The New York Anime Festival has announced the screening of the complete version of the 2004 live action film Casshern, which is based on the classic science fiction anime series from 1973.  Directed by Kazuaki Kiriya, the Casshern live action film was released in the U.S. in October in an edited version that is twenty minutes shorter than the original Japanese release, which will be shown on December 8th at 10 pm at the New York Anime Festival.

Kazuaki's film is a stunning mixture of live action and animated elements with a decidedly retro look that in some ways resembles Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, though Casshern, with its dystopian science fiction plot rife with Oedipal overtones, presents a much more challenging storyline than the narrative pablum of Sky Captain.

Dreamworks landed the American rights to Casshern back in 2004 (see 'Dreamworks Acquires Casshern Rights'); Paramount, which handles all of Dreamworks films on home video, released Casshern here in October.