiriya states that he drew upon Russian Avant-Garde for visual inspiration [http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=3829 INT: Casshern's director ] ] .

European influences are also shown in the battles and some stage settings that are designed to resemble the World War II Nazis. The first robot battles, however, were less performed by the original cast, and more by the Euro-Japanese duo of stunts and choreographers, Funakoshi Orinosuke (オリノスケ フナコシ) and Motoori Chinatsu (チナツ モトオリ), thus making the feature more influenced by mixed history of European part of the world. The set also features vast number of Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Bosnian writings, calling out for peace, hence holding a unified message of people who were devastated with civil wars post WWII.

Accoding to Kiriya, in an interview with Joblo, it took 2 months to shoot the film and a further 6 months of post-production work . The film's look was achieved through a combination of means, from CGI (supervised by Haruhiko Shono), matte paintings to even Kiriya's heavy involvement with the cinematography .

The Japanese release contains a 6.1 channel soundtrack (Dolby Digital 5.1 on the PAL Region 2 releaseFact|date=August 2007) and English subtitles.

The theme song, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro", was written and sung by the director's then wife, Japanese pop singer Hikaru Utada.

Reception

Casshern debuted on April 24th, [ [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/japan/2004/17.htm] Dead link|date=August 2008] premiering in fifth place with a total gross of $1,530,216 U.S.D in 181 theaters. Staying within the top ten for five weeks, the film went on to make under $13 million. The production cost was estimated at $6 million.

On Rotten Tomatoes "Casshern" has acquired an overall approval rating of 57% from 7 reviews by critics [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10004734-casshern/ Casshern Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes ] ] . "Empire" gave it 3 out of possible 5 stars and described it as "flawed and messy, but a hell of a looker" [ [http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=10503 Empire Reviews Central - Review of Casshern ] ] while IGN reviewer, Hock Teh, gave the recent American DVD release 8 out of 10 stating that "without any doubt, Casshern is a compelling piece of filmmaking" [ [http://dvd.ign.com/articles/829/829853p2.html IGN: Casshern (Director's Cut) Review ] ] . Variety reviewer Derek Elley notes that while not entirely original in its content, its execution and inventiveness are impressive [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117923855.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=casshern+review Casshern Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Casshern ] ] .

The DVD received an official Region 1 Release on October 16th 2007. The US release is a full 24 minutes shorter than the original. It features both a Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital stereo Japanese soundtrack, as well as English subtitles. The subtitles are almost universally criticized by fans for being enormously incomplete. On several occasions they are lacking entirely; when they do appear they often completely differ from the dialogue or oversimplify it to such a degree that key plot elements and the overall force of the story are diminished.

Cast

*Yusuke Iseya as Tetsuya Azuma/Casshern
*Kumiko Aso as Luna Kozuki
*Akira Terao as Professor Kotaro Azuma
*Kanako Higuchi as Midori Azuma
*Fumiyo Kohinata as Professor Kozuki
*Hiroyuki Miyasako as Akubon
*Jun Kaname as Barashin
*Hidetoshi Nishijima as Lieutenant-Colonel Kamijo
*Mitsuhiro Oikawa as Kaoru Naito
*Susumu Terajima as Sakamoto
*Hideji Otaki as President Kamijo
*Tatsuya Mihashi as Professor Furoi
*Toshiaki Karasawa as Burai
*Mayumi Sada as Saguree
*Tetsuji Tamayama

ee also

* Casshern anime
* Casshern Sins anime remake

References

External links

* [http://www.casshern.com Casshern.com Official Site]
* [http://lime.gofishpictures.com/casshern/casshern_main.html Casshern U.S. Official Homepage]
*
* [http://www.subreview.com/assets/17 Casshern review on SubReview (English)]
* [http://www.apple.co.jp/quicktime/trailers/casshern_large.html Trailer at Apple.co.jp] (QuickTime required, in Japanese only)