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 ike "Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow", and before that, Mamoru Oshii's
"Avalon",
the Japanese sci-fi film "Casshern" seems to have been built on a
foundation of, "It'd be really cool if we did this, and then follow it
up with this!" ideas. Which is to say the film is mostly incoherent,
muddled to the point of being overly pretentious, although it certainly
delivers on the idea of a live action manga, complete with armored
superhero, super tough bad guys, fighting robots, and enough special effects
to drown your average Hollywood Summer event film in popcorn butter.
"Casshern" follows the
misadventures of Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya, recently in "Dead
End Run"), a young man about to be married to the pretty Luna
(Kumiko Aso, fresh from Takashi Miike's "Zebraman").
But before he can get hitched, Tetsuya enters the armed forces determined to
serve God and country like a good citizen. Tetsuya's experiences in the
battlefields prove traumatic, and soon he gets himself killed by an enemy
booby trap. Meanwhile, back home, Tetsuya's father Azuma (Akira Terao) is
trying desperately to perfect his new "neo-cell" research, which
he hopes will restore his beloved wife's eyesight.
Since "Casshern" is a Superhero Origins
Story, in short succession a freak accident creates mutated humans out of
Azuma's experiment. Before the mutants can be completely wiped out by the
military, a few escape, taking Tetsuya's mother with them. The leader of
the mutants, justifiably soured by his experiences with his creators,
decides to wipe them out. Luckily for the mutants, they stumble across an
old castle in the snow-capped mountains that just happens to be filled
with giant robots and a factory that can make even more robots. Unleashing
his killer droids on the world, the mutants seem unstoppable. Of course, a
resurrected Tetsuya, now wielding an experimental armor, might have
something to say about that. That is, if he still cares to try.
If you have questions about the film's plot from the
synopsis I've provided above, don't be alarmed. The film is convoluted to
the point of being incomprehensible. As mentioned, it's basically a series
of, "It'd be really cool if this happened! And then this happened
next!" ideas piled on top of one another, with the hopes that all the
visual wizardly will save the day. Coherent plotting? Don't be silly. From
its anachronistic look to its obvious Nazi and Red Soviet inspirations,
this is one of those movies that were created for the purpose of showing
off an eclectic series of visuals.
Oh sure, the filmmakers get ambitious and start
introducing serious themes of war and peace and what it means to march to
war on the foolhardy ideals of nationalism, but all that gets lost in the
bright colors, CGI, and green screen action. Like "Sky Captain",
this is a movie that will revolutionize the way films are made, similar to
the way "The
Matrix" gave birth to its imitators. The film mixes and merges
cel animation, CGI, and live-action in color and grainy black and white
with glee. It's certainly a visually impressive film, even if it not much
of it has any weight or gravitas to them, especially during the lengthy
conclusion where armies of CGI robots battle armies of CGI soldiers. In
fact, it reminds this reviewer of the CGI overload in "The
Matrix: Revolutions" just a bit too much.
"Casshern's" biggest influence is Oshii's
"Avalon", from which it borrows the look, texture, and feel of.
"Casshern" is, for all intents and purposes, a Japanese manga
come to life; and like all Japanese manga, the less you try to make sense
of it, the better off your movie viewing experience. At over two hours and
change, "Casshern" is bloated and feels every bit like a movie
trying to cram in too many subplots. Some of these subplots fail to
interest, including the umpteenth attempt at Nazi parallels, as well as
trying to tie the film into the current "war on terrorism". Like
"Battle
Royale 2", there's something grossly ridiculous about how
simplistic the Japanese views the current battle against worldwide
terrorism. From their cinematic interpretations of current world events,
you'd almost think the Japanese considers terrorism to be super duper
great fun, and that if you try to stamp it out, you're actually the real
villain.
The action in "Casshern" ranges from decent
to spectacular to wildly confusing. Casshern's first battle, with a female
mutant, is almost completely lost in erratic direction and editing. The
second battle, featuring Casshern against an army of robots, is equally
diluted by erratic camerawork and editing, but there were some logical
flow to the action, and the alternative metal soundtrack made it
worthwhile. In truth, it's when people shut up and fight that
"Casshern" manages to be entertaining. It's when the film
indulges in yet another long, tedious monologue that makes the pseudo
philosophy gibberish of "The Matrix" films seem meaningful by
comparison that the film drags mightily.
As purely a visual piece, "Casshern" earns
points for originality (no matter how jumbled), and taking what Oshii did
with "Avalon" and advancing it at least a couple of steps
further. It's entertaining to a point, and ex-music video director Kazuaki
Kiriya certainly has an eye for details. Alas, the screenplay is not very
inspiring, filled with gaping plot holes, nonsensical plotting, and
relying on the usual sci-fi tropes of fascist society and "war is
bad" themes that have been beaten to a pulp by other, better (and
dare I say it? -- more serious) films.
To wit: when your hero suits up in a form-fitting
uniform that has hidden jetpacks and groovy lasers, trying to express
serious themes with all the subtlety of a Nazi propaganda film by Leni
Riefenstahl is a bit going against the grain. In any case, the movie lost
all pretenses of intelligence when its mutant characters serendipitously
stumbles across a castle full of killer robots. Any movie that dares to
tackle such serious issues as war and peace should not have a plot hole
this gargantuan.
My advice is to turn off the sound and just watch the
pretty pictures. Your viewing experience will be about the same -- give or
take 50 or so pointless monologues about morality and humankind and why,
gosh darn it, war is bad.
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