Yesterday i was privaledged, in all aspects of the word, to view Casshern.
It has immediately become my favourite movie of all time.

Unfortunately no one can be told, what Casshern is, you have to see it for yourself to believe it. It is one of several movies made around the world at exactly the same time as a sort of race to become the firet movie shot entirely CG with live actors.
Casshern, in a sense, is basically a live-action Final Fantasy movie. It is massive, epic, it's story reaches boundaries i couldn't even begin to concieve myself.

Biological experiments, mutations, bloody emotional war, technological breakthroughs in human regeneration, unstoppable armies of killing machines destroying city after city, breathtaking action sequences spanning entire cities from the streets to miles above them. Super humans regenerated from the dead taking their rightful place with swords and iron. And love existing far beyond death.




If you have only one movie left to see your entire live, and can only see one, it should be this one.
Unbelievable, breathtaking, magnificent in every possible way. I watched with a crowd of 8 people and neither of us could move or speak during the ending credits, it's just so powerful and FREAKING INSANE.




Synopsis and Mini-Teaser



Trailer Page



IMDB

Bugger

You, you you you of ALL people MUST SEE CASSHERN. You must. It's FF7, FF8, Mega-Man, Dragonball, Advent Children, Animatrix, etc etc etc etc all rolled into to one fantastic masterpiece.

Good to see at least one more person discovered this film ^ quote from a previous thread about it.

I take back my statement about the story though.

Well Play.com is selling the special edition of it for only £13.99. I guess I could spend that.

Oh great, well done Burnside, look what you made me do. I went on to buy that, and ended up spending £90 on various other anime titles.

hahahaha, REAL NICE. Did you watch Casshern?

There's an Asian/Korean bootleg store down my street, i've been spending so much money there lately on these movies, they're just so much better in every way to the typical Hollywood crap.

Yesterday i bought SHINOBI which is FREAKING wiley it's amazing.

...erm... no... even Play.com arn't that fast

What, no same-day shipping?
The shame, the shaaaaame.


Sorry i forgot, i'm now living in the heart of chinatown so there's these store all around me to buy all the Anime and accessories i like! There's a three-foot Tifa from Advent Children i've been eyeing lately..

G-Force in Glasgow has tons of FF7 models

...

I didn't believe Burnside's outrageous rave and praise of this movie till about... 9 minutes ago.

It is just beyond freaking awesome. It's always going and never stopping for the entire movie.

Just beautiful.

Well. I ordered it yesterday. Play.com stuff usually arrives 3 days after. Which means on Friday I should get Casshern, the entire Tokyo Underground series (never actually heard of it, it was just on offer) and Get Backers. So I take it you guys are in no doubt about what I should watch first?

I also order Advent Children from Play.com, £13.00 special edition, will be released in 28 days.

It's alright... bit hit and miss really. I'd give A+ for trying but for the movie a 3/5. I much more preffered 'Returner'.

I bought into the all the hype surrounding this movie when it was first released on DVD on Region 2, what, nearly a year ago now and went out and bought the DVD for about £17 without having even seen a trailer for it. I regret it... I would have been perfectly satisfied with just renting it...

This was the feature film debut for the director who use to direct Music Videos and the handling of the scenes, in particular the action, is handled alright but his roots in the music video industry/style are apparent within the movie. I have seen a few people who say they it is like watching one big music video.

It's one of only a handful of movies to be entirely shot against a green screen and the backgrounds/scenes added with CGI and so it is quite beautiful movie to look at with spectacular scenery. The CGI, while not your typical 'serious looking' CGI (it is quite shall we say 'anime-ish' is style) is of decent quality and fits with the movie...

