Gegege no Kitarô: Sennen noroi uta

My understanding of Japanese is minimal, and I saw this in the theater raw without subtitles, but even so it was a gigantic improvement over the first movie with Eiji Wentz. Don't let the first one deter you! This film seemed to be shouting "We got a budget!!" and they almost put it to good effect. Wentz didn't make my spine tingle nearly as much as in the first movie, and the other actors performed admirably. This cast was chock-full of comedians and flavors-of-the-day--a little cringeworthy at times, but not wholly off-putting. The expanded cast contained some really admirable stars and even some simple enough jokes that I could comprehend them. The action sequences were actually pretty satisfying--Wentz as Kitaro fighting So Ji-Sub as Yasha was one of the best-done fight scenes in the movie. As usual the writers pushed the 'romance' angle because of Wentz, but in this movie the girl took some respectable initiative. As a big fan of GeGeGe no Kitaro, this movie isn't near the animation or manga whatsoever, but it stays mostly true to the mood. Overall it was cute and quite enjoyable.

It is the sequel to the 2007 movie, Ge Ge Ge kitaro. Like the first one, this one is, at best, entertaining. With a longer runtime, 2 hours, I felt that the pace is a bit slow at the start. This is more darker and crude than the first one but although there are still kid-friendly scenes.

The story: When young women hear the cursed melody of the creepy folklore song which is done by a yokai, they disappear. A young woman, Kaede, who is the main character hear the song but is saved by Kitaro. She is involved in the adventure set out to find the five ancient musical instruments to stop the yokai from picking on young women. There is some mild twists and as usual like the first one, there is the romance between yokai and humans. I must say the last half of the movie, there is some CGI sets(They can be improved) and suspense, is more interesting than the first half which is the adventure and the weird humour part.

Overall: Ii is a little disappointing as the trailer looks cool but it still manages to entertain me with its CGI sets. The DVD is available in Singapore and in Japan with English subtitles.

Although the movie is based on a comic character by Shigeru Mizuki, that first appeared in the '60s, this version of Kitaro has a very modern feel to it.

CG is beautiful, and action sequence is better done than most Japanese movies I've seen. The original Kitaro comic was bit of horror story with comical characters, this movie is more like a fantasy. The movie is not a complete stand alone piece in my opinion, because Kitaro's comic characters appear without any introduction such as his father (who's just an eye ball with little body), Ittan Momen (A piece of long cloth that's alive and flys through air), Nurikabe, Sunakake Babaa, Neko Onna, and Nezumi Otoko. It would help understand the story better if you had prior knowledge of all their abilities, and quirks.

The movie captures the cute and ridiculous elements of Kitaro very well. It also adds the dynamic action sequence that's truly exciting. I could say that Japanese movie of this genre has truly come of age with this one.

Even if you are not familiar with the original comic, you can enjoy the movie like you can enjoy Harry Potter movies without reading Harry Potter books. Delightful comic horror from Japan that's worth watching.