Casshern
2004
Director: Kaz Kiriya
Starring: Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao, Kanako Higuchi, and Fumiyo Kohinata.

Casshern is a motion picture filled with ideas, beautiful sounds and amazing images. It tries to make a point but unfortunately its these same ideas that crush the film. The film (which surprisingly only cost $6 million to make) is absolutely mind-blowing in a visual, aural, and visceral sense but it’s dramatic scenes are tepid and at times overdone. It’s theatrical trailer presented the film as a nonstop action picture but it’s exactly the opposite. The problem was, I knew this film was a drama and I was expecting one. I just wasn’t expecting one this poorly written. What’s missing from the film is the sense of sympathy for almost all of the characters. Not only do you feel annoyed by their banter, you begin to hate almost every character. Every speech becomes redundant and thus the film becomes boring at times. Only during the spectacular action sequences does the film get truly exciting. Just imagine all those hyper kinetic scenes in the Incredibles at multiply them by one hundred and you will get the action scenes from Casshern. The action sequences are incredibly shot and extremely well made. You feel the power and speed of Casshern and pity his enemies. If only the entire film was as good as the action scenes.

The story speaks of an anti-war sentiment that bleeds freely through this film and it shows by the repetitive, boring speeches and never ending flashbacks of the main character during a war. These flashbacks, shot in black and white, are good for the first time we see them but become annoying the second time, the fourth time, goddamn it can’t someone turn off his flashback senses! The grain during these scenes got onto my nerves as well.

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t even come with good actors. The main character, Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), is only there to stare at his girlfriend, scream at his father, and wail during certain scenes. Definitely a poor performance. Luna (Kumiko Aso), the girlfriend of Tetsuya, is only there to scream for help and to be the person who can understand the enemy (isn’t there any movie where the girlfriend doesn’t care for anybody?). Many performances come to mind during the film but the only performance from the film that is worth mentioning is that of the main villain, Kozuki (Fumiyo Kohinata). He pulls numerous scenes with great panache and sincerity not seen in many action drama pictures but here you feel for him even more than the heroes. Not only do you sympathize with him, you feel his hatred, you feel his disdain for almost all those around him.

Another negative about the film is it’s running time. Why is the film over two hours? A film like this should be a guaranteed 100 minutes. The extra 40 minutes make the film feel bloated and at times too fat. It looks like Kiriya doesn’t know what the hell an editor is. The ending is especially overblown and at times I wondered when the fuck the movie is going to end.

If there is any merit to this film, it’s that the action sequences are spectacular with a capital S. For a debut film, it’s not that bad (which my review sounds like), but it’s not that good either. Granted, combined with a good cast, an editor, and a better scriptwriter, Kiriya may become a great filmmaker but Casshern is a great example that more is absolutely less. Much less. This film could have been great. But it’s definitely not.

Grade: C-