As I said the action is top notch stuff. It's anime roots are apparent... When you have characters in US movies who have enhanced speed, there have been a couple ways that it has been handled but IMO you never get a true sense that the person is actually really fast or it just doesn't look good (I'm thinking of the classic 'Blur')(except for Lucian in Underworld, his speed running looked good) however, in the movie you actually do feel like this guy (CassHern) is fast. Because of the anime influenced style and perhaps also because its 90% CGI, the speed aspect is handled alright and looks realistic. I can think of 1 scene in particular where CassHern is at some village and he fights his 2nd biggest enemy and he lands on some steps and the camera is at his foot and then bam he runs along and the guy misses him...

Probably my favourite scene in the movie is the first 'big' action scene which is the second fight of the movie (about 1 hour in) where CassHern has to fight off an army of robots. I saw this for the first time and I just thought 'woah'... As I said, the directors music video roots are apparent, especially with the pop/rock music playing over it but the scene is fast paced and exciting... But I have to say, this scene is one of the best things this movie has going for it...

The general story itself is not really a problem here, it's your basic kind of superhero/villain wants revenge story.. It is more how it is handled and presented to us. I have only ever seen 3 asian films and those are Returner, Battle Royale and CassHern so maybe I am not use to the way of anime/japanese storytelling in cinema.

But the movie feels a little dragged out. Awesome action scenes are followed by endless and boring monologues which then gives way to back story development which then just cuts to another monologue which then cuts to a little action which cuts to a slow paced dialogue scene (maybe the directors inexperience is in play here?) and there just isn't really any sort of natural flow to things. Things feel a bit jumbled up, a bit shall we say 'sloppy' for lack of a better word.

Some scenes also don't make sense... Like this lightning shaped spike coming down to earth for no apparent reason and why is the ghost of the main character interacting with the alive villain of the film... And the whole ending, I pretty much got lost in... I'm sure that there is some message in the movie somewhere but it just gets lost in the presentation and I'm sure been a Western movie viewer and not use to japanese films doesn't help...

The DVD itself is also pretty annoying. The menu titles spin around a central design and you can't choose or go to an option. You have to wait for the options to come around and even then there is no obvious highlighting of an option, you just end up clicking enter or play and hoping you get it.

I have only fully watched this movie once since buying it although I have gone back to it a few times to re-watch the action scenes. First time viewers of a japanese film probably will not like the style of story telling and then constant jumping around of the story and so will probably not fully appreciate this movie like a fan of anime will... So basically if you like Anime stuff you'll like this but for the average movie goer, give it a try, the action is there but you'll probably get a bit lost in the story...

As i said, unfortunately no one can be told what Casshern is, you have to see it for yourself to believe it. Really phenominal eh. I'm glad you enjoyed it.




I've seen Returner in the store and it looks really good. Going abit off-topic, could you give me a quick review of what it's like?



I really enjoyed the different locations and how they were created. Like the greenhouse is such a wonderful, heavenly place full of bright colours and pure whites, and then there's Europia and the war zone and it's all black and white, gritty and dirty and hellish. I also enjoyed the added use of CG for things like the people glowing for (in my interpretation but i may be well off) getting close to death, and the symbols flashing on the screen. I was highly impressed with it.



After that scene, i had to pause the movie and go outside for a smoke. I really felt like my TV had just made love to me. It is one of the most superb scenes in any movie i've ever seen. SO BADASS!!!



Yeah, that is how Asian films in general are. You don't see it come through much in say, Battle Royale, because it's pretty much linear the whole way through. But generally they are slow and extremely detailed always, which also makes them very long. Personally, i love that. They put as much feeling and emotion into scenes as they can, and it just feels like they take more care with it than your typical Hollywood blockbuster. The story jumps around to try and engage your brain and make you try and decipher what exactly is going on, but i do agree to an aspect that in this movie too many things are left completely untouched except for tiny hints that aren't really caught until the second or even third viewing.



