is a 2004 Japanese ''

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, War film, war, fantasy, or Horror film, horror media featuring such te ...

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the anime series of the same name. It was

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

and

directed Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

Kazuaki Kiriya , born April 20, 1968, is a Japanese photographer and director of films and music videos. His birth name is . He is represented by Paradigm Agency. Early life and career In 1983, in his second year of junior high school, he moved to the Unite ...

. It is one of only a few films (''

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'', often shortened to ''Sky Captain'', is a 2004 science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut, and produced by Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law an ...

'', ''

Immortal Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

'' (both 2004) and ''

Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Presents'' #51� ...

'' (2005), among others) to be shot entirely on a "

digital backlot A digital backlot or virtual backlot is a motion-picture set that is neither a genuine location nor a constructed studio; the shooting takes place entirely on a stage with a blank background (often a greenscreen) that will later on project an art ...

Plot

A fifty-year war between the Eastern Federation and Europa ends, with the Federation taking control of the continent of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

. A

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

rises in Zone 7 and the Federation mobilizes its military. However, the war and heavy industry have exhausted the Federation and polluted the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. Dr. Azuma presents his discovery of Neo Cells, human cells that, in theory, can be converted to regenerate human tissue. The Neo Cells are only found in the

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

of "a primitive ethnic group." He states that he can develop the Neo Cells for human use, but is quickly denounced. But Kaoru Naito, from Nikko Hairal Inc., offers Dr. Azuma sponsorship. Azuma is persuaded when Naito insinuates that accepting will also help Dr. Azuma cure his wife, Midori. A photo shoot at the Azuma Residence follows, commemorating Tetsuya's (Azuma's son) engagement to his girlfriend, Luna. They argue about Tetsuya joining the military. One year later, Tetsuya is deployed to Eurasia Zone 7. He kills civilians, and is killed by a

booby trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...

. Azuma invites Luna's father, Dr. Kozuki, to his lab. They are rivals, since Azuma's cell research makes Kozuki's armor research redundant. However, although organs have been grown from the Neo Cells, they are not usable. Meanwhile, Midori, now almost blind, is visited by Tetsuya's

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

. Shortly after she is told of his death. His body is sent to Azuma's lab. Tetsuya's ghost sees the body. A lightning bolt strikes the facility and stimulates the Neo Cells, causing the limbs and organs to restructure into humans. Naito calls for the military to kill them. But a few escape and encounter Midori in her car, which they hijack. Azuma carries Tetsuya's body into his lab. Tetsuya is resurrected, but his condition is unstable, and he is brought to Kozuki's residence. Kozuki puts him in prototype battle armor. The Neo humans travel to Zone 7, sheltering in a derelict castle, where they discover a robot army. Calling themselves "Neo-Sapiens," they vow revenge and reactivate the robots to wage war upon humanity. Kozuki's residence is attacked and Tetsuya is awakened. He kills a female Neo-Sapien, Saguree, but cannot save Kozuki. He escapes with Luna but is confronted by a robot battalion. After eliminating them, Tetsuya battles the leader, Burai, only to lose consciousness. When he comes to, he and Luna go to Zone Seven, but the route is

contaminated Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination Wi ...

, and Luna falls ill. Tetsuya is found in the forest by a doctor and led to a nearby village in Zone Seven, where the doctor treats Luna. It is revealed the people of Zone Seven aren't terrorists at all, but have been slaughtered for decades because of the government's discriminatory policies. The doctor, in conversation, informs Tetsuya of a local legend of a protective deity named "Casshern"-a deity whose statue makes numerous appearances in the movie. Tetsuya fights Barashin as the village comes under attack by the military and Neo-sapiens, and it is here that he first refers to himself as Casshern. While both suffer injuries in the fight, Casshern is the victor and Barashin is killed. Fighting Barashin has caused Tetsuya to lose Luna, who escaped with a non-verbal Neo-sapien and eventually found her way to a train full of captured villagers from Zone Seven. Here, Luna and the Neo-sapien are confronted by a bereaved scientist who blames the Neo-Sapiens for the loss of his daughter. Luna is rescued by Dr. Azuma, but the Neo-Sapien is injured. A

