A young boy named Tadashi lives with his grandpa in some small Japanese village. One day at the village festival, he's chosen to be the so-called 'Kirin Rider'. As the Kirin Rider Tadashi is supposed to go to the Goblin Mountain which lies close to the village, and there get the Goblin Sword to stop evil. When up in the forest to visit the goblin, Tadashi stumble across a bunch of spirits called the Yokai. Soon they run into an evil man that is Kato, who is about to start a war, and lay humanity in darkness. Now, Tadashi together with his spirit friends must stop Kato before it's to late.
Takashi Miike has at times surprised with delivering awesome movies, but has at times also disappointed with a few of his creations. The thing is, which actually is what makes Miike great, is that you NEVER know what to expect. But after seeing The Great Yokai War, I'm more than convinced that Miike is one of the worlds most important directors of all time (got the same feeling when I watched Audition though). The Great Yokai War truly amazed me, and must be one of the best things I've seen in a very long time. And when watched it, all doubts I had before about Miike completely vanished.
The Great Yokai War contains so many amazing and jaw-dropping things, I won't be able to even go through half of them. But it doesn't matter, as this is a movie that needs to be seen, and not just read about. First and most it makes for a fantastic fairy-tale with a boy entering a magical world, and has the adventure of his life. At times it is also like watching an animé movie come alive, as well as watching Transformers for real. Best thing is that The Great Yokai War works for people of all ages. If I had kids, I could've parked them infront of the tv and they would've had a great time, and at the same time, so would I.
 
This young boy, Tadashi, comes from a broken home in Tokyo and now lives in some small Japanese village. He's chosen to be the Kirin Rider when the village has some annual celebration, but is not really sure what it means. His grandfather later explains to him what is expected from the Kirin Rider, and Tadashi heads to the Goblin Mountain to retrive the goblin sword. When up there in the mountains, he stumbles upon the Yokai, which are goblins out of folktales. He soon finds out that the world is in danger since an evil man named Kato is out to destroy it. So together with the Yokai, Tadashi joins them in war to save the world.
This movie is completely packed with all kinds of weird characters, goblins and other living things, and it's really well done and everything looks great. There's a lot of CGI in the movie, but it all looks great as well. Personally, I think the less use of CGI, the better, but here it's never irritating or feels too much, even if it's used a lot. The viewer also get to see stop-motion animation, puppetry, huge monsters, all kinds of creatures, robots, Japanese folk tale type things, and hundreds of things that would make you think of different fairy-tales from around the world, even if it deals with Japan.
Even though it mostly feels and looks like a fairy-tale/fantasy movie, it also has a cartoonish feel at times. Also, a lot of stuff in the movie is pure animé, or since it's real, at least makes you think of animé. It's all a great mix though, and it makes for an amazing movie. I hadn't read a single thing about it, and like with all Miike movies, you never know what to expect, so I was really surprised and deeply impressed after just watching it for ten minutes or so. And as the movie kept rolling on, it just kept getting better and better.
Even if he has done some films that were not that great, most of them are, and this proves that Miike can tackle all kinds of genres, and succeed in doing so as well. The Great Yokai War is a movie that I will re-watch many times in the future, and if I have kids some day, I'll park them infront of it for sure. And if they won't like it, I will definitely question if they really are my kids to begin with. In the end, this is an awesome movie that needs to be seen. Highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Yôkai daisensô, Hobgoblins & the Great War, Spook Warfare
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Takashi Miike
WRITING CREDITS: Takashi Miike, Hiroshi Aramata
GENRE: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
CAST: Chiaki Kuriyama, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Kaho Minami
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 124 min
RATING: 10/10
Great Yokai War, The Website/IMDB Click here
Great Yokai War, The Trailer Click here
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