“Casshern”’s Kiriya Kazuaki on the comeback trail
Posted on Thursday, 9 August 2007 at 4:24 pm
Whatever happened to Kiriya Kazuaki, the photographer and music video director who married J-pop ingenue Utada Hikaru and made a gobsmacking feature film debut with “Casshern” in 2004 before swiftly fading back into relative obscurity? Well, apart from a quickie divorce, he’s apparently filming his next movie.
According to Kiriya’s official homepage, extras and volunteer staff are currently being sought for his latest project entitled “Goemon”, which again sees him writing, shooting, directing, and also co-producing with none other than Ichise Taka. Everything’s being kept under wraps for now, but the few hints they’ve let slip suggest it might be a period fantasy about Ishikawa Goemon, “legendary ninja warrior and bandit hero“.
Filming is set to run from August through to November, but as it’s not scheduled for release until March 2009 we can presume there’s yottabytes of CG work to be done. Warner Brothers and Shochiku are on board as distributors, so together with the (unconfirmed) period fantasy element, one might speculate that it’s being groomed as a competitor for the first “Dororo” sequel, also due to open in 2009 via the similar east/west partnership of Toho and Universal Pictures.
“Casshern” divided its sparse audiences upon release and I was pretty harsh on it in my review for Midnight Eye, but considering the many overseas fans it’s managed to accumulate despite the lack of a decent foreign DVD release, the guy definitely deserves another chance. (source: Cinematopics)
comment by don
posted on Thursday, August 9 2007 at 4:24 pm
Oops, thanks for pointing that out. Defective memory.
comment by jg
posted on Thursday, August 9 2007 at 4:24 pm
Didn’t like Casshern at all, but I agree — give him another chance. Would prefer he forgo the brontobytes of CG and focus on camera and script.
Dororo is TBS/Universal Japan with Toho distrib.
comment by Pelle
posted on Thursday, August 9 2007 at 4:24 pm
Casshern was a mess, but it was epic and gorgeous. I’m looking forward to his next.
comment by asiafan
posted on Thursday, August 9 2007 at 4:24 pm
I loved Casshern so it’s good news. I can’t wait.
comment by logboy
posted on Thursday, August 9 2007 at 4:24 pm
casshern got loads of DVD releases… can’t remember a film that appeared simply everywhere in recent memory. it’s probably what caused a lack of a USA releases (well, so far…) because so many other options had been and gone by then… still, i liked it’s visuals and mood, if it wasn’t also a complete mess somehow.