**Contains mild spoilers**
I heard great things about Casshern... well I just heard it was great, so when I saw it on sale I thought "Why not? I'll give it a go!". This film has two main features: the first is that it is beautiful. The film has an amazing style and awesome effects, however, sometimes they do take away from the story, and are often completely out of place. The second feature of this film is that it make absolutely no sense. OK, this isn't completely true, but it might as well be. The film revolves around a scientist called Professor Azuma who is working on "Neo-cells" which appear to be super stem cells that can be used to grow new body parts and reanimate the dead. Azuma is recruited by the army who set up a lab and pay him to continue his research on these "neo-cells". Then one (very unlucky) day a big metal bolt of lightening crashes into his lab and makes all the body parts he has been working on turn into people. On the same day Azuma finds out his son has been killed while fighting in a war. To cut a long story short: the Frankenstein people (now called Neoroids (?!)) run away, taking Azuma's blind wife and happen upon a castle which also, luckily, happens to be a super robot factory. Also Azuma's son (Tetsuya) is plunged into the "neo-cell" pool and is reborn and gets some random cool armour. That is the part that makes sense, for the next 2 hours the film addresses (quite well, I think) the issues of war, ethical research, what a nation should be etc etc, which all seem fairly random during the film. I wouldn't hold your breath for everything to be explained. The end of the film makes very little sense, there appears to be A LOT of explosions and A LOT of people die, followed by a few laughable scenes with the "neoroids" and everything ends. I am a fan of Asian cinema, and I can see the virtues of this film, and I am sure that if you really sit down and think about this film it "may" make a little more sense, but not much. Watch this film ONLY if you are a fan of Asian cinema and like dementedly arty films.
I heard great things about Casshern... well I just heard it was great, so when I saw it on sale I thought "Why not? I'll give it a go!". This film has two main features: the first is that it is beautiful. The film has an amazing style and awesome effects, however, sometimes they do take away from the story, and are often completely out of place. The second feature of this film is that it make absolutely no sense. OK, this isn't completely true, but it might as well be. The film revolves around a scientist called Professor Azuma who is working on "Neo-cells" which appear to be super stem cells that can be used to grow new body parts and reanimate the dead. Azuma is recruited by the army who set up a lab and pay him to continue his research on these "neo-cells". Then one (very unlucky) day a big metal bolt of lightening crashes into his lab and makes all the body parts he has been working on turn into people. On the same day Azuma finds out his son has been killed while fighting in a war. To cut a long story short: the Frankenstein people (now called Neoroids (?!)) run away, taking Azuma's blind wife and happen upon a castle which also, luckily, happens to be a super robot factory. Also Azuma's son (Tetsuya) is plunged into the "neo-cell" pool and is reborn and gets some random cool armour. That is the part that makes sense, for the next 2 hours the film addresses (quite well, I think) the issues of war, ethical research, what a nation should be etc etc, which all seem fairly random during the film. I wouldn't hold your breath for everything to be explained. The end of the film makes very little sense, there appears to be A LOT of explosions and A LOT of people die, followed by a few laughable scenes with the "neoroids" and everything ends. I am a fan of Asian cinema, and I can see the virtues of this film, and I am sure that if you really sit down and think about this film it "may" make a little more sense, but not much. Watch this film ONLY if you are a fan of Asian cinema and like dementedly arty films.