Story from Casshern(เรื่องราว - คาสเชิร์น)
fin...@gmail.com
50 ปี ภายหลังจากที่มหาสงครามระหว่างฝ่ายพันธมิตรตะวันออกและพันธมิตรยุโรป
สิ้นสุดลง โดยฝ่ายพันธมิตรตะวันออกเป็นผู้กำชัยชนะได้ในที่สุด ผลจากสงคราม
ในครั้งนี้ก่อให้เกิดสารพิษตกค้างจากอาวุธเคมีและอาวุธชีวภาพมากมาย รวม
ทั้งสารจำพวกกัมมันตภาพรังสีที่แพร่กระจัดกระจายไปทั่วโลก ส่งผลให้
มนุษยชาติต้องล้มตายลงเป็นจำนวนมาก ในขณะที่พวกที่ยังเหลืออยู่เป็นจำนวน
น้อยนั้นก็ต้องอยู่ท่ามกลางอนาคตที่สิ้นหวังไร้ซึ่งความแน่นอน แต่แล้ว
ดร.อาซูม่า ก็ได้ทำการค้นคว้าวิจัยนีโอเซล อันเป็นโครงการที่ทำการสร้าง
อวัยวะต่างๆของมนุษย์ขึ้นมาใหม่ หากจู่ๆก็เกิดเหตุการณ์ไม่คาดฝันขึ้น
เมื่อฟ้าผ่าลงมายังสถานีทดลองทำให้เซลของมนุษย์ที่กำลังทำการทดลองอยู่นั้น
มีการพัฒนาขึ้นอย่างรวดเร็ว จนกระทั่งกลายเป็นพวกมนุษย์กลายพันธุ์สาย
พันธุ์ใหม่ที่มีพละกำลังเหนือมนุษย์ และได้ออกอาละวาดสร้างความเสียหาย
อย่างมหาศาล ซึ่งแม้แต่กองกำลังทางทหารก็มิอาจที่จะสกัดกั้นเอาไว้ได้
กระทั่งเมื่อจวนตัว ดร.อาซูม่า และภรรยาจึงพยายามที่จะหลบหนีออกมาจากห้อง
ทดลอง แต่ก็ไม่สำเร็จ ดังนั้นเขาจึงหาทางชดใช้ในสิ่งที่เขาเป็นผู้ก่อขึ้น
ด้วยการนำเอานีโอเซลมาผ่าตัดรวมเข้ากับร่างกายของ เท็ตซึยะ บุตรชายของเขา
ที่ได้รับบาดเจ็บสาหัสจากการสู้รบในครั้งนี้ โดยหวังว่า เท็ตซึยะ จะสามารถ
ฟื้นคืนชีพขึ้นมาได้อีกครั้ง หากนีโอเซลก็ไม่อาจที่จะหลอมรวมเข้ากับ
ร่างกายของ เท็ตซึยะ ได้ดังใจหวัง และกลับทำให้ร่างกายของ เท็ตซึยะ ราวกับ
จะแตกออกเป็นเสี่ยงๆ โชคของ เท็ตซึยะ ยังดีที่ได้ชุดพาวเวอร์สูทที่พ่อของ
ลูน่า ประดิษฐ์คิดค้นขึ้นและช่วยรักษาชีวิตของเขาเอาไว้ได้อย่างหวุดหวิด
ขณะเดียวกันพวกมนุษย์กลายพันธุ์ก็ได้สร้างกองทัพหุ่นยนต์ขึ้นมาเพื่อหมาย
ที่จะกำจัดเหล่ามวลมนุษย์ ดังนั้น เท็ตซึยะ ในนามของ แคสเซิร์น จึงต้อง
เข้าหยุดยั้งแผนการร้ายของพวกมัน ก่อนที่เหตุการณ์จะรุนแรงไปกว่านี้
++Casshern สร้างจากการ์ตูนยอดนิยมทางโทรทัศน์เรื่อง ซินโช นันเง็น แคส
เซิร์น เมื่อปี 1973 โดย ทัตซูโนโกะ โปรดักชั่น หรือที่แฟนการ์ตูนรู้จัก
กันในนาม คาชาง คอสมิคบอย -- MovieSeer++
ผู้แสดงนำ: ยูซูเกะ อีเซย่า... คาสเชิร์น/คูมิโกะ อาโซอุ... ลูน่า โค
ซูกิ
ผู้แสดงสมทบ: อากิระ เทราโอะ... โคทาโร่
ความยาวหนัง: 141 นาที
ประเทศผู้ผลิต: Japan
ประเภทหนัง: Action Sci-Fi
ผู้กำกับ :คาซูอากิ คิริยะ
ผู้สร้าง: คาสเชิร์น ฟิลม์ พาร์ทเนอร์ส (ญี่ปุ่น)
fin...@gmail.com
Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao, Kanako Higuchi, Toshiaki Karasawa.
