Tôkaidô obake dôchû

Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (1969) is a Japanese Samurai Horror picture that I recently watched on Shudder. The storyline follows an old man who protects ancient lands filled with spirits. When a group of hoodlums kill the old man the spirits return to reality for revenge.

This movie is codirected by Yoshiyuki Kuroda (Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell) and Kimiyoshi Yasuda (Zatoichi and the One Armed Swordsman) and stars Kôjirô Hongô (Satan's Swords), Bokuzen Hidari (Seven Samurai), Saburô Date (Bullet Train) and Ryûtarô Gomi (Harakiri).

This movie is outstanding and easily the best of the trilogy. The attire, settings, props and depiction of the era were all perfect. The haunting scenes are very well done with good use of smoke machines and eerie background music. The masks and makeup used are very well done. The fight scene are excellent and entertaining - both the monsters vs humans and the samurai sword fights. The faceless children were a nice touch and I loved the twist at the end.

Overall, this is an underrated addition to the horror genre and a trilogy absolutely worth your time. I would score this picture an 8.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

If I had to rank this odd little Yokai Monsters trilogy, I'd say the second instalment, Spook Warfare, was the best, followed by this one, followed by the still decent 100 Monsters.

This third one makes me wonder if it's even a trilogy, because the monsters here are definitely different than the ones from the first two, but oh well. While they're cool, they're also not in it a lot- maybe even less than the first one.

Thankfully, the rest of the movie - all the non-supernatural stuff - is pretty decent. Nothing great, but a moderately interesting storyline that feels like a historical/samurai drama with a few brief ghost appearances as icing.

It's pretty serviceable, mostly enjoyable stuff, but it's definitely not great. That being said, and to avoid being too negative, it is more than worth watching if you enjoyed the first two in any capacity.

Like said, it's an ok movie. It's decent and more of story rather then fights. It have a mixture of adventure and humor in it which i didn't mind at all. For being a supernatural/paranormal movie with japanese ghosts and demons it was not that much of it but it had its moments. But the story was ok, it had its twist and it build the characters.

I did enjoy the characters, how they acted and how it ended. The fights was ok, it's not a lot of them but i dont mind that at all when looking at the environments and building feeling of the country of Japan during the samuari ages.

If you want something with a lot of atmosphere, not too much fighting and some ghosts/demons this the movie for you. It's no the best one out there, but it's ok - enjoyable.

The first yokai movie, 100 Monsters, didn't have enough monsters for my liking, and the second film, The Great Yokai War, featured a pair of irritating kids and was aimed at a much younger audience. The final film, Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts, doesn't feature many monsters AND it features a cute little kid, but I actually found it to be the best in the trilogy, with a much stronger story, better fight scenes and a creepier atmosphere.

When members of the Higuruma crime syndicate ambush men carrying an incriminating document, they also kill Jinbei (Bokuzen Hidari), the elderly guardian of the Onizuka shrine, ignoring his warning that they will be cursed for spilling blood on sacred ground. Witness to the murders is seven year old Miyo (Masami Furukido), granddaughter of Jinbei, who runs into the woods with the document, pursued by the killers. With his dying breath, Jinbei tells Miyo to go to Yui to find her father. Meanwhile, ronin Hyakutaro (Kôjirô Hongô) is out to avenge his master's murder by the Higuruma thugs.

Most of the film revolves around Miyo trying to avoid capture, her search for her father, and Hyakutaro's vendetta, with very little time dedicated to silly spook shenanigans, and to be honest, the film is all the better for it: there's no puerile comedy and the monsters, when they do appear, are far more menacing than before. I still wouldn't go so far as to say that this is an unmissable classic of Japanese cinema, but it is a far more satisfying film than the others in the trilogy, delivering excitement, danger, pathos and a cute child character that isn't annoying.

The closing instalment of the YOKAI MONSTERS trilogy is a very different beast, much more understated and subtle than the previous movies and more horror than fantasy. The monsters themselves are little seen here apart from in a couple of scare scenes but the rest is an engaging little story of criminal behaviour, treachery, and heroism. Appealing child actors, lots of action and movement and attention to detail make this a fair watch.