Yôkai daisensô

As a fan of world mythology and Japanese monsters/legends, this film was right up my alley. The monsters look exactly like they do in the old woodblock prints and watercolor paintings that depict them, and kids will totally dig this (if they have the patience for subtitles).

Strangely, the monsters that I'm familiar with from the old stories seem to be pretty friendly in this film. For example, the water demon-a kappa as he's known in Japan-is rather nice, but his type of demon are known for preying on people and horses. They love to eat fresh livers, which they obtain by reaching up the victim's anus and ripping out the tasty organ. Now THAT would have been interesting to see done

The Great Yokai War (1968) is the second film in the Japanese Yokai trilogy that I recently watched on Shudder. The storyline follows a Babylonian demon vampire that arrives on sacred lands of various ghouls and ghosts. As he targets humans for food and looks the rule the lands the only hope to stop him may be the local ghouls and ghosts.

This movie is directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda (Mirror Man) and stars Yoshihiko Aoyama (Zatoichi in Desperation), Takashi Kanda (Kamen Rider), Ikuko Môri (The Tale of Zatoichi) and Tokio Oki (Shogun Assassin).

This is such a fun movie. The costumes, masks and makeup to create the monsters are very well done, especially for the era. The one that looked like a duck was my absolute favorite. The arrival of the Babylonian demon vampire with the fire staff was very dramatic. His first fight with the duck was hilarious and well done. Every fight sequence with the monsters is entertaining. I always laugh at the way they do the long necks in these pictures. The ending battle is a perfect monster fight conclusion.

Overall, this is a must see for monster movie fans from this era. I even liked this better than the first picture. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

Just like the previous movie, I found the movie to be pretty fun to watch. The story is interesting with a vampire who takes over a village while the yokai try to figure out how to stop him. I do like the lighthearted comedy the movie presented here, and there are a couple of funny moments to be found in it. It's interesting to learn about the monster Daimon on what his goal is and the ability he uses throughout. We see more of the yokais, and I like how they added in a couple more new variety. While some of them have few scenes, I do like how some of them have more scenes compared to the previous movie. Unfortunately, the stuff with the humans is rather boring and uninteresting to see. But I do like the fight scenes between the yoakis and Daimon, which is entertaining to watch and see them use their abilities against him. Just like the previous movie, the special effects are still pretty good. I do like the different types of costumes and puppets they use throughout the movie and are made pretty well for the time. I like the design of Daimon, who looks pretty cool looking and has details on him. The Kappa looks pretty good, too, but his eyes could have been better. There's also some crazy effects during the climax of the movie, which looks impressive.

Spook Warfare is a fun Japanese horror movie that I enjoyed more than the first movie.

In this sequel of sorts to 1968's 'Yokai: 100 Monsters' ('Yôkai hyaku monogatari'), scavengers digging in Babylonia disturb that which should not be disturbed and release Daimon (Chikara Hashimoto), a murderous, shape-changing, blood-sucking demon. The fiend flies to feudal Japan, where it kills, then takes the form of, local lord Hyogo Isobe (Takashi Kanda), and begins to spread terror. Affronted, the local yôkai ('spirits', referred to 'apparitions' in the English subtitles) challenge the malignant creature and a phantasmagorical war begins. Despite a few gory moments, the film is a children's fantasy with monsters that are more funny than scary. Many of the yôkai are drawn from Japanese folklore (including among others: a Kappa (water sprite), a Futakuchi-onna (two-faced woman), a Rokurokubi (a woman with a long, snake like neck) and a Kasa-obake (an animate umbrella creature (in this case, with a tongue like Gene Simmons!)). The monster costumes (and the Kasa-obake puppet) are a bit silly looking but surprisingly endearing and the story of yôkai's battle with the iniquitous Daimon is fun and engaging. The human characters, including Isobe's pretty daughter Lady Chie (Akane Kawasaki) and samurai Shinpachiro (Yoshihiko Aoyama), are secondary to the 'apparitions' but are well played (considering the genre and the material). The final scene, where the army of 'apparitions' dance off into the clouds is oddly affecting. For a children's film, there was some strong language (e.g. 'pissed') in the English-subtitled version I watched. As well, there were a number of translation errors ('kit's' for 'kids' occurred a number of times). After years of movies about elves, trolls, gnomes etc., I found watching a fantasy that embodied mythological beings from a non-Western-European culture both entertaining and fascinating and am looking forward to watching the third film in the trilogy: 'Yokai Monsters: Along With Ghosts' (1969). As of this writing, all three films are available on You-tube.

The Yokai characters are the main inspirational source for Pokémon. This is an early film from 1968 based on Yokai and also an ongoing period of Japanese ghost character cinema which has been pivotal in SEA cinema for a very long time!

I am a fan of Yoshiyuki Kuroda's style and direction. The screenplay is solid and it encorporates the old be nice and play nice and don't be evil!

The Yokai are good-spirited folk who combat the evil spirit. There is plenty of laughter and playful humour.

It's using great techniques for special effects for 1968 however it now looks very dated with modern CGI.

It's remarkable that the technicalities were so high for 1968 and in the 1960's there was a big transition period for colour TV so it's nice to see this on an upscale release from Arrow Video!

I really enjoyed watching this movie and whilst it is not yet for kids it is very much for the young adults and older generations. It's inspirational and for me it is very-much a cult-classic and really underrated. It's a strong 8/10 from me.