On DVD: Casshern

Directed By Kazuaki Kiriya

Starring Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso

Here in the United States audiences seem to prefer their animated films and live action films separated with only a few exceptions.  When we get CGI in our films we complain if it doesn't look absolutely realistic and I'm one of the complainers.  At the same time I love these Asian films that utilize CGI while not very realistic looking is extremely slick and fun.

The Movie

This film, based on an anime, is set in a future Earth that's recovering from a long war and is now ravaged with disease and radiation pollution.  Dr. Azuma is working on a project called Neo Cells.  These cells are meant to repair damaged body parts.  Just as Azuma's son's corpse is brought home from the battlefield lightening strikes Azuma's lab causing the neo cells to transform into human form called Neo-Sapiens.  The military attempts to destroy all of the Neo Sapiens but many of them escape and want revenge on humanity.

The lightening also struck Azuma's son's corpse reviving him into a super human being called Casshern.  A prophecy says that a hero named Casshern would be born of lightening that will save humanity and sure enough Azuma's son finds himself to be humanities only hope.

The special fx are gorgeous and exciting throughout the film, unfortunately to the detriment of the actual story.  While the action looks great and the art direction is phenomenal as we get closer and closer to the climax the story gets more and more vague until by the last hour the whole thing is virtually incomprehensible.  There are some interesting themes in the film such as anti-war, the classic sci-fi theme of what does it take to be human, and even love that are oddly beaten into the film while everything else is kept vague.  I would have much rather seen the themes be portrayed more vague and the actual plot defined and clear.

So, I don't know if you need to own this film because it's pretty shallow beyond the visual appeal.  The giant robots, the martial arts, the scenes of war torn cities and radiation damaged landscapes, it's all beautiful.  The film does get shaken up and thrown into a Michael Bay blender so expect some overly quick cuts and some heavy color filters too.  See it once to be blown away by the fx.

5/10

The Video

The widescreen presentation features some fantastically vivid colors and great detail in brighter scenes.  Now there are some scenes inside the lab that are so dark that the detail levels drop off making the scenes a little hard to see.  Outside of that one complaint the video looks quite good.

7/10

The Audio

The Japanese 5.1 surround presentation is fairly immersive with good use of the surround environment during action scenes.  Dialogue, score, and sound effects are well mixed and clean throughout the film as well.  There's not much as far as subtle ambient sounds but during the action scenes everything sounds great and is exciting.  There is no English language track so get ready to read some subtitles.  Speaking of subtitles, the letters are white and many of the brighter scenes feature a lot of white so you can see where I'm going with this.

7/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The single disc release comes in a standard amaray case with what seems like kind of boring artwork.  It just seems basic for such a visually stunning film.

There are no extras.  None.  WTF?

0/10

Rent this film, it has to be seen at least once.

Overall (Not an Average) 4/10

The Review

The Movie 5/10

The Video 7/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 0/10

Overall (Not an Average) 4/10

-Stephen Lackey