Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

by **Shonokin** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:45 pm

If you are a fan of Miike's Zebraman then you'll love The GREAT YOKAI WAR. I found it to have very similar pacing, using lots of fast-paced action intermixed with sudden cuts to quiet scenes of charming philosophy or subtle comedy. The effects were great and the story was pretty straight forward.

It could be that because there was this 7 foot tall dude sitting in front of me that I was distracted and couldn't catch all of the subs, but some points in the editing seemed a bit disjointed and I'm hoping that was for time limitations and that we'll see an extended edition in the DVD.

Despite the disjointedness this was a really entertaining movie and if you are a fan of youkai and especially of Shigeru Mizuki you will find it to be really great since there are many references to Mizuki and his creation Gegege no Kitaro. In fact a couple of scenes take place at the town of which is adorned in Kitaro statues and has the the Mizuki Youkai Museum/Gallery.

Also though Kitaro does not show up (though I was starting to half expect it) many of his companions had mainstage performances such as Ittan Momen (the flying cloth), Nurikabe (a section of wall with eyes, hands and legs) and Konaki-Jiji (a guy with a large blue head who in traditional youkai folklore steals oil from oil-lamps). Also all the youkai you've ever seen in the 60s Daiei films make an appearance.

Oh yeah there is a wee bit of fan-service and Kawahime=yum!

Ok, let's all go drink a couple of cans of Kirin!

by **August** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:29 pm

by **Shonokin** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:17 pm

by **gfanikf** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:02 am

by **August** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:52 am

by **Danno** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:21 pm

Do you think the production quality will carry on in the new Gamera movie because they both Gamera and Yokai are made by the same company? (If I am wrong about that correct me then)

by **August** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:40 am

by **Shonokin** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:18 pm

Youkai Daisenso R3 is now available. I got a shipping notice from today! That's about a week earlier than expected.
Can't wait to rewatch it and also see the disc full of extras.

by **Robert Saint John** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:09 pm

Just got a note that YOKAI won "Best Feature" at the 2006 SF IndieFest!

by **August** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:28 pm

It really deserved that!

by **Elliot Gay** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:32 pm

by **JimPV** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:30 pm

by **Shonokin** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:57 pm

by **Shonokin** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:42 pm

by **Shonokin** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:35 pm

Reposting this from ultramanlah, since I thought folks here might find this interesting...

You know, when I first saw the trailer for Youkai Daisenso I thought that the main antagonist, Kato Yasunori looked familiar. I thought "gee, he looks like the bad guy from Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis". Well guess what; That's the same character! I woulda never connected the dots if not for Etsushi Toyokawa, the actor who plays Kato in Youkai Daisenso hadn't talked at length about how he hoped to live up to Kyusaku Shimada's portrayal of the character in the

by **JimPV** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:50 pm

Thanks for the review, Shonokin! I'm off to order this.

by **Jim Ballard** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 1:40 am

Miike's THE GREAT YOKAI WAR will be hitting HD-DVD:

http://www.tokyomonsters.com/index.php? ... 4&Itemid=2

by **Joseph Goodman** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:05 am

by **JimPV** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:07 am

by **MouthForWar** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:38 am

by **MouthForWar** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:44 pm

by **MouthForWar** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 7:50 pm

by **Enshohma** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:47 pm

Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

First Thoughts: GREAT YOKAI WAR

First Thoughts: GREAT YOKAI WAR

My own take on the film...

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