Casshern

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

The main reason I don't post on ringworld too much- the first time I registered as Bug-Eyed Earl I never got the confirmation email(or something like that; it was so long ago I can't remember), and when I registered as Dusty, I ended up being logged out between posts and attempts to get my password mailed to me have not worked.

But I did manage to post a thread about a movie called Casshern, and Mike Jonas was kind enough to give me additional info:

Casshern, also known as Kyashan or Casshan, was originally an animated series from 1973, and remade in '93. Here's a blurb from the '93 OAV:

"Tetsuya's father was a brilliant scientist who accidentally unleashed a terrible monster on humanity. His creation, the android BK-01, was supposed to help mankind preserve the planet but has decided the best way to accomplish this task is to remove humanity from the equation. Calling himself the Black King, BK-01 has amassed a huge army of robots to conquer the human race. Transformed by his father's technology in the half-human, half-robot warrior Casshan, Tetsuya is man's last best hope for survival. Together with his robotic canine Friender, Casshan must rescue his old girlfriend Luna from the Black King's clutches before facing the mad android in the ultimate battle for the future of the planet."

Pretty basic story, but it looks awesome, getting a big-budget movie treatment--supposedly an unheard-of 5 billion yen budget (Battle Royale II cost only 1 billion, BR cost half a billion, and Ring even less), at the hands of a first-time feature director: Kazuaki Kiriya, best known for doing Hikaru Utada music videos and, well, doing Hikaru Utada--you can certainly see some of the fantastic and eerie elements of some of her videos, like "Traveling" and "Final Distance," in the Casshern trailer. I'm looking forward to it.

EDIT: Here's a link to a page with a file of the opening sequence of the 1973 anime--it's really cool to see how Kiriya updated the look...

http://regnodelleanime.gamesurf.it/f...yashan_jap.htm

And here's the movie's official site, with the incredible trailer:

www.casshern.com

[The Kid on the Escalator]

Check out the trailer for this movie...I was literally pulling off a Keanu Reeves while I was watching it. *drools*

[Commando Zero]

I have to say, this looks rather wicked!

[Yani]

I gotta agree with you guys, that movie looks awesome! I watched the opening sequence of the 1973 Casshan series and that looked cool too, in a funny way. Reminded me of the series I used to watch when I was little.

Shame that the info about the movie in the site are mostly in Japanese, but I noticed Susumu Terajima is gonna be in the movie. Movie with Susumu can't be bad... And if the production budget is "only" 5 billion yens, then it's pretty high quality.

A real visual feast! Like The Kid, I'm drooling too.

[Yani]

Introduction

"Why must we keep fighting?"

Set in a uniquely retro-futuristic world,
"CASSHERN" addresses this theme in a powerful drama that is
at once entertaining and profound.

The author behind this extraordinary project is Kazuaki Kiriya,
an acclaimed fashion photographer and music video director.
In addition to co-writing and directing the film, he also served as its cinematographer.

He recruited some of Japan's finest creative talents to help him,
including CG Supervisor - Haruhiko Shono(GADGET),
Visual FX Supervisor - Toshiyuki Kimura (Dragonhead, Ring),
Action Scene Story Board - Shinji Higuchi (Gamela, Evangelion),
Production Designer - Yuji Hayashida (Ritual, Azumi),
Costume - Michiko Kitamura (Ichi the Killer)

The cast, a mix of veteran actors and rising stars,
is a veritable who's-who of Japanese film talent.
Playing the part of Casshern is Yusuke Iseya (Distance, Afterlife);
his fiancee, Luna, is played by Kumiko Aso (Pulse) and
Toshiaki Karasawa (Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald) is their mortal enemy, the leader of the mutant humans.
Akira Terao (Akira Kurosawa's Dreams) and
Kanako Higuchi (Shara) are some more of the household names that make up the superb supporting cast.

"CASSHERN" harnesses the incredible talents of this team in an epic of
sweeping visual power and deep emotional resonance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Story

An alternate world with an alternate history.

The entire planet was divided between two opposing alliances.
After fifty years of bitter warfare,
the Greater Eastern Federation triumphs over
the forces of Europa and gains dominion over the Eurasian continent.

However, this is an empty victory.
Years of chemical, biological and nuclear war have poisoned the land and
left an exhausted population at the mercy of every pestilence and newly-mutated disease.

It seems that there's little hope for humanity's future.
Debate rages over the chances of finding some way to stave off
the seemingly-inevitable decline of civilization.