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

takes place and General Kamijo's son takes over, while in the laboratory Naito reveals that Neo Cells are not what they seem. The Neo Cells were acquired from the slaughtered "original humans" of Zone Seven for the purposes of prolonging General Kamijo and his cohorts' lives, and the Neo Cell culture did not in fact create the Neo-Sapiens. It simply rejoined the body parts that were harvested from the victims of Zone Seven after being struck by the stone lightning bolt. Even though Dr. Azuma had been spearheading the macabre experiments, he is unable to explain what has happened. As they talk, the stone lightning bolt crumbles and Casshern appears to fall from the sky into the laboratory, which is now in ruins. Burai arrives with an airship and abducts Luna, Casshern and the dying Neo-Sapien, leaving a now fatally wounded Naito, Dr. Azuma and General Kamijo's son alone. Burai gives his reasons for hating humanity, and Casshern finds his mother, but she's apparently dead. Burai launches a giant machine that appears to be set to self-destruct, which slaughters countless soldiers. Casshern uses all his strength to stop the machine, although it still detonates, albeit away from any urban or heavily populated area. In the finale, the General's son kills Burai with a grenade after revealing he was human all along, and it is learned that Tetsuya, during his military service, slaughtered Burai's family. Casshern stops his father from resurrecting his mother, so Dr. Azuma retaliates by shooting Luna in the head. Luna is revived by the blood of Burai, only after Casshern kills his father. The souls of the dead come onto Casshern as he and Luna embrace each other. Luna rips out Tetsuya's containment suit and a pillar of light fires through space and crashing down onto another planet. The film ends with a montage of the characters in happier times.

Cast

Yusuke Iseya is a Japanese actor, director, artist, and businessman. Career Iseya co-starred with Arata Iura, Yui Natsukawa, and Susumu Terajima in Hirokazu Koreeda's ''Distance''. He appeared in Takashi Miike's '' 13 Assassins''. He has also appeared in f ...

as Tetsuya Azuma/Casshern *

Kumiko Asō , better known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress. She is also a model and has participated in several commercials. Career In 1995, Asō made her film debut in ''Bad Guy Beach''. With her role in the 1998 film ''Dr. Akagi'', she received ...

as Luna Kozuki *

Akira Terao is a Japanese musician, singer and movie actor. As of 2012, he is the only male actor to have received both the Japan Record Award and the Japan Academy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Early life Terao was born ...

as Professor Kotaro Azuma *

Kanako Higuchi (born December 13, 1958) is a Japanese actress. Her credits include film, television, and radio dramas, stage, commercials, and voice roles. Born in Kamo, Niigata, she played her first lead at age 20 in the television drama ''Kōrogi-bashi.'' ...

as Midori Azuma *

Fumiyo Kohinata is a Japanese actor. Filmography Film * ''Begging for Love'' (1998) * ''Give It All'' (1998) * ''Ring 2'' (1999) - Dr. Kawajiri * ''Audition'' (1999) - Television producer * ''Minna no Ie'' (2001) * '' Turn'' (2001) * ''Dark Water'' (2002) - K ...

as Professor Kozuki *

Hiroyuki Miyasako is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, voice actor and plays the boke in Ameagari Kesshitai. His partner is Tōru Hotoharu. He is represented by Yoshimoto Kogyo. Miyasako won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 28th Hochi F ...

as Akubon *

Jun Kaname is a Japanese actor and tarento. He was born in Mitoyo, Kagawa and made his drama debut as an actor in 2001 in the Tokusatsu Series "Kamen Rider Agito". He appears not only in TV dramas but also in movies, commercial messages, variety TV program ...

as Barashin * Hidetoshi Nishijima as Lieutenant-Colonel Kamijo *

Mitsuhiro Oikawa is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer and actor who is represented by the talent agency, Mother Enterprise. He graduated from Seijo Gakuen Junior High School and High School and Seijo University Faculty of Law. He is business partn ...

as Kaoru Naito *

Susumu Terajima is a Japanese actor. Though he has played a wide range of characters, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of ''yakuza'' figures, most notably in the films of Takeshi Kitano. Terajima made his acting debut in 1986's ''A Homansu''. He ...

as Sakamoto *

Hideji Ōtaki was a Japanese actor. He has served as President of the Mingei Theatre Company. Career After serving in World War II, he became interested in the theater and helped found the Gekidan Mingei troupe in 1950. He gained fame for his television work ...

as President Kamijo *

Tatsuya Mihashi was a Japanese actor best known internationally for his role as Commander Minoru Genda in the 1970 Japanese-American war epic ''Tora! Tora! Tora!''. In addition, Mihashi was known for his roles in Akira Kurosawa's ''The Bad Sleep Well'', ''The Hu ...

as Professor Furoi *

Toshiaki Karasawa (real name Kiyoshi Karasawa (唐澤潔 ''Karasawa Kiyoshi'')) is a Japanese theatre and film actor. He made his theatrical debut in the play ''Boy's Revue Stay Gold'' (ボーイズレビュー・ステイゴールド ''Bōizu Rebyū Sutei Gōrud ...

as Burai *

Ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the ''yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Japan ...

as San Ikegami *

Mayumi Sada is a Japanese model and actress. Her maternal grandfather is an American. Early life Sada begin modeling when she was three years old. Career In 1998, she became an exclusive model for the fashion magazine '' Vivi''. In 2001, Sada released ...

as Saguree *

Tetsuji Tamayama is a Japanese TV and film actor. He joined modeling competitions and was active in ''Checkmate'' and other fashion magazines. In 2001, Tamayama debuted in ''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' as GaoSilver. He continued to star in more movies and TV dra ...

