Private Movie Log... "CASSHERN" 2004 [Movie Review]

I write various articles here and there, publish books, speak at seminars, direct PR mainly related to the Web, release music works, run an artist introduction site, make rabbit videos... and so on, but this is the 102nd entry where I've started writing down my thoughts on movies and such that I've watched so far, which I haven't been able to write about anywhere else.

This time, I'm talking about the movie "CASSHERN," which had a terrible reputation but was actually not like that at all when I watched it.

I'll state in advance that, as a rule, I write without worrying about spoilers at all, so those who haven't seen it yet or those who are concerned about spoilers might be better off not reading this.

By the way, I'll make an excuse in advance: this review was also written quite a while ago and has been slightly revised before posting, so it might differ from current information, so please forgive me for that (I have many excuses from the beginning every time).

Man, it had a terrible reputation.
But the box office revenue seems pretty good (Wikipedia says 1.53 billion yen)... so does that mean a lot of people watched it, but many of them were angry? lol
Maybe the reason is that it's quite far from the worldview of the original anime...
Those who panned this movie must have been expecting something completely different.
I understand that feeling, though.

But for me, I was totally hooked.
I think it's a very wonderful movie full of new challenges.

First of all, the atmosphere of the screen is very good.
The darkness, the design of the things that appear, and everything else.
I don't think there was any other Japanese movie at the time that had such strong visual power.
Dark places are properly dark.
Red places are properly red.
Places that look cold really look cold.
Places that look comfortable really look comfortable.
Disgusting things are really disgusting.
I felt that the depiction and texture of everything—Casshern's helmet, the robot army, soldiers, trains, helicopters, buildings—were expressed in a style I had never seen before.
If you're shown images like this, you won't forget them, I think.

I feel that they express very strongly and intensely the sadness that flows constantly and incredibly firmly at the base of everyone who appears.
I think it expresses that that sadness eventually transforms into "selfish desire," and although the story is extreme, I think this can be said to be human society itself in reality.
In other words, various satirical elements are abundantly incorporated into the story; for example, I feel that even the types of sadness are expressed in great numbers, and the choices of how to deal with them also differ for each character, and I felt a great depth as it seemed to be an expression that the present as something that collides as a result of such differences in diversity.
And of course, it's good that there is forgiveness at the end... no, this often doesn't happen in reality, but in this movie, it's good.

And the actors are really good, too.
Akira Terao's dry eyes are good.
Kanako Higuchi's sad beauty is good.
Toshiaki Karasawa's expression of oppressed sadness and anger is also good.
Yusuke Iseya's anger filled with anguish is also good.
And Kumiko Aso and Mayumi Sada are truly beautiful and also ephemeral.
Oh, that's right, Hiroyuki Miyasako was also a perfect fit.
I thought Mitsuhiro Oikawa and Susumu Terajima were also perfect in this worldview.

Wait... wouldn't it have been better if this movie hadn't been created as a movie with an original work?
Because as a movie, it's incredibly good.
If they hadn't used the name "Casshern," kept Tatsunoko Production only as a draft, and made it as a different sci-fi, the evaluation might have been completely different... well, in that case, maybe it would have been hard to raise funds or promote it...
But if the director, who was Hikaru Utada's husband at the time, had launched it as "a completely new, sorrow-filled story re-produced based on that 'Casshern'," I think it could have gathered quite a lot of attention, though...

Honestly, even if it follows the original work, it's meaningless if it's boring.
Conversely, if you're going to break the original work, I think it has to be this interesting.
Devilman, Lupin III, Gatchaman, Attack on Titan... well, there are many movies that were painful to watch (I couldn't even endure Devilman until the end T_T), but this work is completely different.
I think it's one of the incredibly innovative movie works that should remain in film history.

Come to think of it, when I was talking about that with a guitarist who was performing at the live house & recording studio & management where I worked at the time, it turned out that he was very close to someone involved in this movie, and he suddenly started half-crying and grabbed my hand tightly with both hands.
When I asked, he said he had felt incredibly frustrated at the time of the release.
Gen-san... it's been a long time since I heard the news that he passed away suddenly... I remember things like that too.

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