I am baffled by the plaudits this sprawling mess has received. This is a nice looking film that shamelessly and playfully draws on HG Wells, Mary Shelley, Da Vinci and a host of other high-brow sources. Absolutely nothing wrong with that; in fact, there is even a post-modern motif at work here - the cobbling together of so many sources to create something unique shadowing the main plot drive of this film. However, I use the word 'plot' loosely here. Kiriya throws this all together like so many patchwork music videos. Some music video directors can make feature films, but Kiriya just does not seem able to make the jump based on this outing. The plot holes are glaring, from the mechanical lightening bolt that acts as catalyst for the mutants' conception, to the discovery of a castle conveniently packed to the gills with armed robots. And the girlfriend's survival of an atomic blast at the end is a humdinger of the highest order. This is not an anti-narrative statement by Kiriya - it is complete ignorance of the basic rules of narrative. Such convenience and contrivance is a feature of one kind of contemporary J-Cinema, and people like Kiriya get away with it because there is no Hollywood-style rulebook based on three-act structure to be followed. This is a film that should stand on its own and not require reference to the original anime in order to figure out the story.
Incredibly, people are making claims for this piece of flimsy as a philosophical treatise. Noticeably, nobody seems quite able to articulate what that philosophy is. Mouthing a few glib lines about man's savage nature and the cruelty of combat does not an anti-war film make. The big reveal when it comes - from a character who has no right to hold the 'knowledge' he espouses - that the mutants are, gasp, human, too, is a bit bloody obvious. And it takes so loooooong to get there. Completely lacking in character development, credible storyline, or nuanced dialogue, Casshern is worth sticking on at a party for background visuals, but not much else. A real clunker.
Incredibly, people are making claims for this piece of flimsy as a philosophical treatise. Noticeably, nobody seems quite able to articulate what that philosophy is. Mouthing a few glib lines about man's savage nature and the cruelty of combat does not an anti-war film make. The big reveal when it comes - from a character who has no right to hold the 'knowledge' he espouses - that the mutants are, gasp, human, too, is a bit bloody obvious. And it takes so loooooong to get there. Completely lacking in character development, credible storyline, or nuanced dialogue, Casshern is worth sticking on at a party for background visuals, but not much else. A real clunker.