This Halloween, I was in the mood for something different and I would like to
think that I found it. Take The Great Yokai War by Miike, the man responsible
for populating the torture horror genre in such films as Audition and violent
gangsters movies. Miike's name brings up graphic violence and painful physical
horror. However, The Great Yokai War is a kid's movie that is accessible to
everyone from children to grandparents and every family member in between.
There is no violence, sex, horror, torture, psychological insights, nor
anything that makes up hard-edged cinema. So what does this movie offer?
Simple. It is a lot of fun, and something that is missed out on with big-budget
CGI flicks like Avatar that do well at the box office but really are not that
entertaining at all.
Yokai are creatures that exists in Japan that every Japanese child knows about.
Take the Kappa, for example, a Kappa is a water sprite that is the size of a
small boy with greenish froglike skin, a turtle's shell, and a duck's beak.
Kappa can be found in rivers and ponds and their purpose is to play tricks on
people. The Kappa even eat children and the Kappa's image is used in signs
near rivers to warn children about water safety. Not all Yokai are bad, some
even help drowning humans such as water sprites. Yokai come in all shapes,
sizes, and appearances, which is so beautifully illustrated in The Great Yokai
War.
The movie begins with a young boy, Tadashi, who has just moved into a small
village after his parent's divorce. Tadashi attends a local festival and gets
bit on the top of his head by a long red dragon. The dragon is operated by two
people and resembles the dragons used in the Chinese dragon dance. Due to
Tadashi bite, he is now regarded as the Kirin Rider who must protect the earth
against all evil.
On returning home, Tadashi is befriended by a small yokai that looks like a
cute hamster. Together they team up to investigate what is going on at Great
Goblin mountain.
Meanwhile, an angry spirit called Kato wants what all monsters want, to destroy the
world.
Tadashi and Sunekosuri, his hamster looking friend, finally meet up with Yokai in
the forest. The prank loving Kappa, the lovely Princess water sprite, and a host of
others such as a woman wearing a kimono who has the ability to stretch her neck out,
or the woman walking around with a lantern who has no face.
Tadashi is given a powerful sword, which he will have to use against the bad
Yokai that are out to take over. The sword gives Tadashi the ability to leap
and fly around to take care of the bigger creatures. If you grew up playing
video games and loved jumping around attacking creatures and dragons, you will
experience that same kind of childlike awe in the many scenes of Tadashi taking
on dangerous Yokai with his magic sword.
Japan does not really have Halloween but they do have numerous festivals. Yokai
are a big part of such festivals like the Tengu, the red faced goblin with a
long nose. What better way to celebrate in a Halloween fashion, then to have a
Yokai Festival parading down the streets? A black mysterious creature about the
size of Gamera descends on Tokyo. The creature releases a gas that causes Tokyo
to have a black out. All traffic stops and no lights are on anywhere. When the
gas evaporates, hundreds of Yokai are seen partying up and down the street.
There is one adult who works as a journalist who used to believe in Yokai but
becoming an adult has forced him to stop believing. He keeps getting bumped into
and bit by unseen forces. The man discovers a cooler of Kirin beer and drinks
one. Suddenly all the creatures dancing around him come into focus. It is
thought that adults stop believing in Yokai and that Yokai feel neglected by
humans because the creatures are discarded as a worn out old pair of shoes. Now
the Yokai want to take the world from humans so they can finally live it up.
Tadashi must band together with his good Yokai friends in order to save the
planet.
Can he succeed?
Miike does a great job with storytelling that shows he can step out of his
hardcore genre to create something that is accessible to every moviegoer. The
CGI special effects, combined with stop motion animation, bring life to Yokai in
a way that a mere drawing on a sign can never accomplish.
Perhaps, The Great Yokai War's greatest achievement is to show kids how cool it
is to go on a great journey to battle creatures on one level, and on another
level to show adults how much fun childhood really was. Halloween is a great
time for childhood and the same type of spirit and fun is found in The Great
Yokai War.
For more information on Yokai and how to survive a Yokai encounter, I highly
recommended a book by a husband and wife team living in Tokyo called "Yokai
Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide" written by Hiroko Yoda and Matt
Alt. The book features beautiful Yokai illustrations by Tatsuya Morino. In
fact, Hiroko and Matt are both dressed up as Yokai during the big parade but
they are very hard to find. Yokai Attack! is currently available through Amazon
and some Borders and Barnes and Noble location.
Have a Safe and Happy Halloween and watch out for that black shape moving across the
oceans from the East that is bringing troublemaking creatures to your door!!
Highly Recommended for Halloween Viewing.
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars.
To comment on this or any other PCR article, please visit The Message Board. "The Asian Aperture" is ©2010 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2010 by Nolan B. Canova.
