Casshern arrived Friday Afternoon in a plain brown wrapper. This was the region free, 3 disc "Ultimate" edition. Japanese with subtitles, but of course there are no subs on the 2 bonus discs!
This is live action manga. Recognized as such, and reviewed from that position, it is at the top of it's admittedly small class. Ok, ok, the other films:Avalon, Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, and the forthcoming Sin City all have been largely cult audience movies. Darren disagrees with me as to the brilliance of Avalon, Skycaptain was a frenetic, hollow mess...and even the Sin City trailer makes me a little nervous, and I have all the comics!
So we have Casshern, based on a 70's manga, greenscreened for 10% of the budget of "Skycaptain", leading the pack. Like the newer Star Wars films the frame is full of invention and surprise. The setting is a Steampunk alternate future..giant robots and gears and ozone fill the landscape. Stormtroopers right out of Jin Roh are brought to life..
Biggest complaint reviewers have had is the trite "War is Hell" and patriotism is naive message. That stuff never goes out of style for me, and the whole eco-disaster wrapped in 1984 mainlines right to my brain.
Most movies can use more swordplay, and Casshern is no exception. What combat there is here is terrific, blending CG, wire, hecti-cam and cool costumes. Battle scenes range from man to man to man against army...and of course father against son.
Casshern is a visually arresting provocative piece of cinema worth tracking down. Apparently Dreamworks has picked up distribution rights, so it is only a matter of years before it is released here. Why wait? Hero has been available to buy for over a year, without Tarantino's name being bigger than the director's on the box..
1 comment:
Tarantino's name on the box? Oh yeah, they actually want people to watch it. Tarantino has a large respected following. Casshern can only hope it's as lucky.
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