Casshern (film)

Casshern
Directed by	Kazuaki Kiriya
Written by	Kazuaki Kiriya
Starring	Yusuke Iseya Kumiko Aso Toshiaki Karasawa Mayumi Sada Jun Kaname Susumu Terajima Akira Terao Tatsuya Mihashi
Cinematography	Kazuaki Kiriya
Edited by	Kazuaki Kiriya
Music by	Shiro Sagisu
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release dates	April 24, 2004 (Japan) October 26, 2005 (France) July 14, 2006 (Italy) April 25, 2005 (UK)
Running time	136 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	$6,000,000 US

Casshern (キャシャーン, Kyashān) is a 2004 Japanese tokusatsu superhero film 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.

Overview

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.

The Japanese release contains a 6.1 channel soundtrack (Dolby Digital 5.1 on the PAL Region 2 release) 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 Utada Hikaru.

Casshern debuted on April 24th, 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.

In 2004, Go Fish Pictures, the specialty division of DreamWorks, announced they had acquired the rights to Casshern. Although the official U.S. website states it's coming soon to theaters, there has been no official date set since the announcement.

The DVD received an official Region 1 Release on October 16th 2007 and can be seen Here on Amazon.com. 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.

Plot

The movie starts off telling the story of how a hero will come down from lightning and save the world. It then cuts to mention a 50 year war consisting of Asia against Europa using poorly designed robots. The next scene includes a photoshoot introducing Tetsuya, his father Dr. Azuma, Tetsuya's fiance Luna, her father Dr. Kozuki, and Tetsuya's mother Midori. Tetsuya hates his father and goes to war against terrorism to spite him. Dr. Azuma is the lead scientist to Asia'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 the "original humans" found in Sector 7 of the world, which happens to be where the "terrorists" live. The council quickly dismisses Dr. Azuma's claim. However, a military advisor named Naito comes to Azuma saying the military will fund his research.

Tetsuya's death is depicted in a somewhat confusing fashion. While walking away from a battle, he hears an infant's cries and pulls the child from the arms of it's 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 is now blind 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 Kozuki receives a call informing him of his son's death. A giant stone mechanical lightning bolt comes out of nowhere, crashes through the roof of the research building, and resurrects all of the Neo Cell's hosts. They're instantly slaughtered by the government, with a select few escaping. The civilians travelling with Midori are killed by the soldier's frenzy, while Midori is abducted by the leader of the Neo Humans, Burai.

The surviving Neo Humans vow revenge and resurrect an army of robots that has been in storage in an outpost in a remote, inhospitable area since the end of the war. Tetsuya is resurrected in a pool of Neo Cells and becomes super human. Tetsuya's condition is unstable and he is brought to Kozuki's residence to be treated. Kozuki had been working on advanced armour and he uses this armour to stabilise Tetsuya's condition. Kozuki's residence comes under attack by the Neo-Sapiens, who are seeking out scientists, and Tetsuya, who is still being treated in a chamber of fluid, is awoken in the ensuing chaos. He kills the female Neo Human when she picks a fight with him. Kozuki is killed in the attack, but not before brooding on Tetsuya's unfortunate existence. Barashin vows revenge, and Tetsuya fights the lead Neo Human, Burai, while destroying a number of the robots. Tetsuya is knocked out temporarily, when he comes to, he and Luna escape to Sector 7, but the route is hazardous due to possibly radioactive pollution and Luna falls ill.

Tetsuya arrives at a local village, he then receives help from a local doctor. There he finds out that the people of Sector 7 aren't terrorists at all, but have been experimented on and slaughtered for decades because of the Government's discriminatory policies, but then even more so when Dr. Azuma discovered Neo Cells. The doctor, in conversation, informs Tetsuya of a local legend of a deity named "Casshern". Tetsuya fights Barashin as the village comes under attack by the military and Neo-Sapiens, and it is here that he first referes to himself as Casshern, and while both suffer injuries, he kills him. Doing so has caused him to lose Luna who ran off with a Neo-Sapien onboard Asia's large transportation vehicle. Dr. Azuma is waiting for his next victim, when it turns out to be Luna, he is pleasantly suprised and helps her escape.

A coup d’état takes place, the Chairman's son takes over, while Naito reveals that Neo Cells are not what they seem, having actually been harvested from the "original humans" from Sector 7 rather than being created in an ethical process. Burai arrives with his Airship, and abducts Luna, Casshern, and the Neo-Sapien, leaving a now fatally wounded Naito, Dr. Azuma and Chairman's son alone. Burai gives his reasons for hating humanity. Casshern finds his mother, but she's apparently dead. Burai launches a giant machine that slaughters countless lives, but Casshern manages to stop it after its rampage.

The finale consists of the Chairman's son killing Burai with a grenade after revealing he was human all along. 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 Neo Dante, only after Casshern kills his father. Casshern and Luna embrace as they burst into purple stardust and travel the cosmos together. The film ends with home footage of the characters in happier times.

Trivia

• The helmet in the middle of the shelf in the scene shot in Dr Kozuki's lab is a reference to the helmet shown in the original Casshern television show, an integral part of Casshern's armour. Dr Kozuki's designs suggest that Tetsuya's battle suit was supposed to go with the helmet as it was in the anime but it was blown to bits by Saguree before Tetsuya got the chance to wear it. While it is never worn in the film, it is originally found almost constantly in the source material.

• The bed that Midori remains in for much of the film is also a reference to the original Casshern source material. Tetsuya's mother was originally imprisoned in a robotic swan, which helped him somewhat in his quest to defeat Burai. Notice that the headboard of the bed is a massive metal swan with wings spread and neck craned.

• Another point of note can be found when Luna enters Burai's locked room near the end of the film, and finds the small plants growing there. In the original story, the Neo-Sapiens (Shinzo Ningen), a race of androids, were built by Dr. Azuma to guard the plant life growing on Earth and defeat the prevailing pollution. However, Burai sees the easiest way to protect plants as annihilating the root of the problem: humanity.

• The Eurasian Zone 7 Professor who shelters Luna and Tetsuya in the second half of the film owns a large dog, named "Flender", or "Friender". This dog, who plays a cameo role in the film, is named after Casshern's dog "Lucky", who is killed early on in the anime, and later resurrected as his robotic attacking sidekick "Friendar", or "Friender", a dog with a flamethrower in his mouth and with several modes of transformation.

• Shinji Higuchi was the storyboard artist for the action scenes.

• Dedicated fans of the anime Bleach may notice some of the same music played throughout the movie (during the fight scene with the 1st Neo-Sapien, for example). This is because composer Shiro Sagisu worked on Bleach and Casshern at the same time.

• Hisashi and Takuro from the band GLAY appear in a cameo.

• The robots in Burai's army are designed faithful to the original material.

• Various characters (Midori, Tetsuya, Luna, and the Neo-Sapiens) in the film wear blue contact lenses to represent blindness, disease, or resurrection from the dead. In an ironic twist, however, it can be interpreted that all of these characters are blind to the suffering they are causing.

• Besides many characters of different Asian origin within the urban areas, the movie also heavily features Russian and Ukrainian words written with the Cyrillic alphabet and some German inscriptions e.g. in Dr Kozuki's lab: "Zur Erinnerung an meine verstorbene Frau" (In memory of my deceased wife) and "Für alle Soldaten" (To all soldiers).

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

External links

• Casshern.com Official Site
• Casshern U.S. Official Homepage
• Casshern at IMDb
• Trailer at Apple.co.jp (QuickTime required, in Japanese only)