Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

ebiros2 The original concept of this story is based on 1968 movie that was created by comic artist Shigeru Mizuki who single handedly started the genre of Yokai (Japanese folk lore monsters) based stories. In this version, along with Mizuki, writers Miyuki Miyabe, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, and Hiroshi Aramata contributed their creative talent to the story.Tadashi Ino (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a wimp of a kid, but on the night of the town festival, he gets chosen to be the Kirin Rider. Kirin Rider has obligation to get the sword of Great Goblin from the mountain, and Tadashi embarks on a journey to the mountain where the Great Goblin resides. In the mountain Tadashi is met by Yokai monsters who were waiting for him. Covertly they chose him as Kirin Rider to battle the dark army of Yasunori Kato who is an embodiment of the grudge of ancient Japanese people. Together with Yokai, Tadashi faces the deadly army of Kato.The movie was a big budget movie ( approx. 14M USD ) for a Japanese movie, and uses effective balance between CG and live performers that helps to maintain the realistic looks throughout the story. Ryunosuke Kamiki puts in a great performance as the main character despite his age (of 10). The cast reads like who's who of popular Japanese actors, and writers Mizuki, Kyogoku, Aramata, and Miyabe all makes cameo appearance in this movie.This is probably the best movie Takashi Miike has directed, helped by solid script written by the aforementioned team of writers.This is one of the best fantasy movie to come out of Asia, and is entertaining to both children and adults.

Film Chaser Takashi Miike is one of my favorite directors and I was worried about him doing a kids film, because I would hate to see him depart from his films I came to love: Visitor Q, Gozu, Izo, Ichi the killer and Black Socioty Trilogy. Lately he seems to be exploring new territory and I think he's succeeding. Still this was the first of his films I'd seen him take that direction, so I was nervous. Of coarse I bought it without seeing it and was glad I did.Great Yokai War is a perfect kids film and adults should like it too. The whole film reminded me so much of the movies I loved as a child: Neverending story, Labyrinth, Return to Oz, etc. I enjoyed those films because they didn't treat kids like they're stupid and this one doesn't either. The dark underlying morals are there, but, it's also as silly as any kids film should be. I personally wasn't bothered by the CGI and prosthetics. I feel like they fit well and don't think kids will notice.If you are a die hard Takashi Miike fan, you may not like this one. But, I suggest giving it a shot. It proves that Miike is as diverse and talented as I suspected he is. He also continues to make his signature Miike films outside of these ones, which is very reassuring.To those people that are new to Takashi Miike and want something light hearted or dramatic like this one, I suggest these other Miike films: 'Zebraman' 'The Happiness of the Katakuris' 'Sabu' and 'The Bird People in China.' Good job Takashi Miike! 8/10 stars.

screaminmimi The only reason I'm giving this a 9 is that the other kid actors who played Tadashi's tormentors were not up to the job. I presume they were just kids who happened to be the right age and handy, but they were not well coached, and their scenes were a minor annoyance. I say not to judge this by U.S. standards because it's full of ambiguities and the kinds of equivocations that Japanese culture readily embraces, and is not beholden to the black-hat/ white-hat moral constraints U.S. kids' films are routinely subjected to. For example, there is a preciously funny moment when Tadashi's small band of yokai companions finds themselves let down and abandoned by the other yokai, and Shojo--the avuncular Kirin herald--does what many a stressed-out Japanese adult would do. Hint: this would not happen in a Disney film. This picture also has the best product placement for beer you will ever see in a kids' movie. Early on, there's a moment where a school teacher smacks a couple of bullies on the head with her attendance book. There was a TV commercial in Japan a couple years before this movie came out. It was a stop-motion clay animation about a kid who's depressed and playing guitar and singing the blues in his room. His mother yells at him from downstairs to shut up. Then, someone gives him a candy bar and he cheers up and sings a happy tune, but his mother comes in and tells him to shut up again and gives him a dope slap that leaves a dent in his forehead. I mention this commercial, because it was considered funny, and I didn't hear any objections to it while I was there. There is a lot more bloodshed and physical cruelty on screen in "The Great Yokai War" than one would find in a Disney movie. As a parent, if this were a U.S. film, I would be up in arms about such things, although not necessarily the moral lessons drawn at the end of the picture, which, of course, are also not black and white. Since it's a Japanese movie, I accept that those cultural norms allow for imagery that would not get past the standards and practices cops in a U.S. production. However, I'd probably be a little uneasy taking young kids to see it without giving them some sort of pre-show briefing and/or post-show debriefing about the violence and other off- color stuff, or I'd wait till they're older to show it to them.

diseriq Wow! So much fun! Probably a bit much for normal American kids, and really it's a stretch to call this a kid's film, this movie reminded me a quite a bit of Time Bandits - very Terry Gilliam all the way through. While the overall narrative is pretty much straight forward, Miike still throws in A LOT of surreal and Bunuel-esquire moments. The whole first act violently juxtaposes from scene to scene the normal family life of the main kid/hero, with the spirit world and the evil than is ensuing therein. And while the ending does have a bit of an ambiguous aspect that are common of Miike's work, the layers of meaning and metaphor, particularly the anti-war / anti-revenge message of human folly, is pretty damn poignant. As manic and imaginatively fun as other great Miike films, only instead of over the top torture and gore, he gives us an endless amount of monsters and yokai from Japanese folk-lore creatively conceived via CG and puppetry wrapped into an imaginative multi-faceted adventure. F'n rad, and one of Miike's best!