Takashi Miike
Siren Visual
Web: http://www.sirenvisual.com.au/
R4 DVD
Takashi
Miike is a well known, if not controversial filmmaker, just some of his better
known films have been gangster titles, Ichi the Killer, Audition and Izo. His
style is normally marked by ultra violence and transgressive and perverse
twists. Even when working on a surrealist film (such as Gozu), he packs it with
gore, sex and themes which while amusing certainly astound and shock. He is not
the obvious choice for a children’s fantasy film director !
In
the Great Yokai war he has made a very unusual fantasy film. While it is
marketed as “family friendly” film, it still scores an M rating in Australia
and still has its share of violence and strange and quirky innuendoes and
perverse characters. These are generally subtle, but nevertheless present, it
seems that a leopard cannot change its spots and Takashi Miike still makes a
family friendly fantasy film a very strange experience.
In
my mind The Great Yokai War is a kids film made for adults, while its central
character is a child and the story has a certain “coming of age” resonance, in
many ways it looks like a film made from an adults reminiscence of childhood
rather than from a child’s perspective. This observation is made more relevant
when we remember that the Yokai films were very popular during the Sixties and
this is a remake of a film with the same name from 1968 and hence is made to resonate
with baby boomers who were kids during that period. There are clearly many
adult themes textured into the narrative of the film, ranging from anti war to
ecological messages, and certainly a lot of the imagery is not necessarily kid
friendly. The strange special effects and violence are certainly tame compared
to Miike’s other films but still would have most younger kids running from the
room screaming. Sure there are ideas in common with Dark Crystal, Never Ending
Story and Labyrinth, but even with some of ideas in these films, none come
close to the weirdness in this one. In one scene sure to make the kiddies
thrilled, Sunekosuri (the fluffy toy interest) is dragged off inside a turned
on microwave oven !!!
Tadashi
(Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a young Japanese boy who seems lost, his parents are
divorced and he lives with his mother and rather senile grandfather- he
regularly has hassles with the local kids because he was brought up in the
city. During a local festival he finds himself appointed as the Kirin Rider, an
honorary title bestowed upon a local citizen to protect the town from the
forces of evil. Of course, this only makes things worse; he is now even more a
figure of ridicule and bullying.
The local story of the Kirin Rider is
based on a legend that on the local mountain there was a battle between the
Goblin king and an evil spirit and that hidden in a cave is a sword which can
only be wielded by the Kirin Rider. When Tadashi travels to the Goblin’s cave
on the mountain he finds an injured small furry creature named Sunekosuri. He
soon realizes Sunekosuri is a Yokai (hobgoblin) and that there are good and bad
ones and these seem to range from spirits to sprites, dwarves to elves.
The
story then gets interesting with the evil Lord Kato (Etsushi Toyokawa) using
the accumulated wrath of things humanity has thrown away (known as yomotsumono)
to convert these spirits into mechanical killing machines. (There’s an
ecological theme if I have ever seen one !) These machines are quite impressive
creations, being a mixture of Terminator, cyberpunk and horror motifs.
Everything
then goes into overdrive as Lord Kato invades Tokyo and the Yokai’s declare
war, the battle scenes are totally over the top and it is non-stop action from
there on...
In
terms of its market, the Great Yokai War was a fairly major film, it had a
estimated budget of over $10 million and was a great success in its projected
market. In the West it wasn’t as well received as I don’t think we really
appreciate the unique cultural vision that is behind The Great Yokai War. It
would also be fair to say that due to the relatively limited budget (compared
to Hollywood anyway), the amount of animation, CGI etc needed to create so many
creatures created a situation where some of them look very B grade indeed.
While increased the weirdness, even campiness, of parts of the film it made it
difficult to market in the West – is it a kids film, a fantasy or a strange
comedy ?
To
be honest, I found this film a real romp. It is a wild, silly child’s fantasy
film made for adults, packed with strange creatures, bizarre themes, lots of
action, a quirky sense of humour and an incredibly weird ending which centres
around the sacredness of Azuki-beans !
The
Siren Visual edition is very high quality release and highly recommended.