I'm not completely sure on this, but at the beginning of the movie you see a statue of an angel holding a huge lightening bolt. And later, after the bolt falls through the lab and resurrects all the villagers in the vats, you see the statue and it appears to have thrown the lightening bolt. I'm torn on this issue, it may have been devine intervention or perhaps a weapon used by Europia against Eurasia., or something. There are definately very apparent themes in the movie of spirituality. Casshern of course dies in the war and visits his mother and girlfriend before they discover his death. Perhaps he is simply trying to fullfill unfinished business, but i can explain one thing to you that might make things make a little more sense.

During one scene in the war, there is a woman tied up on her knees, and one soldier trying to make another soldier shoot her. Finally, Casshern as a human soldier comes and kills the woman. The woman herself is the same woman ressurected in the vats, and her husband is the main villian of the story. As humans they lived in the village and were pretty much killed by Casshern, but after ressurection on believe they may have lost all but a few extremely deep-rooted memories. Coming back from the dead, it appears the villian may have been able to see the spirit of Casshern and recognise, but not know how or why. Umm, it's really difficult to explain because there's so many things to explain to get to the point, but you really have to view again to understand and it is much easier the second time round.



I do agree fully with this. 100%. Personally i'm a huge Asian culture fan and i love the movies, i have watched many and it is kind of necessary to really get into them. If one has never seen, or seen very few, Asian movies such as this it will probably be a frustrating jumble, especially with trying to follow the subtitles.



I want to add some interesting points here. Casshern is actually based off a 1970's comic and an anime. In the anime, Casshern actually wore a white helmet, similar to MEGAMAN's, with a yellow lightening bolt across the top.
Coincidentally, the dog in the movie is called friend who in the anime actually dies and becomes robotic. In this robotic state he can morph into a platform, a rocket, a jet etc.
And one more thing. In the anime, the villains are not simply humans ressurected with super powers, they're humans who died in war and were taken by a professor to be fused with robotic parts, becoming cyborgs. Casshern, part cyborg himself, fights and kills the other cyborgs and the whole robot army.


Now really, what does that remind you of? Anything? I'm happy they changed these features for the better, but BADASS, that's the whole beginning of Megaman!!

1973 35 episode long series;



1993 4 episode OVA which was released in the US by ADV on VHS, and on DVD in 2003

Can't see them, but i'll check them out later. Probably work blocks.

The original helmet actually appears in the movie.

Basically in the future the human race is threatened by a war with aliens and top scientists have built a time machine to go back to try and stop this war from happening. A girl gets sent back to the year 2002 where she meets a skilled Tokyo gunman and he reluctantly decides to help her. Trouble ensues when they find out that a Japanese Mafia boss is holding a crashed alien spaceship and its pilot captive and they have to race against time to free the alien before the alien invasion comes to destroy earth.

It's a pretty good movie overall. I'd give it 4/5. It's all pretty standard stuff, in terms of story/development and so on but it's a fun movie and sometimes that's all you want. The CGI is pretty good.. In a scene set in the future the war is going on and there's some good CGI stuff here. The directing is alright and the action scenes are pretty good. The girl has a device with her which allows the user to slow down time around them and this makes for some cool moments... The region 2 DVD has an english dub on it, I dunno if there is a subtitle version out or not but the dub is not actually that bad but it is not the best either...

Some people have said it rips off the likes of the Matrix and while some things might seem similar it doesn't really rip them off and the movie utilises such effects to enhance the action and does it in it's own way.

If you like japanese films like you say and especially if your a fan of sci-fi/time travel/action movies then I do suggest at least renting this movie

No need to rent, i can pick it up at the bootleg store for the same price as a rental. I don't think it'll be found in your average Blockbuster anyway. I will definately pick it up the next time i swing by that way. Thanks for the review, it does sound like a good time movie. Looking forward to it.

^^If you're into asian movies you should definatly see Sword in the moon.
It's easily the same level of hollywood movies, if not even better, and it's not as exaggerated as Tiger and Dragon was.

I'll keep an eye out for it, thanks.

