Kamisama no iu tôri

I watched this film without reading the manga prior. I've watched some of Miike's ultraviolent movies before this but going in forward, i've not set any expections for this movie.

I'd like to mention the positive things first. I love Miike's violent movies. I think he's the best director for this genre, and there are a lot of em expecially in the first half of the movie. However, the black comedy moments seemed to shine the most in this film. I remembered laughing out loud in a few scenes in this movie and that's an impressive feat.

That's all the about the good stuff, unfortunately. The film was marred by a lot of terrible aspects. One of them was the antagonist. I believe it's a bad casting overall. The antagonist was portrayed as edgy and the actor seemed to hate this role. It was obvious he tried too hard and it ended up being cringe thorughout the film.

The absolute worst of this film is definitely the ending. It lead to more questions and plot holes, leaving all the viewers begging for answers. Let's just say it's the slimiest, hairiest balls that was shoved on your face. You'll get me when you get there.

Based on manga with the same title, Kamisama no iu tôri (As the Gods Will) is a story of average high school students forced to play a series of deadly games. Takeshi Miike who has proved capable with such theme is the perfect pick to create a fascinating, occasionally humorous and gory live action of the manga. He has a distinct stylish visual, timely touch of horror and a proper respect to the original source.

For such grimly movie, the cinematography is very sleek and cool. Viewpoints from above and panoramic shots are used often to set the ambiance. Visual offers bloody gore with mildly tone down violence. For the part of full blood pool of the manga, this movie counterpart uses a more comical effect yet without neglecting the intensity of the scene. In fact Miike, as expected, produces a couple of nasty gruesome sequences of his own.

Humor and philosophical elements are steadily present. The first half sees more comedy for ironic purpose, as the story progresses and the death dealing intensifies the tone tends to be more serious. The movie has taken the liberty of creating more appropriate screenplay for later games. This is due to the fact that it might become overly complex for a feature length movie to display later arcs, and frankly it's not a cause for concern as the new screenplay is still presentable and keeps all the thrilling attributes of the manga.

Miike has a knack for the unassuming shift of tone, as seen from Crows Zero and 13 Assassins. Sometimes the movie would transition from quiet scene to a rather explicit one. It doesn't venture into dark territory too much, but it does warrant a mature rating. If there's any concern, it's that the nature of the games is highly inspired by Japanese culture, this might create a rather awkward narrative at some points though it's only a minor hindrance.

Equally quirky and disturbing, the myriad of bizarrely captivating games of death is brought to live by Takeshi Miike.

The synopsis to this toy store killing machine immediately brings an earlier Japanese film to mind, the ruthless and fumingly shocking 'Battle Royale, 2000' from auteur Kinji Fukasaku (Tora! Tora! Tora!, 1970). However Miike's film-cunning and dice rolls are perhaps simply far more simple than the keen viewer would like to imagine. Simple thus unworried, assured, extremely dark-humored, filled with rapid-fire philosophy and at least six blood banks blown to pieces.

Take the sound editing for instance. We know what has happened despite the event not being shown and instead replaced by an elementary sound or a children's song. 'As the Gods Will' is a director's nightmare, a feat only someTHING like Miike can execute.

Splattered with a plethora of psyched out colours and one of the few films where the CGI works like the crown wheel of the Oyster Perpetual, Miike's direction feels more confident as his obsession with Manga and Nao Ômori (Ichi the Killer, 2001) grows into a playful bear, the size of two Transformers, when they're not vehicles.

This film is filled with surreal images and evidently decapitated mannequins with floored extras mixed in with the lot. It is 'Maze Runner' meets 'The Running Man' inside Miike's Daedalian head. Perhaps that is an overstatement, probably I'm still thinking; 'but seriously, what's the deal here?'. However it may be, Miike has paid homage to ancient Japanese films of gore... I mean yore. Well not really, this seems more like the stop motion films from the Golden Age of Japanese cinema and director Ishiro Honda - but 'As the Gods Will' is sort of an antithesis to those films in terms of its antagonist's characterization and build up.

The director's films are far from subtle, including this baby cannibal elephant; however this time there is a certain calm undercurrent to the approach and style of the hypermanic Takashi Miike.

A strangely entertaining film that must be watched to further strengthen faith in the art of cinema.

Absolutely unbelievable.

At core, Takashi Miike's As The Gods Will may seem like another Battle Royale rip-off as we've seen oh so many times before but I don't exactly believe that to be the case.

The cinematography on one hand was gripping, the color scheme meshed so amazingly. This was a rather pretty movie to look at all things considered.

The acting was a bit weak from some of the minor characters but the actors for the main characters was great.

Now as for the movie itself, it was fun which really is all I demand of a movie. To be entertaining. I don't even think the premise was bad.

The concept of the gods playing games with humans in order to test their skills is something that has been around since ancient Greece, but this did it exceptionally well as it never felt too forced. If it had gone to great lengths trying to explain everything it would've ruined the feel of the movie.

It's a ride from the start to the ending, never once did I feel bored during it and there were several moments where it was actually suspenseful.

I know some film snobs might overlook this movie as not being good enough due to it being a bit silly, but I think they are missing out on a brilliant experience.

I recommend this movie if you just want to sit back and enjoy a suspenseful ride with charm, creepiness and gore.

I wish I could say that this movie is worth watching but I really don't think it is except for the die hard asian cinema fan. For someone who likes anime, this might be up their alley but for the run of the mill movie goer, I really don't think it would be that enjoyable except for the first twenty minutes or so. The novelty wears off and none of the characters are much deeper than a Dragon Ball Z character. If you didn't get that reference, skip this one.