Reaction & Review | The Great Yokai War

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the final Reaction & Review of 2023. My god, guys, we're already close to the end of the year. That, to me, is almost astounding to see! And we're gonna end the year off with a movie from a director that I haven't really given a whole lot of spotlight to. I should mention first that the movie I'm gonna be covering is a Japanese fantasy film from 2005. That movie is "The Great Yokai War".

Now, for those of you who are curious, the director I am referring to is a man by the name of Takashi Miike. And I've only covered two films from him for this series. One of those movies being "Audition", which was amazing. The other one being "Zebraman", which I thought was also pretty good, albeit a little bit flawed. And I figured it was way overdue since I last covered "Zebraman" well over a year ago. So I decided to try this movie out to see what I'm getting myself into here.

Now as for what I know about the movie itself is honestly not a whole lot. I know it's directed by Takashi Miike, I know that it's a fantasy film, and it features yokai, in case the title wasn't a dead giveaway. I kinda skimmed the summary on the back of the DVD case, and it honestly kinda sounds like just a standard fantasy movie to me. Now given that this is from Miike, I am hoping that he'll still be able to do something interesting with it. I mean, this thing even got a sequel several years ago, so that must count for something.

However, I am not gonna be worrying about the sequel right now. I just want to see if this movie is gonna be able to stand on it's own merits. And the only way I'm gonna find out as to whether or not this movie will be any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Great Yokai War".

4 minutes later

O...K. I have no idea what that thing is suppose to be, guys. I'm going to assume that this is suppose to be one of the yokai...that's now dead. Though honestly, it looked more like a demonic fetus baby to me. Seriously, guys, I have no idea what the fuck that thing was suppose to be! I'm kinda hoping that there's gonna be some kind of context as to what I just witnessed. But as of right now, though...damn, that thing looked disgusting as hell.

13 minutes later

All right, I have a really stupid question that I want to ask here. So, Tadashi has been chosen to be this "Kirin Rider", who must go to the top of this really big mountain and retrieve some legendary sword from this Great Goblin that turned good after the "Kirin Rider" defeated him and swore to never do anymore evil deeds. My question here is what would happen if Tadashi decides *not* to go through with this? I ask this, because, so far, it hasn't been established yet as to whether or not there would be any consequences if Tadashi decides to not to go through with this quest. Perhaps maybe it's just a culture thing, but I don't remember hearing any sort of drawbacks as to whether or not something will happen if Tadashi decides not to go for the sword. I understand that I'm probably putting way too much thought into this, but I figured it was still worth asking for.

9 minutes later

So...the yokai that was dropped into that machine, along with a rusty motorcycle, ends up getting shot out of the machine to where it turns into a demon motorcycle Transformer hybrid...and it apparently also has the vision of the Predator, too, from what I'm seeing here. That honestly looks really cool! I mean, granted, the CG on it leaves a lot to be desired, but still, it does look really cool, I gotta say.

12 minutes later

OK, you know what? It's one thing to be weird when you have a yokai that can stretch it's neck out like Mr. Fantastic, but it's a whole different level when you have this yokai licking Tadashi's face like that. Well thankfully, that scene just ended. And given that our main character is a kid, it made that scene a whole lot creepier to witness!

16 minutes later

So, this "legendary sword" that Tadashi just used to destroy those machine monsters just got sliced in half by this woman's hair whip. Well...unless that sword can magically peace itself together, than the Master Sword this thing is not. Perhaps maybe Tadashi shouldn't have let the sword go in the first place, but maybe that's just me.

18 minutes later

OK, *that* was legitimately really funny. I find it more hilarious that these two guys aren't even *fazed* by the giant monster fortress that just crashed into a castle building. One of them just assumes "Oh, it's OK. It's just Gamera". God damn, that was just fucking funny as shit.

19 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this music that's playing right now, this festival music for the yokai, is actually really catchy. I'm really digging the score for this thing, guys, it really is *that* catchy.

The Review

OK...well, that was an...interesting ending. Anyway, guys, that was "The Great Yokai War". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where to begin with this one? Well, I am gonna come out and say that this movie is honestly pretty good. Mind you, this thing isn't gonna top "Audition" in terms of being Miike's best, and I don't know if it's as good as "Zebraman" was, but it's still good enough for me to say that it's definitely worth watching again, even if it is sort of his weakest for me. Although I would probably have to re-watch "Zebraman" again in order to form that opinion, since it has been a while when I last watched it. But still, I did really enjoy this movie for the most part.