Folks, CGI (short for crap gore interactively-stuck-on, or some such
acronym) can be an evil thing. Think of all the rotten CG-splatter in
some of our favourite movies, like Zatoichi, Ichi The Killer and (OK,
maybe not a favourite, but it'll do) Battle Royale 2. And also think
of Takashi Miike, a man who will use a CG effect so long as it looks
as tacky as he can possibly make it (see Full Metal Yakuza for the
full horror of this). And, broadening it out a bit, think of what
George Lucas did to the original Star Wars movies, not least the awful
musical number in the already not hugely dignified Return of the Jedi,
or the phoney speeding Spiderman in, er, Spiderman, or even, heaven
forbid, some of the really dodgy and not at all convincing stuff in
The Grudge. Sometimes, you just want to go to your nearest
neighbourhood film director and grab him by the lapels, in order to
pound into him the fact that there's absolutely nothing wrong with a
couple of stuntmen and a few squibs here and there.
"Opening up the world of possibilities to film-makers" is the claim,
the sort of thing you hear Steven Spielberg espousing at any given
opportunity. But surely CG is basically just a way of saving a bit of
cash, and will look as tacky in twenty years time as the rather
unconvincing stop-motion dinosaurs of Ray Harryhausen in One Million
Years BC look now, right?
Er... maybe. Occasionally though you get one movie which shows the
possibilities of new technology. Maybe the vanguard of live-action CG
was Jurassic Park, which even now, almost ten years on, looks pretty
convincing, probably because a huge amount of money was chucked at it
to see how much stuck. And now, with the release of Casshern, here's
the second coming.
Who knows how much of this movie was CG, green-screened, matte-
painted, or whatever. And to be honest, when a movie looks this
consistently good throughout, who cares? Remarkably, it's director
Kazuaki Kiriya's debut feature, which kind of equates to Michelangelo
painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the first time he ever
picked up a paintbrush. And, what's more, not only was he the
cinematographer for the entire thing, he's based the movie 50-50 on a
piece of 70s anime as well as Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Synopsis
It's the near future. Or, perhaps, the past. Or, perhaps, a weird
agglomeration of the two, mixing fifties sedans with futuristic
biotechnology. In any case, "Eurasia" seems to be controlled by a
totalitarian semi-Soviet, semi-Japanese dictatorship with clear Nazi
influences. That control is absolute, albeit with some insurgents in
Zone Seven, dragging the war well into its sixth decade. The
environment has been wrecked; ill-conceived weapons have created
rampant radioactivity and foul air, poisoning the populace and causing
genetic mutations. Even soldiers have to wear gasmasks so they can
breathe. Basically, the planet is dying.
This, of course, causes a problem in terms of recruiting soldiers for
the on-going war in Zone Seven, so government scientist Professor
Azuma (a luminescent Akira Terao) has come up with a plan: if he gets
funding for his programme of research into neo-cells, which can
replicate any human cell, he will quickly be able to grow spare part
organs for soldiers wounded at the front, enabling them to get back to
active combat as soon as possible. Despite the fact he's shouted down
when he presents his plan to a conference at the Health Ministry, he's
approached by an aide to the ruling General Kamijo, the high-ranking
defence advisor Kaoru Naito, with a view to continuing his work. Azuma
grasps this opportunity with both hands, not least because his wife
Midori is slowly dying and his research is her only chance. His
family's falling apart - his son Tetsuya has volunteered to go off and
fight, leaving his girlfriend Luna back at home.
A year passes. Azuma's research still hasn't had any results worth the
name, and Midori is now almost blind. Suddenly, Tetsuya is killed by a
booby-trapped teddy bear and is returned home for a state funeral.
Simultaneously, a bizarre, mile-high stone lightning bolt (plot hole
#1) hits Azuma's lab at the Defence Ministry, causing strange speckly
clock-like lights to fall into the tanks where Azuma keeps his body
parts, causing them to bind together and the newly reconstituted dead
to rise from the tank. Naito panics and calls in the soldiers, and one
by one the neo-Sapiens, as they are will call themselves, are gunned
down.
All except for a few, however, who manage to escape and make off in a
car with Midori, who was attending Tetsuya's funeral at the Ministry.
Akuma, overcome with grief at the death of both his son and his
scientific work, takes Tetsuya's corpse from his coffin and revives
him in the regeneration tanks, despite the protests of both Luna and
(plot hole #2) Tetsuya's ghost...
The resurrected Tetsuya is now very powerful - and we're talking the
sort of transformation that turned Peter Parker into Spiderman, or
Bruce Banner into The Hulk - and so Luna's engineer father Kazuki,
already a close colleague of Akuma, makes him a body armour so strong
he can move at double speed without ripping himself into tiny, tiny
pieces. His transformation into the legendary saviour of mankind
Casshern, slayer of enemies, is almost complete. Meanwhile, the four
neo-Sapiens who escaped have made it to a secreted fortress in the
hinterland, where, still holding Midori hostage, they build a huge
robot army just as their leader Burai, annoyed at his mates getting
gunned down, unilaterally declares war on man...
