You may recall several months ago, I posted a link to a film called Casshern. You can find it again here. Well, the movie came out in Japanese theaters and the DVD has now been released as well. I managed to find one of the only (and thoroughly sought-after) torrents to the DVD rip. Unfortunately, it stopped working shortly after my download finished. After viewing the film, however, I thought I’d drop a few lines and give my impression of it.
This is one of a couple of films that was done in the same filmmaking ethos as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, that is, shot entirely on a digital greenscreen. There isn’t a single set in the whole film. Unlike Sky Captain with its cartoony world of the ur-1950s, Casshern goes for the post-nuclear semi-industrial world of tomrrow-ur-1950s. (The “ur” means “not quite right”.) The filmmakers also went in for the Hero-like color schemes to distinguish between characters, places and events. One scene is almost entirely red with a very blue character, etc etc. All quite interesting.
I’ll start out by stating that where Sky Captain used the green screen technology to create their cartoon universe, Casshern uses them to create uber-stylized versions of everyday structures. Do you all remember The Cell? When Jennifer Lopez confronts Vincent DiNofrio in his own head, some of the sets and costumes were so outlandish and detailed it was stylistically amazing. Casshern does that same thing, but with the digital technology now in place they take it to a whole new crazy level. The digital sets on Casshern are a 50/50 mix of places that look SO REAL you’ll swear they couldn’t be digital and places that look so odd they couldn’t be anything BUT digital. Overall, however, the artistry of the film is it’s shining jewel.
Now I come to the sad part of this review. Casshern sucks.
Yeah, I know, it’s hard to accept but its true. I’ll qualify this with a few points. First and foremost, the action is stylized to the point of not making sense. Sword fights and combat are shot at such odd angles and edited with such rapidity that you never really get a great sense of the combatants abilities. The story is the purest form of Japanese Manga drivel. Its taken to such a degree in this film that one might well rank it as incomprehensible. I consider myself a rather intelligent sort of person and I was taking moments out to look over at Qaz and shake my head in confusion. He looked the same.
And the film is about 3 hours long. *sigh*
I won’t urge you not to watch this film because it does change filmmaking in a much more solid way than Sky Captain ever could. Yes, they both may be digital films, but where Sky Captain took one route, Casshern took another - and the way of Casshern is much more likely to be used in future films. (Not too much call for live-action cartoon-worlds with real actors.) Designing sets that appear natural and real but are just too ornate, too beautiful and too difficult to have a team of carpenters spend 10 weeks building it. Casshern does break new and revolutionary ground, but they failed misrably on the actual film. Perhaps a Japanese audience can get more out of it without needing subtitles…
Effects Rating: 10/10
Story Rating: 1/10
Overall Rating: 5/10
See it for the digital effects - not the story.
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