If I remember correctly, the US has a $200 limit. But only 18 quid! Jesus H. Christ, i'd lose patience quickly...

its fine really. considering even if item is expensive and you pay duty etc they often end up way cheaper than actual UK editions.

I got this movie last week and watched it two nights ago with some friends. This is one of the most over-hyped films is quite sometime. Nothing trully amazing about this film. It doesn't do anything more interesting that the dreadful Sky Captain -- both films suffer from poor writing, directing, cinematography and editing -- hard not to see why though. Both films were directed by first time directors, who really have no business making feature length films.

Casshern in particular could have trimmed of 40 minutes, and then it might have been a compelling work.

There's a strange conceit about doing full digital environments with life people running around blue screen stages. The command of cinematic language for the digital world films that i've -- or even just digital shots -- is so very poor compared to what even a routinely competent director can do. Take a look at the upcoming Polar Express, the visual vocabulary looks like I've seen it many times before. And I can't understand why this film was done mo-cap.

Digital cinema is bound by computer artists who aren't visualists or photographers - they typically don't understand the use of framing or negative space or anything that really brings a film to life OR the directors are so enamored but what the computer is able to falsely create, that they forget what they're doing. The more we see digital cinema replacing location work on films or studio work with forced perspective, the more the cinematic experience becomes cheapened.

Films like Immortal Ad Vitam, Sky Captain or Casshern are just high definition cartoons - nothing more than that, yet their creators believe they can be on the level of live-action film. The best use of CG digital effects I've seen in a feature film so far was in Ghost In The Shell 2: Innonence -- becaues everyone KNEW it was a cartoon and the effects weren't trying to blend it with reality just enhance the cartoony nature of the piece.

If anyone wants my copy of the Casshern 3-disc, give me your best offer - so around $25 to $30.

Just finished watching this and I feel completely drained and exhausted, physically and emotionally.

I'm genuinely sorry to hear the negative reactions this film has been inducing, but much more genuinely happy to say that this is one of the most wonderful yet devastating films I've seen in some time, and that I loved every second of it.

Would make a highly compelling - albeit deeply depressing - triple-bill alongside the similarly terrained Avalon and Dragonhead.

Magical film.

I want this film sooo much! :( but really wish it was cheaper! grrrr

I watched it today...I think it's as good as the original Matrix. Much more of an old style look, 50's pulp, to it. A lot of the scenes look right off one of the sci-fi mag covers of that time.

I liked it and think the CGI works well. Really gives the film a feel of fantasy, which helps when the subject matter gets a little gruesome. If it were too real then it would be extremely difficult to watch. Some incredibly beautiful scenes.

I have no clue what "The cinematic language for digital words films..." means, but I suppose I might as well disagree with the intent. I think the shots were great. The camera followed the action with a beauty that you can't see with something shot on location. I think that's a hollow complaint anyway. Some of the best films ever made were shot in a studio, not location. It's all about the execution.

I'd recommend it.

I ordered this based on the reviews here and I can't wait to get my hands on this.

How long did it take you guys to get your shipment from the time that you ordered it?

depends where you order it from. if you gave location youre in : well...

Los Angeles, California.

i would suggest yesasia.com then : you should get it within a few days as the initial problems people would experience with preorders should have gone and ive heard those ordering now from within usa are getting it through fast.

no sign of any release in any country outside japan either...

I wouldn't be surprised if any other releases will be a shorter cut, much like Azumi.

What happened to this on CD-Wow! I can't find it now...

I have never ever seen it on cdwow :)

wont be on cd-wow. they dont do japanese discs.

Got this yesterday and going to watch it tonight. Question though, inside there seems to be something for a free gift if you send in the postcard. Does anyone know what exactly it is? it looks like a book of some sort. You know what, it might be one of those things that when you find out what it is,the more you want it.

a book. some pictures and japanese text.

ahh they dont ussually, but latley have sold a few Japanese dvds, they sell about 4 at the moment :) not seen this film will say.

Watched Casshern once again last night and found it no less powerful the second time around. In fact I was quite surprised at how affected I was by it still, even though I knew what was coming.

Also some plot details fell into place this time, whillst others fell out! This will be a film like Eraserhead, Save The Green Planet, Oldboy, and Ichi The Killer - all sensory overloads too - that I will return to again and again.

According to thedvdetective, there should be a Casshern LE released in Korea around Jan/Feb 2005

cool. though that could be a guess?? if there was specific info floating around it would be a little firmer and less "hopeful"...

