Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with The Abstruse One's satiated musings on the Japanese flick CASSHERN. There have been many great things written about this movie, but the most impressive thing I've seen is the trailer (click it here!!!) I like that Giant Robots run amuck is on the rise. SKY CAPTAIN, THE INCREDIBLES, CASSHERN... Makes me smile a little bit more each day. But even so, my smile isn't nearly as large as Abstruse's is after seeing this film! Enjoy!
Hey Harry, here's my review of the CASSHERN. It would be great to see this film on the big screen at the Drafthouse in December (hint, hint) :p
CASSHERN
Many people have been talking about a trailer for a film from Japan called CASSHERN after having seen the trailer which is widely available online. Most people who have seen the trailer are expecting a film full of amazing fight scenes and CGI graphics. Those people will be greatly disappointed. Don’t take this to mean there aren’t amazing fight scenes or that the CGI is sub-par, because the action in this film is cool as all hell and the CGI is breathtaking. However, those people will be disappointed because those things are only an incredibly minor fraction of what this film is about. This is a very emotional film about the tragedy of war and the costs we pay when we engage in attacks on our fellow humans. It’s a bit melodramatic in places, but the point comes across perfectly. There is no joy in war, no real victory and neither side is truly right when they’re taking the lives of others. Beware spoilers below.
For those that aren’t used to Japanese films, let me warn you that CASSHERN starts out slow. You get to know every character before the first punch is thrown. The Greater East-Asian Federation (I think I got the name right) has finally ended their long battle with the armies of the Western world and are pretty much running things with the exception of a band of terrorists. Because of the long war, humans are experiencing several radiation-induced diseases. Dr. Azuma (last name unknown) may have discovered a cure to many of these conditions, including the one his wife Midori suffers from. The cure is called the Neo-Cell, a stem cell-like organism that has the ability to morph itself into any other human cell. Dr. Azuma can’t find funding from private sources as most of them laugh him out of his lecture on the Neo-Cell, but one government bureaucrat takes interest in the project and starts construction of a lab for the doctor. Meanwhile, his son Tetsuya has decided to join the military and fight the terrorists in order to do his part for his country, even though his father doesn’t approve. Tatsuya is killed in action a year later and brought back to Tokyo (?) for his family to hold a funeral. That very day, a problem occurs in the lab and hundreds of miscellaneous dead body parts used in the Neo-Cell experiment start piecing themselves back into functioning bodies. These new creatures are attacked by the military and all but a small band are killed off as soon as they are given life, all while the ghost of Tetsuya watches. Dr. Azuma discovers the body of his son and brings him to the lab in order to bring him back to life using the Neo-Cells (hey, it worked for the freaks, why not his son?). The process, however, causes Tetsuya’s muscles to grow beyond the capacity for his skin to contain them and he is forced to wear an experimental power suit created by his fiancée’s father. This is where the action starts as the Neo-Cell created mutants find an abandoned factory for huge military robots and, after bringing the mechanical monsters back to life, sends them to attack the town and gather the scientists the mutants will need to accomplish their goal, which is to destroy all humans. And here we are at the first major action scene almost an hour into the film as Tetsuya annihilates the robotic army in a fast-paced and rock-driven CGI-enhanced free-for-all.
Whew, that was a long paragraph. But that’s just the BEGINNING of this film. There is a lot of depth here beyond the graphics and action. This is definitely a post-WWII, post-Sept. 11th, post-Iraq war film. It pulls no emotional punches, sometimes resembling a Shakespearean tragedy and sometimes a cheap melodrama as it attempts to push its message forward. Those not familiar with Asian culture may miss much of the definitely Buddhist-inspired images and ideals in the film, mainly that life itself leads to suffering.
Many parts of this film are confusing even if you do know enough about Japanese culture to catch the references. This is mainly due to the fact that, unlike most American films, every single detail isn’t written out in bold letters for you and you have to figure a lot of things out for yourself (such as that the Tetsuya wandering in the trench coat after Tetsuya was apparently killed fighting the terrorists is a ghost). Don’t let the fact that you have to think put you off of the film, though, as the story is great. This is one of the best anti-war films in recent memory (fictional films at least).
The visuals in this film are simply breath-taking. Take five parts Final Fantasy (the video games, not the film), two parts Akira, two parts Dragonball Z, and one part Star Wars, place in a blender, and hit frappe. That will give you an idea what the action and CGI in this film are like. Most of the scenes are obviously CGI, but there’s so much of it that you start to accept it quickly. This film really does play out like a CG-animated film that just happens to have live actors in many scenes, but it really works. There are a few visual effects that get annoying (the shiny blurring effect, for example), and some of the action scenes are cut so that it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on, but the look of the film is still amazing.
Rant Time: I hate when people bash the CGI in a film by simply saying “it looks fake”. I’ve even heard people dismiss an entire film because the CGI doesn’t look photorealistic. I think this is the first time in cinema history that such a requirement was made of special effects. Saying “I won’t watch CASSHERN because the CGI looks so fake!” would be akin to saying “I won’t watch THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK because those Taun-Tauns are so OBVIOUSLY stop-motion!” The special effects don’t make the film, the story does.
As great as this film is, I sincerely doubt it will ever make it to a theater in the US outside of film festivals or a very limited market. Many of the visuals and themes of the film are very Japanese and wouldn’t play well to an American audience. If an American company did happen to get hold of the rights to this film, expect it to be cut to shreds (the film is well over two hours, so expect a 90 minute cut from an American company) with all of the dramatic scenes stripped in order to sell the film more as an action film. Fans of Japanese cinema and anime, however, will love this film. The story is outstanding, the characters are interesting, the action is amazing, and the film in general is just breathtaking!! If you get a chance, make sure to check out this film!
The Abstruse One