I watched Casshern on your reccomendation ( I even convinced my brother to buy it (no expense spared)) and its is a mammoth film but sadly nothing special...? I dont want to diss another person's favourite film but its not interesting enough for me, I dont like films that swap acting for tons of CGI (tons). A good film but not amazing in my opinion.

At least after buying the extended edition we have hours and hours of extras to wade through!

haha there's no need to stand to accord on my expense, i sorry you didn't enjoy it and honestly, i can understand why it would not be everyones cup of tea.

I don't swim in the Anime pool much if at all, but I got the movie just fine. They did a great job, I thought, on the storyline and pressing emotions.

Casshern looks and sounds amazing. I'm downloading it now. Although from the looks of it it won't be done for quite awhile.

Also, I saw The Returner a few years ago. It's quite an awesome movie. The action scenes, although short, are pretty good. And you may find it at Blockbuster. It's a pretty mainstream film and I think it's at the Blockbuster by my house.

Sweet, i'll pick it up sometime shortly.
Casshern is, like most Oriental movies, extremely long and indepth. The first half of the movie basically builds up the actual story for the remainder, and both halfs don't have a whole lot to do with each other.

Ever tried buying something rather than stealing it from the net?

Of course, because I have an unlimited amount of money just flowing out of my ass.

I can't just go anywhere and buy anything as I please. I do what I can to see a movie I want. Don't judge me on the fact that I'm downloading 1 or 2 movies, because I have a fairly large DVD collection. Sometimes I want to see something before I spend money on it.

I'm a student, I don't have that much money on me either, and I don't know if I'll like this movie, but if it’s available on DVD in my country I still buy it rather than stealing it. Downloading only limits the company’s profits, and thus limits their interests in creating another. This is particularly true in cases of such as western release of foreign films where there is a limited market. The western Anime industry for example is falling apart because of tons of people having the attitude, “why bother buying when I can DL”. Now I DL a ton of anime, but never if its available in Scotland.

^how come you don't give burnside the same heat about the bootlegs, it affect movie studios the same as downloding and for all we know it could be funding other illegal markets, and terrorist.

But you see, I don't have a car that could take me to a store whenever I want, nor a job that makes me a whole lot of money. I buy things that I've had my mind set on for awhile, or things that I'm extremely interested in. I'm not going to waste my money on something that I could end up hating; it's happened too many times to me before. If I like this movie, I'll buy it, for sure, if I can even find it. I rarely download movies. Casshern is one of two movies on my computer, along with Shinobi. So if you would please get off my back about this, it would be greatly appreciated.

As good point as always Pancake-San.
I'm a little unsure as to the laws of bootlegs in this country. The stores themselves that i purchase from seem to act fully within the law since they are out in the open and never have issues of any sort that i'm aware off. There is such a thing as legal downloading. I think there's a loophole there somewhere, like they actually purchased the movie and made copies legally, but i really don't understand the system fully to really make comment.

Wait.. buying movies is funding terrorists?

Ditto. We're probably using the same slow-as-molasses torrent.

As for buying vs. downloading, in an ideal world I would definitely always buy. However, just like shake, my resources are limited and I have no car. To further the complexity of the situation, the only place that might have a 1% chance of having this film is clear across town (Not a small town, either). Were I to somehow get to this store, and they miraculously had this film, they would likely charge a ridiculous amount of money for it since they're the only place in town that sells it! And after all that, I might not even like it.

In addition, I have no credit card, so buying online for me is difficult and time-consuming.

So I download.

Exactly, crustacean. Though, I don't even think there are any stores that would carry movies like these around here.

My torrent picked up speed almost 10 minutes after I started the download, and it got far, but I had to restart my computer, and then forgot to open up BitLord to continue the download again, so the movie's a little over half way done.

Well in the states selling bootlegs (I assume you mean unathourized copies and distribution of movies, music, video games etc; correct me if it means something else in Canada) are illegal. Being that its done only in the black market the profits could be going any where from just poor chinese families to drug lords even terrorist to fund their organization. They need money from some resource often it comes from the underground economy.

