A Glowing Casshern Review

casshern.jpgHard on the heels of a pair of enthusiastic reviews on Aint It Cool, here’s the first legitimate English language press response I’ve seen for Casshern so far. Mark Schilling at the Japan Times gives it an enthusiastic 4 stars out of five review while piling on comparisons to the visionary work of Fritz Lang. He also tosses out just about the best one off quote I’ve ever seen regarding Mamoru Oshii – ‘Oshii’s “Innocence” [is] an essay on human identity that is to most animation what Kant is to “Chicken Soup for the Soul”‘ Anyway, read the full review here and join me in fretting over when / whether this thing is gonna make it to local shores.

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15 thoughts on “A Glowing Casshern Review

  1. David H.

    i just watched the movie abit more closely, the opening scenes shows Casshern (the god) above the clouds holding a lightning bolt, meaning the creaton of the neo cells was cassherns way to get through to the people, he struck it with lighting and gave them what they wanted but showed they werent ready for it, and in turn got what they gave to the poorer people of earth. understand?

    and as for the castle, after awhile barashin eventually got the virus. the castle was uninhabitible due to the virus, so the people who lived there died.

    if you have anything else you dont understand either watch the film again more closely or reply to me, id be happy to explain it to you lol

  2. lol its not a bad movie, movies today seek too much to explain everything to everybody, this is the future we want to be able to use our brains lol

    i think the fact with the castle where it came from is irrelevant to the characters, it would take too long to explain the film was pretty long already

    you could notice the fact some scientist died while creating an army and died of an illness or even realised what he was doing was wrong and just scrapped it and died of old age, anythings possible and since the creators of the robots have no link to any of the characters why put him in the film? just use ur imagination

    i like films like this it doesnt insult ur inteligence if it did it would explain everything to you, its great aswell for the fact that it heavilly relates to todays and the pasts problems

    you cant look at it as a film but a book of our races soul, putting it in the entertainment area is pretty stupid, its long and deppressing, nothing to get excited about, i would of put more action scenes in it of the “casshern vs the robots” calibur, thats the kind of film i always wanted to make

    but this is a very personal creation, what you dont like doesnt relate to it because everybodys diffrent, and as midori says “nobody is always right, and nobody is always wrong” relax and realise that.

  3. Casshern is the worst movie I have ever seen.
    Visually great, the director forgot that a movie must have a plot tha makes sense.
    there are logical holes in the story SO BIG THAT IF U HAVE HALF A BRAIN, YOU WILL FEEL INSULTED BY THE FILM.
    I’m really waiting for an inteligent sci-fi movie with great plot and art direction. Casshern does great in the art department, but failed miserably in the plot department.
    The “fucking black tower” that appears from nowhere ressurecting the neo humans and the hero gets absolutely no explanation. an the neo humans finding a castle in the middle of nowhere with a running robot factory is simply hilarious for the nonsense.

    Casshern is a lot of beautifull ramdom set of scenes that makes no sense at all. You can press “mute” and see the movie, you will have the same amount of fun from it.

  4. I bought the Casshern Ultimate Edition (3 DVD) Box Set on eBay, all region. I know it probably isn’t legit (taking in the fact it’s an all region DVD) but I think it’s worth it. If you want to buy the region 2 DVD, make sure your DVD player is region 2 compatible or you have a special chip thing for your PS2. =)

  5. If only I could … there’s a bad cam version floating around online, but I refuse to spoil the film by seeing it low grade … no word yet on the official DVD release …

  6. Finally managed to watch it today. It’s an amazing film, I’m in love with it.
    The first sci-fi film that I’ve really enjoyed for about a decade. It’s got a decent plot, I can see that the fight scenes and the slick, sexy pace and tone will keep younger viewers on board, but it’s not too shallow either, I was surprisingly moved. With all those big names on the cast, the acting was great, especially Mitsuhiru Oikawa playing the sinister, unstable corporate type (very sexy!). And the style, the silent-movie/stage set cinematography, the 1930’s facist-gothic style and the few little nods to the 70’s anime it’s based on all merged perfectly.
    It’s got a good soundtrack, to boot!
    GO WATCH THIS FILM, NOW!

  7. I blame the Japanese. All the pictures on the Casshern site are broken into little squares to help the site load up faster … I had to download that one in three parts and reassemble it and I’m just too lazy to go chasing a new one that way …

  8. Hey, wait! Have I seen that image somewhere before????

    Oh yeah, it was here. 15 times.

    (cant we add variety to the Casshern posts?)

    just pokin Bubba!

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