Gorō Naya was a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Hakodate, Hokkaidō. He and his brother were two of seven children, and was a drop-out of the legal education division of Ritsumeikan University. He was connected to Theatre E ...

as Narrator

Production

The film is loosely based on a 1973

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series, '' Shinzō Ningen Kyashān'' (translated as "Neo-Human Casshern" and known as just ''Casshan'' in the United States) from animation studio Tatsunoko Productions. Along with contemporary films ''

Able Edwards ''Able Edwards'' is a 2004 science fiction film directed by Graham Robertson and starring Scott Kelly Galbreath, Keri Bruno, David Ury, Steve Beaumont Jones, and Michael Shamus Wiles. ''Able Edwards'' follows the clone of a Walt Disneyesque ent ...

'', ''

'', and ''

'', it was among the first feature-length live action films to be shot on a

, with the actors performing in front of a

greenscreen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...

and all but the simplest stage elements added digitally after the fact. As well as being influenced by Shakespeare's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'', director

states that he drew upon

Russian Avant-Garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...

for visual inspiration.INT: Casshern's director
/ref> According to Kiriya, in an interview with

Joblo The JoBlo Movie Network includes a website, JoBlo.com, which focuses on news, film reviews, and movie trailers; and YouTube channels that focus on trailers, movie clips, celebrity interviews, original content, and as film distribution. Early da ...

, it took two months to shoot the film and a further six months of post-production work. The film's look was achieved through a combination of means, from CGI (supervised by

Haruhiko Shono is a Japanese computer graphics artist for films as well as a video game director. He has served as director for numerous computer games and has provided CG work for motion pictures with , where he serves as corporate representative. He is best k ...

), matte paintings to even Kiriya's heavy involvement with the cinematography. The Japanese release contains a 6.1 channel soundtrack (

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

5.1 on the

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

Region 2 release) and English

subtitle Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

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

Hikaru Utada , who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan. Born in the United States to Japanese parent ...

. The film served as

's last role before his death.

Soundtrack

A 2-disc soundtrack was released on April 23, 2004 titled ''OUR LAST DAY -CASSHERN OFFICIAL ALBUM-''. Another album titled CASSHERN ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: Complete Edition was released. This album is Composed and Arranged by Shiro Sagisu with several tracks composed by Tomohiko Gondo and arranged by Yuichiro Honda.

Reception

''Casshern'' debuted on April 24, 2004 premiering in fifth place with a total gross of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1,530,216 in 181 theaters. Staying within the top ten for five weeks, the film went on to make under

13 million. The production cost was estimated at

6.6 million. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

''Casshern'' has acquired an overall approval rating of 70% from 10 reviews by critics. ''Empire'' gave it 3 out of possible 5 stars and described it as "flawed and messy, but a hell of a looker" while

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

reviewer, Hock Teh, gave the American DVD release 8 out of 10 stating that "without any doubt, Casshern is a compelling piece of filmmaking".

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

reviewer Derek Elley notes that while not entirely original in its content, its execution and inventiveness are impressive.Casshern Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Casshern
/ref> The film was given a region one DVD release from

DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...

on October 16, 2007. The US release is a full 24 minutes shorter than the original. It features both a

5.1 and

stereo Japanese soundtrack, as well as English subtitles. The subtitles are almost universally criticized by fans for being enormously incomplete. On several occasions they are lacking entirely; when they do appear they often completely differ from the dialogue or oversimplify it to such a degree that key plot elements and the overall force of the story are diminished.

References

External links

* * * {{Casshern 2004 films 2004 science fiction action films 2000s Japanese superhero films Casshern 2000s dystopian films Go Fish Pictures films Films scored by Shirō Sagisu Japanese post-apocalyptic films Japanese science fiction action films Shochiku films Tokusatsu films Resurrection in film 2004 directorial debut films Live-action films based on animated series Films about coups d'état Japanese films about revenge 2000s American films