The Great Yokai War

Over the past few weeks, I've posted reviews of all three films in the Yokai Monsters trilogy in the Random Reviews Incorporated Fan Club (join us, join us...!).  If you're not in the know, these ditties are Japanese folk tales bolstered by fanciful, quixotic special effects.  They are fun to watch on a Saturday afternoon.  I gave them a gander knowing that I would follow the original trilogy up by beaming at Takashi Miike's 2005 remake.  Miike is one of my favorite directors on the planet.  While I didn't expect The Great Yokai War to have the sinuous malignancy of Audition or Ichi the Killer, I did expect to see traces of Miike's oddball sense of humor and his uncanny ability to marry seemingly discordant genres.  Needless to squeal, my expectations were met.

I'll try to piece together a semi-lucid plot summary.  At a small festival, a little boy named Tadashi is chosen to be a "kirin warrior," a guardian and abettor of all things good.  Concurrently, a demon randomly appears "whose mystical powers are born of his rage at the annihilation of Japan's local tribes."  Or at least that's what IMDb claims.  I'm not proud of my sources, but this is an enormous ball of twine to unfuck.  Tadashi represents the heart of the story.  I was moved by his relationship with Sunekosuri, a furry critter akin to a hamster.  Without resorting to spoilers, that is one angle that takes a ballsy turn.

Simply put, this is an entertaining horror/fantasy/adventure.  I want to make my position plain because I'm about to contravene and grouse about it.  I dig Miike's Great Yokai War, but for 2005, the digital effects leave something...well, everything to be desired.  At times, I felt like I slipped a copy of 1998's Virus into my VCR.  NOTE TO SELF: Watch Virus.  Also, the narrative is riddled with craters.  Here are a number of questions that I asked during the climax: "Who is that guy?"  "How does he know the girl with green hands?"  "Why in the holy hell does that girl have green hands?"  "Is that one of the friendly monsters?"  "Why can't I piss Fanta Orange?"

The jury is still out on that last conundrum.  It's a real cryptogram.  The script tosses too many characters in the air for Miike to catch.  Admittedly, the titular war is a satisfying brouhaha.  I'm cool with the practical effects, and as I hinted at earlier, Ryonosuke Kamike (the timid, yet gallant Tadashi) is a compelling lead.  The Great Yokai War would be a sweet appetizer in a Miike double feature with, say, Dead or Alive.  I need to work more of the guy's filmography into my diet.  There are only 303,459 titles left to consume.  I'll get there sooner or later.