So with that little introduction out of the way, let's get into the writing here. Now earlier, when I was reading the plot summary for this movie on the back of it's DVD case, part of me was concerned that this movie was just gonna be a standard, generic fantasy movie. Now when I say "generic", I'm talking about a basic fantasy plot where some young hero gets chosen to go save the world from some evil force that plans on or has taken over the world, and it's up to our young hero to go find some legendary MacGuffin in order to save the world and stop this evil force once and for all. And while this movie does sort of follow that trend, it actually does feel sort of fresh at the same time. Because what saves this movie the most from being generic are the yokai. And considering that they're part of the title, it would make sense that they play an important part in this movie. But part of the reason why they save this movie is because, unlike a lot of fantasy films where they have to rely on stereotypical creatures such as unicorns, elves, dwarfs, and goblins, this movie *only* features the yokai. And they all have distinctive personalities and quirks to them that make them stand out. And while there *is* technically a goblin in this movie, it's also mainly just a yokai, specifically a yokai that has one foot and is also a blacksmith. But anyway, they're what mostly saves this movie from looking like a stereotypical fantasy movie.

One thing I have to comment on is the film's runtime. This movie clocks in at almost 2 hours long. And you would think that, since this movie has this sort of runtime, that it would find a way to slow itself to a point where it would feel like it was going at a snail's pace. Well surprisingly, this movie flows at a pretty decent pace. It does start off with a little bit of a slow boil, and while there may be a couple of things here and there that don't exactly make sense, it still goes at a pretty even pace to where you are interested in seeing where this is all going to go. And I do like that, because I would rather have a movie that knows what kind of pace it wants to have rather than just either slowing itself down to where nothing is happening or if it's moving too fast to where it can't get any breathing room to try and flesh out it's characters. And speaking of which, our characters here are very fleshed out and are very likable. Our villain, admittedly, might be a little one dimensional in terms of personality, but almost everyone else here has enough weight to carry this movie on their shoulders. I mentioned earlier about a question I had in regards to why exactly Tadashi needs to go on this quest if there was no consequences set for it. Well, shortly after I asked it, the movie actually answers that question in which Tadashi, since getting to be chosen as the "Kirin Rider", has been getting teased by his friends or bullies (not totally sure which to be exact), and wants to prove that he can actually climb this big mountain in order to retrieve the legendary sword that was held by the previous "Kirin Rider", which was given to the goblin, that turned good, to keep guarded for the next eventual "Kirin Rider". So in terms of motivation, it's a good enough explanation from Tadashi. There's also the bit involving his grandfather, however, I'm not gonna spoil too much there, because he kinda ties into it as well, in a way.

There's one other thing that I want to touch upon about this film's writing. I'm going to assume that this movie was suppose to be intended as a children's film. Now I'm gonna get more into that when I eventually try to recommend this movie, but there's something else about it that I wanted to touch upon. See, this movie actually has a couple of messages that it was trying to give out. One of them is that we should never throw away things without giving it a second thought. And that is a very good lesson for kids, because some kids (and adults) have a habit of throwing away things without knowing that it might hold some sort of sentimental value for them, whether it was given to them by a parent, loved one, friend, etc. It might not sound like much, but it was something that was given out almost halfway into the movie. Now the other message that this movies gives out is rather...questionable. Now, I don't know if this was intended as a joke or not, but it was something that caught my eye. See, the other message that this movie gives out is that if you drink beer from Japan, you will eventually end up seeing yokai, or hallucinations of them, as an adult. And no, I'm not kidding about that, either. Now I say that, because at one point during the third act of the film, there's this reporter who ends up drinking up beer, and he eventually starts seeing yokai after some of them throw powder in his face. I guess that was an attempt from them to see if he was OK or not. I don't know, and it kinda makes sense, somewhat, but I just feel the beer message is sort of a bad one to give out to kids, considering kids shouldn't be drinking alcohol anyways. Granted, I don't know what the age limit is over in Japan for someone to drink beer, but I'm going to assume it's about the same age as us over in the U.S. So to have that kind of message slip into a supposed children's film seems a little messed up to me. But again, I've never been to Japan, so I wouldn't know from personal experience.

Now aside from all that, the writing here is still really good for a majority of the rest of the movie. The ending is a little bit of a strange one, especially the final act of the movie, in which, again, I won't try to spoil, but I will say that it kinda threw me for a loop. Not to say that it was a total mindfuck, but it definitely was an *interesting* ending, so to speak. Perhaps maybe on my second or third viewing of this thing, it will start to make more sense. But on the first viewing, it was definitely strange, at least for me anyway. So with that all said, let's get into the acting. Now I ended up watching the English dub for this movie, and I will say that the dub here is mostly pretty good, though it's not great. The one actor who phones it in the most is whoever they got to voice Tadashi's school teacher. Mind you, she only has, like, one or two lines of dialogue, but it just sounds like the actress sounded bored when she was giving out her lines. I don't know if that was suppose to be intentional because of the way she gave it out, or if it was the fact that she only had two lines of dialogue and just phoned in the most wooden showing she gave out in order to get a quick paycheck? Regardless of whatever the reason, she really sucked. But as for everyone else, they mostly did a very good job with their given roles. And as for the child actor playing Tadashi, just judging from his body language, seemed like he was putting on a competent performance with his role as the main character. Which, in most cases, I would've dreaded, given the nature of a lot of child actors. But this one did good enough, and I'm happy to see that he actually tried here. So overall, the acting here for this dub is pretty good. That being said, though, if you're not a fan of English dubs, there is an option on this DVD in which you can watch this thing with it's regular Japanese audio and English subtitles. So we have that to please both audiences here.

