Casshern

Film poster for Casshern

is a 2004 tokusatsu science fiction film written and directed by Kazuaki Kiriya. It stars Yusuke Iseya as Tetsuya Azuma/Casshern, Kumiko Aso as Luna Kozuki, Toshiaki Karasawa as Burai, Mayumi Sada as Saguree, and Jun Kaname as Barashin.

The film is based on a 1973 anime television series, Shinzō Ningen Kyashān (translated as "Neo-Human Casshan" and known as just Casshan in the United States) from animation studio Tatsunoko Productions. Along with contemporary films Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, , and Sin City, it was among the first feature-length live action films to be shot on a "digital backlot," with the actors performing in front of a greenscreen and all but the simplest stage elements added digitally after the fact.

In general terms, the film is a fairly complex dystopian tale always trying to operate on two levels. Several scenes are very stylishly laid out and the visuals of the film are designed to impress. The Japanese release contains a 6.1 channel soundtrack (Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Region 2 release) and English subtitles, which, while not as bad as many subtitling efforts, does make comprehension of the plot more difficult for English speakers.

The theme song, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro", was written and sung by the director's wife, Japanese pop singer, Hikaru Utada.

Tagline: Reincarnated with an invincible body to fight an iron devil. If Casshern does not do it, who will?

Trivia

The helmet in the middle of the shelf in the scene shot in Dr Kozuki's lab is a reference to the helmet shown in the original Casshern television show, an integral part of Casshern's armour. While it is never worn in the film, it is originally found almost constantly in the source material.

The bed that Midori remains in for much of the film is also a reference to the original Casshern source material. Tetsuya's mother was originally imprisoned in a robotic swan, which helped him somewhat in his quest to defeat Burai. Notice that the headboard of the bed is a massive metal swan with wings spread and neck craned.

Another point of note can be found when Luna enters Burai's locked room near the end of the film, and finds the small plants growing there. In the original story, the Neo-Sapiens (Shinzo Ningen), a race of androids, were built by Dr. Azuma to guard the plant life growing on Earth and defeat the prevailing pollution. However, Burai sees the easiest way to protect plants as annihilating the root of the problem: humanity.

The Eurasian Zone 7 Professor who shelters Luna and Tetsuya in the second half of the film owns a large dog, named "Flender", or "Friender". This dog, who plays a cameo role in the film, is named after Casshern's dog "Lucky", who is killed early on in the anime, and later resurrected as his robotic attacking sidekick "Friendar", or "Friender", a dog with a flamethrower in his mouth and with several modes of transformation.

Shinji Higuchi was the storyboard artist for the action scenes.

Dedicated fans of the anime Bleach may notice some of the same music played throughout the movie. (Fight scene with the 1st Neo-Sapien for one example). This is because composer Shiro Sagisu worked on Bleach and Casshern at the same time.

Hisashi and Takuro from the band Glay (band) appear in a cameo

External links

[Casshern.com Official Site]
[Casshan.com]
[Trailer at Apple.co.jp] (QuickTime required, in Japanese only)
[Casshern U.S. Official Homepage]

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