[Movie] CASSHERN

Tetsuya, A.K.A. CASSHERN.	No, I’m not Dante.
I earned my black belt this way.	Movie or PV? Make up your mind!

I finally got around to watching this movie. It was loosely based on an old anime, CASSHAN, that aired in 1974. The director, Kiriya Kazuaki (the husband of Utada Hikaru), took a different approach with the movie and focused on more of the underlying issues that was contained in the anime. To say that this show is an action movie is sketchy at best – there is a lot going on visually and verbally that one would be hard-pressed to just slap a label on it. The movie sells the issues, and does it well. Peace and war – it’s a recurring theme throughout the movie. Due to the origin of the villains and the actions of the hero, you can’t really call them good or evil, as the lines are blurred. You can sympathize with both. It’s a visually stunning movie that relies on a lot of mood lighting and filming technique, something that only a director like Kiriya-san could achieve, given his background in directing PVs.

The movie was very well done, overall. Not the best movie of the year, but definitely a movie that will catch your attention from beginning to end. However, for all you action fans, the one scene where CASSHERN is fighting against the huge army of robots is one of the most spectacular action sequences I have ever seen. It looks like it came straight out of an anime, with a huge dose of coolness. (Torrent: PMM)