Special effects in this movie are mostly really awesome. I'll specify what I mean by "mostly" in a moment, but I am gonna start by saying that when it comes to the makeup effects and costuming, all of that looks fantastic. Everybody that is a yokai looks wildly unique, and very different as well. I honestly thought they were somehow gonna phone some of this in by having certain people dressing as similar yokai without looking too different from each other. But all of the people I saw dressed as yokai were all different, and I'm happy to see that the costumers and makeup artists took the time to make all of these actors stand out in a different way as yokai. So I gotta give special marks there in that regard. Now...I did say a moment ago that the special effects mostly looked amazing. What doesn't look all that amazing is the CG. And most of that is gonna attribute to the machine monsters that our heroes battle against. This CG here on them looks *terrible*. In fact, the CG on these machine monsters is very similar to what I watched in both of the live action "Mortal Kombat" movies from the mid-to-late 90's. Except, back then, studios were still experimenting with CG, so I wasn't expecting a gold mine when it came to the CG in both of those live-action "Mortal Kombat" movies. This thing, however, was released a decade after the first "Mortal Kombat" movie. And this thing has CG that nearly matches to what I watched back then, and it's gonna almost pull you out of the movie entirely upon seeing how jarringly awful the CG looks in this movie. That being said, however, I *was* still able to overlook it as the film went on. But upon your first viewing, it's gonna definitely pull you out of the movie, unless if you've seen this kind of CG before, and it doesn't bother you as much. Like I said, it was something that I got use to later on, so you just kinda have to go into it knowing what to expect when it comes to the CG in this movie.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mix here is mixed mostly well. Our score here is definitely really good, the best of which being the yokai festival music that happens during the third act of the movie. Most of it consists of just drums, but it's still really catchy, and will definitely have you getting into this beat. Most of the rest of the score ranges from being somewhat quiet and atmospheric to having a few guitar riffs here and there. It's not as memorable as the drums, but it's still good, regardless.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "The Great Yokai War"? If you're looking for something that's kinda different in terms of fantasy movies, then this movie will most certainly be that kind of choice for you. Mind you, it still mostly follows the same standard tropes you would see fantasy movies, but it's still able to be it's own unique film by it's own standards. If you are a fan of Miike's work and you haven't had a chance to see this film yet, then I would definitely say yes. Granted, it's not a great film, but then again, I've only seen a handful of Miike's movies, so it's kinda hard for me to say on what's his better and weaker films until I've seen more of them. And while I will admit that this movie is his weakest so far, it is by no means a bad movie. It's just not one of his strongest films to me.

One more thing I should probably answer is whether or not I can recommend this movie to children? Being that this feels like a children's movie, could I recommend it to a younger audience? Honestly...maybe if they're, like, over 10 years old. I'm going with that age range, because I'm not totally sure if kids would be able to get past the somewhat disturbing yokai designs, or that the film slipped in a message, whether as a joke or not, by saying that if you drink beer in Japan, you'll apparently get to see yokai as an adult. Which again, isn't necessarily a good message for kids, since kids can't consume alcohol at an early age. At least, not in the U.S. anyway. So, if they're older than 10 years old, I would probably say yes, but I would still use a little bit of caution in that regard. But anyway, yes, I can still recommend "The Great Yokai War" as a whole, even with those couple of issues aside. And as for it's sequel, I'm gonna have to think about covering it because I'm not sure if there is even a copy of that movie here in the U.S., or if there's even a dub for it. Hopefully there is, but I'll just have to wait and see until I find it. Now...I'm gonna go and watch another one of Miike's movies. And seeing as how I mentioned "Zebraman" a few times in this review, I'm gonna go and watch "Zebraman" right now because I haven't seen it since I last covered it for this series.

And with that, guys, we finally come to the close of 2023 here on Reaction & Review. It certainly has been a year for me, personally, what with this series still going on and with things going on in my own time. But hopefully, 2024 will bring in another interesting year for this series. And until then, guys, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.