One man comes forward with a possible solution.
Dr. Azuma is a geneticist who proposes a "neo-cell" treatment that
can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind.
He's driven in his studies by a desire to save his beloved wife, Midori,
from the ravages of pollution-related disease.

He appeals for funding to the government
but the politicians in the Health Ministry turn him down,
fearing that the new technology will threaten their entrenched powers.

However, a sinister faction in the powerful military makes
a secret offer to provide the support he needs to further his research.

When an incident occurs in the lab that sends
the Professor's "neo-cell" cloning experiment haywire,
a race of mutant human beings (Shinzo Ningen) is unleashed upon the world.

Instead of being the savior of mankind,
the Professor's miraculous technology looks set to threaten its very existence...

http://www.casshern.com/

And it seems Kumiko Aso is in this one too. Yay!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.apple.co.jp/quicktime/trailers/
Japanese Quicktime trailers.

And straight links to Casshern trailers (can be found in the Official site too):

Large QT

Medium QT

[Commando Zero]

Wow! Thanks for the info, Yani. I'll definitely be on the lookout for this one.

Since it'll surely be pretty big in theaters over here, I'll go see it, English subbies or not (not, obviously )

[Yani]

Originally Posted by Commando Zero

Since it'll surely be pretty big in theaters over here, I'll go see it, English subbies or not (not, obviously )

Let us know then what did you think of it. Don't they sub the films in your native language (Mandarin?) in Taiwan? And if not, they should at least include english subtitles.

[Commando Zero]

I'm not native. I'm Canadian.

I get by as far as speaking Mandarin goes, but I'm hopeless at reading it.

[Yani]

Originally Posted by Commando Zero

I'm not native. I'm Canadian.

I get by as far as speaking Mandarin goes, but I'm hopeless at reading it.

Oh, silly me. Now let's hope they add the english subtitles then.

[Das_Totes_Engel]

Originally Posted by Yani

The author behind this extraordinary project is Kazuaki Kiriya,
an acclaimed fashion photographer and music video director.
In addition to co-writing and directing the film, he also served as its cinematographer.

And Hikaru Utada's Husband. She's doing a song for the film her new japanese single.

Oh and I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!

[Yani]

Originally Posted by Das_Totes_Engel

And Hikaru Utada's Husband. She's doing a song for the film her new japanese single.

Oh and I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!

The world is small... I remember seeing something about that song in the website. And welcome back DTE!

[scorchedblood]

I've been aware of this film for awhile now. That trailer is amazing.. some of the most incredible photography I've seen in a long time. It blows me away everytime I watch it. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about this movie. Too bad I won't get to see it until somebody puts it on a dvd with some english subtitles.. which will probably be a good year or so from now..

[Yani]

http://theater.nifty.com/casshern/gallery_01.htm
http://theater.nifty.com/casshern/gallery_02.htm

Picture gallery (with new pics). Still looking good.

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=3829

Interview with the director.

[Yani]

There's a review of the movie at The Japan Times. They seem to have liked it.

Rating: * * * * (out of 5)
Director: Kazuaki Kiriya
Running time: 141 minutes

Also, first votes have been cast at IMDB.

[ScarS1k]

man i really cant wait for this movie to come out on dvd, im gonna preorder this one for sure.

[Judge Rage]

A friend of mine just saw it in Japan, and she said "SUGOI" (Amazing).

She did say that there isn't a lot of dialogue, but there was an anime version on TV which seemed necessary to watch before seeing the movie. (She didn't see it, and was kind of confused). I noticed the websites have some English explanations, and she figured that would be enough to figure out what is going on. Anyway, it looks really cool!

[Yani]

Good to hear she liked it.

http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp...sshern&s=3

Mark Schilling in Tokyo 11 May 2004


Dir/scr/cine: Kazuaki Kiriya. Japan. 2004. 141mins.

With digital technology, it is now possible to create big, visionary movies without breaking budgets - even those of the Japanese film industry. The result has been a spate of Japanese films, such as Mamoru Oshii’s Innocence, screening in competition at Cannes, and Katsuhiro Otomo’s forthcoming Steam Boy, that take up where the great megalomaniacs of the silent era left off.

It is Kazuaki Kiriya’s retro futuristic epic Casshern, however, that most closely resembles Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Abel Gance’s Napoleon and DW Griffith’s Intolerance, not only in style and concept, but also as a folie de grandeur.

A fashion photographer and music video director best known in Japan as the husband of pop diva Hikaru Utada, Kiriya may be making his feature debut with Casshern, but he is starting near the top of the industry in terms of use of budget, tools and staff. The result is a madly ambitious, visually stunning film that redefines its genre.