Well the operation itself is entirely legal. And it's definately not funding terrorists. I can't help but laugh at that.

Sorry guys, I don't have it anymore to seed for you.

But don't worry, it'll be worth the slow speeds once you get it.

Anyways...



****spoiler****
When Tet guy was hiding with Luna the first time and the robots were walking by. Why didn't they notice him sooner?

The dual between him and the leader of the Neo-sapian in the town was awesome, though when they both got stuck in a draw, the leader just stopped to have his visions that his gf had before she died, what was stopping Tet from crawling to his blade?

I can't really answer those. Kinda 'just go with it' moments that happen alot in Asian cinema.

The movie is done downloading. I opened to check little bits out. The quality is pretty good, not perfect, but good enough. The movie looks sweet! I'll watch it tonight.

The most likely answer is the most obvious; because I didn't read that post.




I don't have a car either, and my job is a dead-end part-time job at a supermarket, but a DVD only costs the equivalent of 3 hours on minimum-wage.



Fine, but don't blame me if western plummet in sales of foreign media leads to less and less films being available, which is happening as we speak, the number of animes released last year in America was only a third of that released the year before.





That’s what the corporations claims… but its just propaganda, the average person who puts up movies on the web has nothing to do with terrorism, neither does the average person who buys a movie, makes 50 copies, and then sells them to make cheap money. Terrorists have better ways to make lots of money. The IRA for example robs banks, sells drugs and gets millions of dollars from US sympathisers… they don’t need to sell pirates of King Kong or Mai Hime.

Yeah, I noticed that. Why I think I enjoyed the movie so much. It really didn't follow any rules of physics or anything, just let my mind go to watch.



So you're expected to pay 9 bucks to watch the video in the theater and once it's out on DVD they want you to pay 20 bucks to buy it. Not to mention the time (which is money), gas or other transporation.

I watched about 40 minutes of it so far. It's pretty good, but I would like it a lot more if I had any idea what the hell is going on in it.

Yes. Because without the money from the movies they make now the companies that made it can't make another one. Making movies is a business, they need to money to make it work, they can't make movies out of thin air. Look at Square, it almost bankrupted itself when FF: SW flopped. You wouldn't go into Walmart and pocket everything you want and leave without paying (...well... plenty of people do, but that’s not the point).

No subtitles?
Basically 40 years or so in the future, there are two continents in the east, Eurasia and Eurasia. They have been in everlasting wars for years and years. One man has created a medical science to regenerate cells, healing woulds instantly on soldiers for example. But it's not completed, it needs a spark. Meanwhile, the wife of that man is dying of an illness, his motivation for the project. Their son goes to war, leaving behind a beautiful soon-to-be wife. The first half of the movie is about power struggles within the company, within the politics of Eurasia and about the war itself. If i remember correctly. One day something happens, and a huge metalic bolt of lightening is thrust into the vats, causing the corpses collected from the war to revive as superhumans. They are mostly killed, but four survive and kidnap the wife. They live in a castle in the mountains and create an army to destroy Eurasia. The mans son, killed in the war, visits his family as a spirit but is brought back by his father as a superhuman and goes on to fight the other superhuman baddies. It's all fairly straightforward, but presented in a very confusing way.

Ah...ok, I get it now. I understood everything up until all of the bodies started coming out of the regeration pool thing. I didn't know why they were, why they were being killed, why they were running away. I guess I'll figure more of it out as I watch it later. But yeah, there are subtitles.

The DVD arrived thismorning, so now I'm off to watch it.

Fantastic!

I was pretty undecided after seeing Casshern. I didn't know whether I liked or disliked it.

I was so...conflicted.

Though it did mesmerize me.

It was... okay. But I don't see all the hype about it. Personally I think I would have preffered the anime

What was bad about it?

I think it was AWESOME!