Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Yûsuke Iseya | ... | ||
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Kumiko Asô | ... | |
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Akira Terao | ... | |
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Kanako Higuchi | ... |
Midori Azuma
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Fumiyo Kohinata | ... |
Dr. Kozuki
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Hiroyuki Miyasako | ... |
Akubon
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Mayumi Sada | ... | ||
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Jun Kaname | ... | |
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Hidetoshi Nishijima | ... |
Lieutenant Colonel Kamijo
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Mitsuhiro Oikawa | ... |
Kaoru Naito
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Susumu Terajima | ... |
Sakamoto
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Mayu Tsuruta | ... |
Burai's wife
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Ryô | ... |
San Ikegami
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Tetsuji Tamayama | ... |
Sekiguchi
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Yôko Moriguchi | ... |
Luna's mother
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In a world with an alternate history, a great war finally comes to an end leaving the earth diseased and polluted. The geneticist Dr. Azuma vies for support from the government for his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. The government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma's lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world. Now only the warrior known as Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation. Written by Frank Tinsley V
I have just finished watching Casshern and overall it was a visually stunning feast for the eyes with a beautifully woven fairytale at its heart. Unfortunately the fairytale was somewhat drowned under layer upon layer of heavy handed and mostly unnecessary exposition that ponders on for two long and mind-numbing hours, the result being that I am baffled by the entire experience. On the one hand I loved the movie; the style of the film was exceptional, every aspect of the world the director had created strained with the quality that is lacking in most western films. The cinematography was perfectly executed, the design work was breathtaking and the idea at the core of the narrative was ingenious. On the other hand these qualities cannot make up for the script, which is overly long and excruciatingly convoluted; taking an unnecessarily long and ponderous route to a conclusion that, in the hands of a better writer, could have been much more straightforward without necessarily losing any of the emotional complexity of the narrative or its characters. I would recommend seeing this movie if just to experience the spectacular visual feast that it is, but I can't help thinking that the story could have been treated so much better.