Here's my take on this masterpiece:

CASSHERN reminded me of a recent huge Hollywood epic, called PEARL HARBOR. How do they both relate? Well, they both SUCK BALLS! What a disappointment CASSHERN is. I lowered my expectations as usual to hopefully see the positive and not get seduced by any hype, yet I got a movie even lower than my expectations. All summer I was reading reviews of CASSHERN which were negative, fair, and positive, even more positive reviews than the other big foreign sci-fi film, IMMORTEL. IMMORTEL is practically a masterpiece in comparison to CASSHERN. IMMORTEL was at least visually amazing, original, entertaining, and had a decent story. CASSHERN barely had any of those qualities. It's not that CASSHERN is a "bad movie", it's just that the main negative about CASSHERN is that it's so poorly directed and edited. It had elements of being a good movie, it just wasn't put together properly. It's right up at the top of the list of one of the worst directed movies this year, along with vomit-inducing shaky cam THE BOURNE SUPREMACY. CASSHERN is all about bad directing, bad editing, god-awful awkward & annoying soundtrack, and a mess of a story. There is a forced epilogue in the movie about the wrongs of war, life is about love and co-existing with each other, but the movie did nothing to express that throughout the movie. And anyway, THE FIFTH ELEMENT covered those themes already just fine. There are some weepy scenes of characters dying, but who cares? Why are they weeping over people that the audience does not care about? This director is bad, bad, bad! If the director wanted the audience to feel bad for deaths of characters, do some better directing and editing to emphasize that. I felt like I was watching a 2-hour long Japanese pop video with an awful soundtrack. What is up with Japan with heavy metal and fluffy 12 year old girl music in live-action movies? The music is awsome in big Japanese anime movies (Ghost in the Shells, Akira, Metropolis, etc.) so why don't they get the anime music people? The action scenes with the humans were god awful too. Fast cuts, blurry, and just poor overall design of the action scenes with the humans just don't look good. The style of the human fighting scenes are trying to be inspired by anime, but in most anime, the audience can see what is going on.

The only thing awsome in CASSHERN was the Art Design and the Robots/Machines/Machinery scenes. The robots, the mega robot, the alternate universe made-of-stone lightning bolt were the only visually amazing things in the movie. That is the only reason to see this movie. The Art Design was great to look at too. But any cool action or visual scene in this movie was put in the background, while they have some pseudo-sentimental emotional weepy human sappy scene in the foreground - this was ACTUALLY cinematically done - the director had some awful style of having two scenes superimposed onto each other, such that two different things were going on at the same time. If you see the movie, you will know what Im talking about. And whatever style it is, it really sucks and devalues both scenes going on in the film.

The DVD is a pretty good package, but I can't understand why anyone would care because this movie sucks - Amazing Anamorphic video and audio (DD 5.1 and DTS), with English subtitles. A bunch of making-of-film featurettes for over 2 hours not subtitled of course, and some trailers. The PEARL HARBOR had an awsome DVD package too, but why in the world would anyone want to see extras of sucky films?

Overall, CASSHERN makes RETURNER look like a masterpiece - Here is now the list of overlyhyped Japanese sci-fi movies that ive seen, starting from best to worse (Unfortunatly, the "best" here is only a fairly average movie):
1. RETURNER
2. VERSUS
3. CASSHERN
4. BATTLE ROYALE 2
5. DRAGONHEAD


MOVIE: 5.5
DVD VIDEO: 9
DVD AUDIO: 9
EXTRAS: 8
OVERALL: 6

RETURNER and VERSUS are pretty much perfect films, esspecially VERSUS which was the film if 2002 for me, so everything you just said has made me want to see Carsherena a lot more :)

BATTLE ROYALE 2 is Pathetic mind you :)

'There is a forced epilogue in the movie about the wrongs of war, life is about love and co-existing with each other, but the movie did nothing to express that throughout the movie.'

If you didn't see how the movie expressed the ending, then I'm afraid you just didn't get the movie. I definitely saw the message in the movie, and it's not that hard to see. It is a Japanese movie, though, so vagueness is never a stranger.

I do agree that the ending is kind of sappy and the last few lines of the movie (starting with 'At last I understand') should've been cut out. The last few lines of dialogue kind of kill the mood of the pictures you see before them, and because it's the last thing of the movie it might give an overall lower impression of the movie, but if you forget those lines, the movie is just awesome.

Other than that I can't really find a fault with the movie. It wants to be an epic and it succeeds. I found the story in IMMORTAL so silly and pointless. I never felt any danger in that movie. People just do things and the end comes and that's it. I also didn't see the point of having some people completely CG and some people live-action. In Casshern, it's the opposite. The danger is always present and it can be felt. That fight between Casshern and the hundred or so mechs is just awesome. I had no problem with the soundtrack either, it just adds to the epic feel of the movie.

I agree with DBP. The movie is great. (The movie did play in Korea, albeit in a film festival.) The second time I saw it was better than the first. The style is great and the visuals are amazing. RETURNER is more of a summer movie, so it's got a lighter tone than Casshern and VERSUS has more of a raw energy feel to it, but Casshern is great. If you like Japanese films you shoud see this one. It's a live-action anime, pure and simple.