Casshern

Please do yourself a favor, if you saw the action-packed trailer, forget it!
CASSHERN is loosely based on the Japanese anime in the 1970's called "Casshan Robot fighter" which was in turn adapted into the live-action TV series. Highly stylized and visually stunning, "CASSHERN" gives you that first impression that it is a drag-out robot smashing action film as its trailer suggests. However, there is more to this film than first meets the eye.

Plot synopsis derived from the dvd back cover/slip sleeve:
An alternate world with an alternate history.
The world is divided between two opposing alliances. After fifty years of bitter warfare, the Greater Eastern Federation triumphs over the Europan forces and gains control over the Eurasian continent. However, this is a hollow victory. Years of chemical, biological and nuclear war have ravaged the land; draining its resources and left an exhausted population at the mercy of every pestilence and newly-mutated disease. With the war ravaged world, hope dwindles for humanity's future. Remaining leaders...

Spectacular, complex, and not American
"Casshern" is a long, live-action Japanese special effects ("tokusatsu") film with some spectacular CGI. It's also a difficult film because it's based on 20th century history - World War II and its atrocities - set into layers of visual metaphor that can bewilder an American viewer. It's set in the near future, as an endless war between Europe and Asia has nearly wound down, with Asia victorious in a world polluted beyond redemption by industrial waste, military destruction, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and political corruption without parallel. Mutations and disease are out of control, though the seemingly saintly Dr. Azuma is trying to discover a cure, based on cells cultured from a primitive ethnic group that might serve to rejuvenate and heal people's physical wounds. Dr. Azuma's wife, a classically beautiful Japanese woman, is going blind, and Dr. Azuma is hoping to find a cure for her when he is recruited by the military to work for them. At the same time, his son joins the...

Casshern - Director's Cut
Amazon is incorrect in the listing of the runtime - this is the 125 minute version (117 minute in the UK). This has not been edited by the studio (like Zu Warriors/Legend of Zu etc). This is the official Director's Cut of the movie (if you look closely at the box art you will see the banner at the top also informs you of this)- it just so happens that the Director's Cut is a lot shorter than the released theatrical version - a Director's Cut does not mean a longer cut! I like the unedited version although it does have a tendancy to ramble a bit...so I would be interested in seeing this version.

Click to Editorial Reviews