Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

In a nutshell--don't waste your precious time. There's plenty of interesting imagery in this movie but little else. More like watching a very long video game. The film goes from super fast anime style action with editing so rapid that you can't even be sure of what you are seeing(complete with speed lines flowing from the fast moving characters) to long meaningless speeches where characters face off verbally in cavernous rooms. There are robot armies that look as though they were borrowed from the George Pal Puppetoon screwball armies. The symbol used by the one faction calling themselves "neo-sapiens" is a cross between a swastika and a 45 RPM record spindle adapter. The one army uses Nazi style helmets and uniforms. There's a touch of Jesus and the three wise men imagery tossed in, as well. It's a hodge podge of images combined to trigger various emotions within you but when you actually examine the story, you realize there's nothing to examine but a collection of interesting pictures.

Having no experience in Asian movies or anime, I decided to give it a try to this interesting movie cover I saw in the video shop. Glad I did. This is not the typical sci-fi action movie; this is a high quality piece of art. A story about stories, supported by a profound plot, original storyline and mesmerizing visual effects, Casshern blew me away. This is just for open-minded people, who can connect the sequence of the film as the pieces of a puzzle, and who can use their imagination to make possible the impossible. I must admit that I felt a little lost at the beginning because I never read anything about the movie, or saw the 70's original anime, but as the story evolves it was sort of easy get in tune with it.From the beginning of the film you can appreciate the amazing visuals, the intriguing story, and some fighting scenes (that are too anime for my taste) introduced by strange rock music. This, but nothing else can be logically perceived until the end, when a twist gives sense to everything. At the end I cried, an unexpected cry that lasted hours; seriously. This movie is not for kids or juveniles, but for very mature adults who can understand and give it the deserved value. Understanding his message is the true legacy of this incredible but underrated film.

It frustrates me enormously to write a negative review about this movie because there are parts of Casshern that are mind-blowingly good. As a spectacle it is unmatched - as others have said on this site, visually the film is on another level. In this respect I don't think comparisons to Crouching Tiger et al really do it justice. If anything the experience reminded me of the feeling I got when I played Final Fantasy VII for the first time - that sometimes uneasy mix of CGI and "real-life" footage that just makes you sit up and go !wow! The visuals are truly astonishing and the director takes the viewer through colour, monochrome, animation, stills and film in one breathless journey. The imagination poured into the robots, battles and all of the main characters was first rate, and even better was the characterisation of the main villain - balanced by malice, hatred and regret; extremely memorable. The acting was also pretty solid considering the hokey subject matter and some scenes generate a great emotive feel - aided by an atmospheric score that perfectly captured the mood.I was trying so hard to love this film because it is quite rare to see something unique amid the copycat sequels of cinema these days. The problem is that Casshern is far too self-indulgent and as a result is a frustrating experience to watch. Half the time I had no clue what was going on. Events were barely explained, there were huge jumps in chronology and location that presumably fans of the original would pick up on, but these were lost on me. Similarly you could drive a bus through some of the holes in the plot, and whilst the action was pretty good it was so OTT as to be unbelievable (...and yes I mean that even in the context of a war between cyborg mutants and a reincarnated human god...) The dialogue fluctuated between beautifully poetic and extreme ropyiness, but most unforgivable for me was the length of the film. It weighs in at 2 1/2 hours and feels every minute of it by the end. Much of this comprises unnecessary dream sequences and a tighter edit would have benefited this movie enormously (especially the end which A.I. style, pointlessly comes about 20 mins too late).I would definitely still recommend that you watch Casshern, but this is a missed opportunity for me. Hopefully the director will have learned his lessons for the next project and deliver us a true masterpiece...

I/ve just watched this film on SBS at 2am. This film will go down as a Japanese classic simply because it covers so many aspects of life outside the film than in. The ending left me speechless and i cannot wait to see this film on a surround sound set up. Truly one of the best modern sci fi classics i have seen in a long time. Brilliant. 10 out of 10. I loved how they used the theme that humans were the ones to blame for the existence of the human race. Kinda calling the kettle black. Plus blaming ancestors for the way the world is today is a bit harsh. Evolution is evolution. But the old us versus them debate once again became the center of the movie were simple existence between the two is the simple answer!