Casshern was shot for only Y600m (sub $10m), mostly on blue and green screen, in around three months, with six months in post. Usually filmakers try to blend CG cuts into live-action images as seamlessly as possible: Kiriya, however, made the live-action shots fit the CG-created images.

The result has performed strongly at the Japanese box office since its April 24 release, taking just over $0.9m from 14 screens in the country’s nine key cities.

Overseas interest is already intense - sales at Cannes are likely to be brisk - with fan sites such as Ain’t It Cool giving the trailer strong buzz and Kiriya reportedly juggling offers from Hollywood. But any idea of a Hollywood remake is absurd - one might as well resurrect Lang to reshoot Metropolis. Better to let Kiriya and his team make some of the 10 projects he says he has in his computer: new worlds are waiting to be born.

Though Casshern is based a 1970s TV anime, its set and character designs draw heavily on early 20th century sources, from Soviet propaganda posters to Futurist art (Kirya has also name-checked George Orwell’s 1984). Instead of giving his past-as-future vision a cartoony, nostalgic spin, Kiriya takes it seriously. There is a power to this world, with its robot armies of thousands marching in terrifying lockstep, but a nightmarish beauty as well.

Stylistically, the film also owes more to European features like Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element or Enki Bilal’s recent Immortel (Ad Vitam) than Hollywood – or indeed anything Japanese. Its aesthetic is diametrically opposed to the"glittery future city" and "cool mecha" look of recent offerings like recent anime title Appleseed and so much other "traditional" Japanese sci-fi. It will be interesting to see what foreign anime fans - who tend to be several years behind their Japanese counterparts in tastes - make of it.

The story, which Kiriya co-wrote with Shotaro Suga and Dai Sato, has an operatic sweep and grandiosity that makes Intolerance, with its four parallel story lines, a model of simplicity by comparison.

Following a ravaging 50-year war - the premise, not clearly stated, is that Japan and Germany won a prolonged World War II - the Greater Eastern Federation has wrested control of the Eurasian continent. The survivors have rebuilt using Machine Age technology, but the long struggle has left them physically and spiritually spent. Then a genetic scientist, Dr. Azuma (Akira Terao), develops a revolutionary "neo-cell" treatment for the afflicted, including his wife Midori (Kanako Higuchi), who has been blinded by a pollution-caused disease.

When his request for research funds is rejected by Health Ministry bureaucrats, he receives backing from a high, if dubious, source. Before he can deliver his miracles, however, a mishap in the lab gives birth to a new race of mutants, who escape and build an underground movement. Their leader is Brai (Toshiaki Karasawa), a super-mutant with a mad vision for a peaceful world.

Meanwhile, Azuma's son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), who joined the army over the objections of his father and fiancee Luna (Kumiko Aso), is haunted by memories of battlefield horrors. Is his father, he wonders, right in wanting to save humanity? Where do his loyalties lie? What is his true identity?

Kiriya and his collaborators take the film's B-movie premise - eccentric scientist unleashes mutant hordes! - as their merest starting point. Their real interest lies in, not astonishing the audience with CG marvels, but seeding its consciousness with a vision so richly imagined, so deeply grounded that it exists in a universe of its own.

The acting itself is, as befits overall Casshern’s style, rather operatic: closer in tone to the silent classics than the "dirty realism" of the performances found in much modern sci-fi.


Prod cos/backers: Shochiku, Progressive Pictures, Electric Ghost, Eisei Gekijo, TV Asahi, Takara, Itochu, Tokyo FM
Jap dist/int’l sales: Shochiku
Prods: Toshiaki Wakabayashi, Hideshi Miyajima, Toshiharu Ozawa
Scr: Shotaro Suga, Dai Sato
CG supe: Haruhiko Shono
Visual FX supe: Toshiyuki Kimura
Action scene story board: Shinji Higuchi
Prod des: Yuji Hayashida
Costumes: Michiko Kitamura
Main cast: Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Toshiaki Karasawa, Akira Terao, Kanako Higuchi

[porter]

Originally Posted by Judge Rage

A friend of mine just saw it in Japan, and she said "SUGOI" (Amazing).

She did say that there isn't a lot of dialogue, but there was an anime version on TV which seemed necessary to watch before seeing the movie. (She didn't see it, and was kind of confused). I noticed the websites have some English explanations, and she figured that would be enough to figure out what is going on. Anyway, it looks really cool!

thanks for the info is there anywhere where you can see/buy that anime?

[Yani]

A new review for this movie, from Midnight Eye.

http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/casshern.shtml

Pretty positive review. Interesting too.