The film is based on the popular Japanese anime' series, "Casshern." The mix of live action and digital actors in totally digital environments, at times, is jaw dropping good art. In Japan, the movie was a big hit. The film was produced entirely on a digital backlot using green screens much like The 300 was. It achieves an eye popping other worldly feel. The action sequences are rendered using state of the art digital technology. The story comes alive against imaginative digital backgrounds. This DVD release is the director's cut of the film. ***

A brief synopsis of the film: Set in a future in which the planet has been ravaged by a catastrophic Third World War, the Fifty Years War, Casshern follows the story of a young man imbued with a superhuman strength who emerges as humanity's last hope in an epic battle against powerful mutant neohumans and their army of robots. Casshern is "the Guardian Spirit of Humanity," which is revered by the locals. However, the war has turned them away from their veneration and the feeling is that this is the source of their problems, their lack of respect for the Spirit who has guided them through the ages. ***

Image & Sound:

A rather dark picture in tone and in actual light, the images are striking and at times virtually seamless going from live action in front of a green screen to totally animated scenes. The sound has short staccato voicings of the characters typical to Japanese movie dialogue, at least to this Western Ear. The dialogue is captioned in English, which at times goes across the screen so fast you cannot read it, not if you are also trying to watch the incredible backgrounds the creators have married the live action with. Irritating but not a problem…it is a DVD with a reverse button on the machine.

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