After thoroughly enjoying director Takashi Miike's Japanese production of The Bird People in China (review), I thought I should try another one of Miike's supposed departures from his violent yakuza and horror movie past.

This intentionally goofy film at first seems designed for children, but it inexplicably and unnecessarily scatters explicitly violent scenes throughout. Unfortunately, The Great Yokai War seems more connected to Miike's "embarrassing to the human species" horror films than it does to his wonderfully poetic The Bird People in China.

The story in The Great Yokai War begins with a boy being chosen as the honorary Kirin Rider at an annual small town Japanese festival. The title of Kirin Rider comes along with some unexpected responsibilities.

The initially reluctant boy eventually accepts his role in saving mankind and the Yokai spirits from a demented bad guy. The bad guy apparently has some ecological motivation to destroy the earth as punishment for people destroying the earth, or something indecipherably nonsensical like that.

I cannot be sure how completely accurate the Yokai spirit references are in The Great Yokai War, but before you are too deep into the story it becomes obvious that this is a movie that will have more of a connection to a native Japanese audience. Japanese viewers are likely to have grown up with awareness of Yokai spirits, and have more knowledge of the Yokai spirit mythology than most gaijin.

By the end of the film you begin to realize that the endless variety of strange and bizarre creatures must all be connected in some way to real mythological characters in Japanese culture. Truth is often stranger than fiction and the umbrella and rock wall spirits, not to mention the spirit of broken pottery and many others are simply too odd to have been invented for this film.

Having knowledge of the history of some of these characters or simply already having some basic awareness of their existence in Japanese culture might make this film more intriguing. That might also help defuse the unappealing Power Ranger vibe that comes along with watching The Great Yokai War.

I just went through the creatures showcased in the special features on the DVD. There are apparently tons of spirits within Yokai mythology. At first I was disappointed when digging through the special features list of creatures. I thought there might be some button procedure to access more information on all the individual creatures, but it turns out that only a small percentage are explained in detail. Upon deeper review, you are likely to be relieved that only a small percentage have detailed explanations. There are so many spirit creatures to browse through that you could be stuck in front of the television all day if detailed background stories had been provided for all the Yokai illustrated.

I am very curious as to whether or not this film was profitable in Japan. It has a low budget epic feel and was not a simple movie to produce. The graphics and special effects are quite cheesy at times when compared to the 200 million dollar films coming out of California with enormous support from Industrial Light and Magic and other CG design firms. However, there is also some fascinating design work mixed in with the silly stuff in The Great Yokai War.

In so many ways this movie seems designed to appeal to children, yet the age bracket that would be accepting of the silliness of the plot and who would most enjoy the cartoonish Yokai characters, are also far too young for this film's violence and intensity level.

Maybe some pre-teens will be ready for this film and still be in a youthful stage where they will appreciate the childish content. I think many of the childish elements here are likely to be too silly for even young teenagers. Finding an age bracket suitable for this movie seems highly problematic.

I presume the main audience in Japan was Japanese adults who could enjoy the historical references to Japanese mythological creatures, and who might also enjoy some of the design and comic book elements. Quite a few unsupervised children probably found their way into this movie and some were probably even dropped off at the theater by parents who did not realize the level of violence contained in the film, or who did not view the violence as an issue to be concerned about.

For Westerners this film offers some surprising visuals and interesting designs, though the story is unacceptably weak from an adult perspective. Without growing up in Japan, the novelty of these characters being brought to life will not be so great. If you are amused by quirky design and want to see something really odd that could only come from Japan, by all means check out The Great Yokai War. If you want to see a film that will stay in your memory for years to come and that you are likely to recommend to your friends and family, then I suggest viewing Miike's other somewhat quirky, yet significantly more satisfying, The Bird People in China.

I just realized that I haven't really covered the plot in much detail in this review, and I have also realized that there is no reason to. The story is not very clever or significant. If you decide to watch this film, it should be mainly to see something goofy and unusual that is distinctly Japanese. The story is really pointless.

Savage Japan Misc. Tidbits
The sexual undertones with the river princess Kawahime seemed a little odd or out of place. There are scenes with the boys noticing the leg of this river nymph, and the director seems determined to focus for a few seconds too long on the interaction with Kawahime's thigh.

Maybe the reaction shown in the film is just because the boys are surprised by Kawahime's silky smooth, slippery skin, but it was strangely interesting, the close-ups on her silky thigh that is. I am laughing as I type this, but I do think the director meant for the shots to have a strong sexual effect. Whatever Takashi Miike's intentions, this is another example of the odd mishmash of content in The Great Yokai War.

Violence mixed in with muppet-like creatures and sexual confusion. This is indeed a strange movie.

A humorous cultural reference that non-Japanese might also be able to pick up on is found in a scene with a couple of homeless guys. They are stirred by a giant town-sized creature flying overhead. One of the men is less disturbed and comments casually that it is only Gamera. Gamera comes from a Japanese monster movie series started in 1965 by the Daiei Motion Picture Company to compete with Toho Studios' successful Godzilla franchise. The giant flying creature shown in The Great Yokai War is actually some sort of host and transport mechanism for the bad guys.

For Japanese Language Students
Despite my less than enthusiastic review of the film's content, The Great Yokai War is a pretty good film for Japanese listening comprehension practice. One possible negative issue could be if the Yokai spirit characters are using older dialects or methods of speaking that might be a little out of place in modern Japan. My Japanese level is not high enough to discern that.

However, even if that is a problem, the film can still be good for listening practice. All of the scenes take place in modern Japan, and many of the lead characters are having modern day Japanese conversations in this extremely odd, but occasionally interesting action adventure film.