The Great Yokai War
Harry Potter VS The Decepticons!
Posted by: Task, September 18, 2005 01:09 PM
Thursday, September 15 11:59 PM RYERSON
At a local festival, young Tadashi is chosen to be The Kirin Rider. Although he seems to be a bit cowardly (it makes him a very believable character and doesn't detract from his rising hero status later on), he does eventually manage to venture up the mountain of the Great Goblin and retrieve the legendary sword. Along the way, he makes friends with many colourful Yokai who are as much a focus of the movie as he is. Perhaps more.
The bad guy in this movie is a wizard of sorts who has built a machine out of humanity's discarded appliances which are charged with rage. While the highly pessimistic might see it a bit like this:
How To Make A MacGuffin:
Take 1 Yokai and 1 large piece of discarded machinery, add to magical stew, let cook for 10-30 seconds, produces one fully transforming giant robot evil minion.
The whole plot is well crafted and interwoven so it doesn't come off as being anywhere near as silly as it sounds.
The highlight of this film is definitely the costuming. Miike has a very distinct (to me, anyway) style of CGI that he uses, and the costumes for the army of Yokai mesh extremely well with the non-costumed pure CGI portions to make a fantastic whole of visual splendor.
Overall, this is a delightfully playful romp through Japanese folklore that is much more reminiscent of the original grim fairy tales than the sanitized versions that we grew up with. Top marks for both style and substance.
Oh, and don't forget: Asiago beans are good for you!