One of director Miike Takashi’s very best. It’s so good it’s difficult to put into words. At fifteen years older than the target audience it thrilled me from beginning to end.
It recalls similar children’s films from the 1980s in the sense that (unlike today) those films weren’t afraid to scare – there’s a lot of nasty detail here that I initially found jarring but soon realised it’s nothing different to what I grew up on. The film is a compilation of ’80s kid’s films conventions. You name it, it’s there: a young boy hero thrust from his own unhappy/dysfunctional world into another, inhabited by mythical and mystical goblins; a quest to save both worlds from an evil force; a beautiful heroine he has a crush on; a sadistic henchwoman (Go-Go Yubari from Kill Bill Vol. 1); and a lead villain who draws his evil power from something everyone in the world can relate to. But all these genre conventions are given a fresh spin and added depth.
One of the IMDb reviews begins “Where was this film when I was a kid?” and it’s a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. Even while watching it I lamented the fact that I hadn’t grown up on it; that it wasn’t a part of my childhood like Labyrinth, Masters Of The Universe and, to a much lesser extent, The Neverending Story. Those films, and others like The Goonies are recalled but never copied – Miike as per usual relentlessly offers us a new take on things, defying our expectations at every turn and making the familiar feel fresh.
Poor CGI is a staple of many of his films, sometimes due to budgetary limitations but just as frequently an artistic choice – a desire to present things in an outlandish way. Here the CGI is mostly average, solely due to budgetary limitations, but nevertheless he does a fantastic job of putting on a spectacle. The CG effects combine with traditional puppets, animatronics and truly extraordinary make-up to create a world filled with rich characters (and characterisation) that frequently borders on the visionary.
This must surely rank as one of the greatest children’s films ever made. Not for younger or more sensitive kids though.
It’s just jaw-droppingly wonderful. See it for yourselves and if you think your kids can handle and/or appreciate it then show it to them. Let them grow up on The Great Yokai War as some small compensation for the fact you couldn’t.
Director: Takashi Miike
Stars: Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Chiaki Kuriyama
Runtime: 124 min
Country: Japan
Film Rating: 
