Brian Thibodeau
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2003
- Messages
- 992
I'll admit, even I was skepitcal of the $6 million, but even if they're just being humble, I still have no difficulty in believing that a film like this could be made in Japan for under $10 million tops. Casshern is really like the culmination of all those low-budget (by Japanese standards, of course) live-action anime adaptations that they've been making for years now. Most of them, near as I can tell, are direct-to-video stuff with limited acting and FX, many of them rooted in the tits 'n tentacles genre because it's probably easy to find some A/V starlets who aren't afraid to do squishy things with foam rubber appendages. Then there're the higher-up features like the ZEIRAM movies, the live-action TOKYO: THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS, plus the recent (or upcoming) DEVILMAN live action movie. There's probably a lot more that we're not even aware of, and may never get to see, but surely CASSHERN is just taking things to the next level, and hopefully the start of a whole new era of Japanese fantasy cinema. Considering how much CGI is turning up in traditional anime over the last few years, and how effectively it's been integrated into the time-honoured artistic style of the form, it's no surprise that the same care and attention to detail would be evident in a live-action adaptation such as this.
I remember watching a making-of doc on some anime DVD, the name of which eludes me, but it was a fairly famous title. But in it you can see the creators talking about how little money they had to create the work as time wore on, how they scrimped and saved and starved, and they showed you the cramped, cluttered little backstreet studio where people appeared to be labouring out of sheer love of their craft rather than how much money they were getting paid (or not getting paid) or stood to make when it was finally released. This was not some fancy, high-tech Disney "environment." This was a den of artists working the old-fashioned way, independently. The impression it gave me was that the vast majority of people who work in the crowded anime industry don't end up rich. They end up satisfied. And for those people, at least on this particular doc, that seemed to be enough.
Now, I'm sure Casshern was probably done on state-of-the-art equipment, perhaps even in a state-of-the-art facility, but I seriously doubt much of that $6 million went to paying the talent anything other than standard wages. Judging from that trailer, it looks like it all went up on screen. And if it's any good, they'll probably make their money on the back end when it starts to play Japan and, later, the rest of the world.
The fact is, the American film industry could not make a movie that looked this good for that little money. Overpaid stars, overpaid directors, gargantuan egos, counterproductive union rules, constant studio interference, pandering to the perceived market demands instead of offering anything truly grondbreaking, the list goes on as to why American studio genre movies have become so big and long and bloated and completely devoid of subtext (BAD BOYS II, anyone?). There's so few people who seem able to stay true to their visions in that system anymore (not that there aren't some, of course!), but the Asian filmmakers in all three of the big markets (Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea) and even the smaller ones (Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam) seem far less bound by restrictive and inefficient rules. If you touch my toolbox, I WON'T file a grievance, so to speak.
When you can, try to watch a behind the scenes documentary on a Japanese DVD, preferably for some big sci-fi or action epic and just compare the number of people standing around doing nothing with the number you see in virtually any behind-the-scenes documentary for an American Summer Blockbuster. Sure, I've seen people in both who look like they really don't have anything to do, but in the American docs, the sheer volume of people milling around the set with clipboards or yakking into cellphones or laughing at director's stupid jokes is mind-numbing. You can see these types in the Japanese docs too, but generally everyone appears to be working on something because everybody shares responsibilities and they don't have the comparitive luxury of gigantic budgets and long shoots. I guess the payoff is when you see "big-budget" Japanese blockbuster fare that comes damn close to, or even surpasses the quality of their $100-million-budgeted U.S. counterparts and yet you might never knw that probably a third to a half the people actually pulled it off with barely one-tenth of the money.
I remember watching a making-of doc on some anime DVD, the name of which eludes me, but it was a fairly famous title. But in it you can see the creators talking about how little money they had to create the work as time wore on, how they scrimped and saved and starved, and they showed you the cramped, cluttered little backstreet studio where people appeared to be labouring out of sheer love of their craft rather than how much money they were getting paid (or not getting paid) or stood to make when it was finally released. This was not some fancy, high-tech Disney "environment." This was a den of artists working the old-fashioned way, independently. The impression it gave me was that the vast majority of people who work in the crowded anime industry don't end up rich. They end up satisfied. And for those people, at least on this particular doc, that seemed to be enough.
Now, I'm sure Casshern was probably done on state-of-the-art equipment, perhaps even in a state-of-the-art facility, but I seriously doubt much of that $6 million went to paying the talent anything other than standard wages. Judging from that trailer, it looks like it all went up on screen. And if it's any good, they'll probably make their money on the back end when it starts to play Japan and, later, the rest of the world.
The fact is, the American film industry could not make a movie that looked this good for that little money. Overpaid stars, overpaid directors, gargantuan egos, counterproductive union rules, constant studio interference, pandering to the perceived market demands instead of offering anything truly grondbreaking, the list goes on as to why American studio genre movies have become so big and long and bloated and completely devoid of subtext (BAD BOYS II, anyone?). There's so few people who seem able to stay true to their visions in that system anymore (not that there aren't some, of course!), but the Asian filmmakers in all three of the big markets (Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea) and even the smaller ones (Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam) seem far less bound by restrictive and inefficient rules. If you touch my toolbox, I WON'T file a grievance, so to speak.
When you can, try to watch a behind the scenes documentary on a Japanese DVD, preferably for some big sci-fi or action epic and just compare the number of people standing around doing nothing with the number you see in virtually any behind-the-scenes documentary for an American Summer Blockbuster. Sure, I've seen people in both who look like they really don't have anything to do, but in the American docs, the sheer volume of people milling around the set with clipboards or yakking into cellphones or laughing at director's stupid jokes is mind-numbing. You can see these types in the Japanese docs too, but generally everyone appears to be working on something because everybody shares responsibilities and they don't have the comparitive luxury of gigantic budgets and long shoots. I guess the payoff is when you see "big-budget" Japanese blockbuster fare that comes damn close to, or even surpasses the quality of their $100-million-budgeted U.S. counterparts and yet you might never knw that probably a third to a half the people actually pulled it off with barely one-tenth of the money.
