MOVIES : Casshern
Wow.
I don't really know what to make of this. I think if I wasn't into Japanese story telling, and didn't delight in deciphering plots, I would have found this film quite boring. But maybe not.
It's what Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow should have been : all sets (bar one) are 90% digital, with real actors; the technology is retro/steam-punk/mix of cogs and mobile phones; the politics is heavily Stalin Russia, though of course with some Japanese honour thrown in for good measure.
The atmosphere was one of the most enjoyable aspects of this film, from the sometimes classical, sometimes heavy metal soundtrack, to the magnificent Russian/Communist propaganda inspired statues and iconography, to the high status, ponderous, match offs that the Japanese are so good at. In fact the only thing that took away from the atmosphere where the pathetic fight scenes which they sped up for some reason, and used so many cuts you couldn't work out what was happening; I suspect because they didn't have actors who could do decent looking martial arts...
The first third of the film is setting up the reason everything else matters, giving background to the characters and world, and nicely implies a lot of stuff without saying it. The second third devolves into a japanese comic fantasy with the main character becoming super powerful (very Matrix/Neo style). Then the last third takes off again as more twists than a corkscrew come thundering down as we try and decipher why, or for that matter what, the hell happened.
And it is this deciphering that was both the most intriguing and most unsatisfying part of the film; I never did work out what was going on, though I got close. I don't know if this is a miss translation from japanese culture to western, or a miss translation from the comic to screen, or simply an attempt to make the story more interesting by making it indecipherable (god I hate that!)
Anyway, while I wouldn't recommend it for all, I'd love someone else to see it to let me know what they thought was going on!
I don't really know what to make of this. I think if I wasn't into Japanese story telling, and didn't delight in deciphering plots, I would have found this film quite boring. But maybe not.
It's what Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow should have been : all sets (bar one) are 90% digital, with real actors; the technology is retro/steam-punk/mix of cogs and mobile phones; the politics is heavily Stalin Russia, though of course with some Japanese honour thrown in for good measure.
The atmosphere was one of the most enjoyable aspects of this film, from the sometimes classical, sometimes heavy metal soundtrack, to the magnificent Russian/Communist propaganda inspired statues and iconography, to the high status, ponderous, match offs that the Japanese are so good at. In fact the only thing that took away from the atmosphere where the pathetic fight scenes which they sped up for some reason, and used so many cuts you couldn't work out what was happening; I suspect because they didn't have actors who could do decent looking martial arts...
The first third of the film is setting up the reason everything else matters, giving background to the characters and world, and nicely implies a lot of stuff without saying it. The second third devolves into a japanese comic fantasy with the main character becoming super powerful (very Matrix/Neo style). Then the last third takes off again as more twists than a corkscrew come thundering down as we try and decipher why, or for that matter what, the hell happened.
And it is this deciphering that was both the most intriguing and most unsatisfying part of the film; I never did work out what was going on, though I got close. I don't know if this is a miss translation from japanese culture to western, or a miss translation from the comic to screen, or simply an attempt to make the story more interesting by making it indecipherable (god I hate that!)
Anyway, while I wouldn't recommend it for all, I'd love someone else to see it to let me know what they thought was going on!
1 Comments:
I'll try and catch it when it finally gets here... give me 6 months or so. btw - is there a way that you can put a contents list on the side again (like your other blog) I can never tell how many posts I've missed, or what they're about.
cheers. M
waiting for the Fellini review.
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