THE GREAT YOKAI WAR (2005)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

I have not seen any of the earlier Japanese films on which THE GREAT YOKAI WAR is said to have been based (much less a novel that may have been an influence). I have seen other films by YOKAI's director and co-writer Takashi Miike, and since he's better known in the West for working on grim yakuza dramas, it's a little surprising to see him helming a cinematic salute to Japan's incredible array of yokai (a.k.a., "monsters," "goblins," what have you). But Miike came back and directed a sequel in 2021, so he must have found the experience reasonably congenial.

I dilate on the origins of the YOKAI story because I wonder whether one of the earlier versions was a little more organized. If I was going to grade the film purely on costume design, YOKAI would shoot up to my top fantasy-films of all time. As far as I can tell all the traditional monsters-- kappas, snow women, tengu and many more I don't know by name-- are played by human actors in extraordinarily detailed costumes, possibly with minimal CGI for things like women with stretchy-necks.

However, the main story, in theory, is about how a modern middle-school boy named Tadashi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) ends up being a hero, Kirin Rider, who unites dozens of ghoulies and ghosties to fend off a common threat. But after a few scenes establishing Tadashi's colorless home life (he's a child of divorce and bullied at school), he's pulled into the yokai world and even gets hooked up with a Japanese super-sword. The narrative drive pretty much reduces Tadashi's character arc to the minimum necessary.

Was there any way this could have been avoided? Well, Tadashi's main enemy, the demon Kato (Eysushi Toyokawa), nurses a bitter hatred toward humanity because they throw away things like old shoes. I *think,* going by the subtitled script, that the intent was to reference the Japanese belief that a sort of spiritual nature arises from the commonplace objects with which human beings interact. There might have been some way to work this belief into Tadashi's backstory, so that he had some way to relate to Kato's enmity. Instead, Tadashi remains a cipher who just follows the promptings of the helpful yokai. Similarly, Kato perversely embraces modern technology-- which would have been a major factor in eradicating traditional animistic faith-- by transforming various yokai into mechanical monsters, kikai.

There are some minor arcs of minor characters-- a yokai in love with Kato, a yokai beloved by a comedy-relief reporter-- but none of them gell particularly well. I liked the inclusion of some of the esoteric bits of Japanese lore-- though Tadashi doesn't grok ancient folklore, his grandpa sure knows beans about, well, beans in Nipponese legend-- but they do come at the non-Nipponese as out of nowhere. The fight-scenes are good but none of them stand out nearly as well as those fabulous fright-costumes.

The movie ends on a quasi-cliffhanger, which is apparently resolved in the 2021 sequel.