OK, so the plot of this is neither believable nor fully
comprehensible. Sometimes this movie feels like either you need a PhD
in sub-anime plot twists or a solid background in comprehending semi-
logical plot leaps, so labyrinthine are its twists and so
incomprehensible are the motives of its characters. But it's not an
exercise in plot; it's a visual treat, the equivalent of a rather nice
Belgian chocolate cheesecake for your eyes. Much of the plotting of
Casshern is nonsensical to the point of incomprehensibility, rendering
it one of those movies where you just have to try to suspend your
disbelief and natural inquisitiveness and go with the flow. It's a
feature of every Shakespeare play (and don't forget Casshern is partly
based on Hamlet) that you have to concentrate enormously for the first
half hour or so, otherwise you're never going to have a clue what's
going on. And Casshern's no different – you need to work out who's who
(and what drives who) very quickly, otherwise, especially with all the
complex political machinations that take place during the film, you'll
end up lost quite swiftly. You can't help wondering if some of the no
doubt huge wodges of cash thrown at the SFX might have been better
spent on sorting out the script, which has the feel sometimes of being
made up on the spot.
It's scarce to see a movie, let alone one from a first-time director,
where every shot is a marvel, so carefully constructed, lit and shot
that it's difficult to concentrate on much else. But perhaps one of
the film's problems is, and it pains me to say it, is that it's just
too damn good-looking. Right from the start you're bombarded with
memorable image after memorable image, to the point really where you
get overloaded. And while the stunning art design continues all the
way through the movie, by the end it's almost as if you've been
bludgeoned into submission - about halfway through, I almost got
desensitised to the fabulous visuals and started engaging my brain; a
problem when the movie has such obvious issues in its storyline.
While the performances are never less than solid, Yusuke Iseya's
Tetsuya/Casshern really does push the boundaries of believable
tortured superhero, preferring instead a stoic grimace when fighting
to save mankind and/or Luna. Yes, Casshern the man is astonishingly
brave, yes, he's still madly in love with Luna, but why does he have
to be so cardboard in places? He's a cartoon character, to be frank –
but bearing in mind this movie's provenance, that's not hugely
surprising. Akira Terao is nothing short of imperious as Professor
Azuma, while Kumiko Aso, despite her role in the film being little
more than sitting, standing or lying with eyes wide open and running
to Tetsuya's aid when needed, shows that her strong performance in
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo was no fluke.
A strange meld of Zatoichi meeting Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow via Battle of the Planets, Casshern gives a dazzling display
of special effects virtuosity whilst wearing its Weimar-era cinema
influences on its sleeve. While the plot is over-complicated, the
characterisations underdeveloped and it's a good half-hour too long,
if you're prepared to go in thinking this isn't the second coming of
cinema but instead a glittering yet flawed live action anime you're
not going to be disappointed.
Snowblood Apple Rating for this film:
Entertainment Value: 8/10. Gorgeous eye-candy, shame about the plot
Violence: 11/10. Mass carnage on a robotular scale, giant nukes and
all
Sex: 0/10
Frightwigs: There's always room for a frightwig
Communist/Fascist imagery: epic
Visuals: 9,000,000/10
Style: Live-action anime. Contradiction in terms? YOU watch it!
Casshern Mask: This year's Battle Royale collar. Mandi would wear one
down the shops
Films in a Similar Style: Akira, Metropolis (1927, not the anime one),
Triumph des Willens, the masterpieces of Soviet Cinema, Sky Captain
and the World of Tomorrow, Battle of the Planets
*** Beautifully baffling! ***
fin...@gmail.com
Linksลองเข้าดูนะ
http://www.casshern.com/ - official international site with trailer,
interviews, making of, etc
http://www.gofishpictures.com/casshern/ - official USA site
http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=3829 - interview with director Kazuo
Kiriya
http://www.kiriya.com/24h/enter.html - Kazuo Kiriya's official site
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/casshern.htm - insightful review
from LoveHKFilm
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/casshern.shtml - Midnight Eye call
it "not a totally binary affair though". Make of that what you
will. ;-)
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/incinemas/ReviewInFull.asp?FID=10655
- our favourite movie rag Empire's take on the film
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14931-1496894,00.html
- The (London) Times wasn't too keen either
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1424452,00.html
- The Grauniad hated another movie we like! Nuahgty Grauniad!
http://www.kfccinema.com/reviews/scifi/casshern/casshern.html - KFCC
liked it, mostly
http://www.eyeonanime.co.uk/site/articalereport.php?articaleid=8 -
interesting review from an anime fan's perspective
http://www.dvdscan.com/casshern.htm - thoroughly attentive technical
review of the Japanese DVD, done with love
http://www.atamaii.com/casshern-041108.html - Casshern TOYS!!!
Merch... mmm, merch goodness...
fin...@gmail.com
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