Yokai Monsters Collection — Yokai Monsters Collection (Blu Ray boxset)
Yokai Monsters Collection is a recent three blu ray boxset bringing together four films focused on Japanese folklore creatures- be they surreal 'n' creepy monsters, or ghosts. Featured are three films from the late 1960s, and one from the 2000’s directed by talented genre-jumping director Takashi Miike. The boxset is from Arrow Video- available both the UK and stateside, and as we’ve come to expect from the company, we get a neat and classy presentation. Each of the films gets a new HD scan, and over the set, we get a small but very worthwhile selection of extras. The finished set features a sixty-page inlay booklet, postcards, and a poster
The first disc features 100 Monsters (aka Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters, The Hundred Ghost Stories, The Hundred Monsters). It was released in 1968 and is an impressive opener to the original Yokai Monster trilogy. You don’t get all of the 100 monsters though-out, but they do appear in the films creepily deranged finale, and we get some neat encounters with different monsters throughout the films run time. It was directed by Toyoko born Kimiyoshi Yasuda- who has fifty feature-length credits to his name, going from horror/ dark fantasy like Ghost Story: Depth of Kasane(1960), onto sword slashing anti-hero action pics like Sleepy Eyes Of Death: Sword Of Satan( 1965) and Sleepy Eyes Of Death: In The Spiders Lair(1968).
The film starts off in great pre-credits form- as a man recounts travelling through some woods at night, and being sucked into the huge furry arms of a one-eyed monster- this doesn’t relate to the rest of the film, but it’s a great first encounter with Yokai kind. As we move past the credits we get into the films main storyline, which is based in a rural village in the Edo period involving a group of corrupt local officials trying to knock down a shrine.
I’d say 60% of the film focuses on drama and dramatics regarding the taking of the Shrine, and how it affects the villages- and 40% on the monsters, which I guess is a little frustrating- as with a film having a title like 100 monsters, you’d imagine non-stop creature action. Anyway, we do get some neat and creepy encounters along the way- we have a neck stretching evil snake woman, there’s an unsettling living umbrella creature with a long ruby tongue, there are faceless humanoid figures, a huge leering and chuckling witch face creature that’s as big as the side of a house. Though I guess the most impressive part of the film is the already mentioned end parade, where all the monsters we’ve seen in the film are joined by a huge crowd of other bouncing, lopping, and darting creatures- I can’t or won’t detail them here, but there are some great ones in the line-up. The film is soundtracked by a wonderful creepy blend of flute and early electro texturing, which works wonderfully- and there are some great chilling moments along the films one hour and eighteen-minute runtime, I just wish they’d have cut down the connecting story somewhat, for creepier monster action.
Extra wise on this first disc we have Hiding in Plain Sight, which is a brand-new documentary that runs forty minutes and gives a great insight to all things Yokai- going from the creature’s historic origin, different types and the films and media relating to Yokai. It features interviews with genre experts such as Matt Alt, Zack Davisson, Kim Newman, Lynda E. Rucker and Hiroko Yoda. A most interesting and worthy doc, giving a great primer to all things Yokai.
Moving onto the second disc in the set, and this features two films 1968’s The Great Yokai War & 1969’s Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts. So first up we have The Great Yokai War (aka Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare, Yokai Monsters 2, Ghosts On Parade). This was directed by Matsuyama Japan-born Yoshiyuki Kuroda- who had just eight feature-length credits to his name, and these included comedy Aa chongâ(1970), fantasy action-adventure The Invisible Swordsman(1970), and the sixth and last in the Lone Wolf and Cub series Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell(1974).
The Great Yokai War opens with western treasure hunters breaking into the tomb of ancient Babylonian vampire demon Diamon- they awaken him from his centuries slumber, and he appears as a size-shifting blue/ green-faced man reptile entity. Next, we see rural lord Hyogo Isobe (Takashi Kanda) fishing with his servants as dusk comes in, he’s a kind, caring, and considerate lord- who ushes his servants away home from the oncoming storm. Unfortunately, in the said storm is Diamon, who rips into his neck, with bright red blood splashing- he then shapes shifts into the form of the lord, coming back his palace- smashing up all of the shines, and basically being nasty to everyone. With one of the raging sessions, he knocks the top off a jug, which falls into a pound in his place- it hits the head of a normally friendly and beady-eyed Kappa- a cross between man and turtle, he can clearly see the demon for what he is, and attempts to fight him- but gets beaten by his head been set alight. The sad Kappa goes out into the forest where all the other monster’s dwell- and we have the snake-necked woman & the long tongue umbrella creature, they are joined by around rock face creature, a dual-headed woman/ monster, a pot belled beast who shows images in his stomach, and a few others. Initially, the monsters don’t believe the Kappa, but when two young children who have had an encounter with the nasty lord appear in the forest, they believe him- so decide to do battle, which all leads up to a fairly epic fight between the monster and Diamon.
This film is a hell of a lot of wacky and creepy monster fun, with the story taking second fiddle to the yokai action to great effect. As mentioned already we get the blood dripping and pooling when the demon attacks, but there are also a few nasty arrows in the eye attacks. Then we of course get the monsters performing their own creepy-to-prankish moves. On the whole, The Great Yokai War is a great ride, really building on the promise of the first film.
So lastly on the second disc is Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (aka Journey with Ghost Along Yokaido Road)- this was jointly directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda and Kimiyoshi Yasuda. Kuroda had, of course, directed The Great Yokai War, and Yasuda directed 100 Monsters- so in theory it should be the perfect Yokai Monster film- I certainly wouldn’t say that, but it’s an interesting enough and different addition to the series. What we have here is a blend of oriental western and heartfelt drama/ thriller road-movie, with a few lengthy dwells in creepy and horror fed night-time forest action, with a fair bit of swordplay, some of which is blood tipped.
After its red titled and misty woodlands credits, we drop into night-time marshland, for an interaction between samurai crime boss Higuruma (Yoshindo Yamaji), his henchmen, and elderly local priest Jinbel (Bokuzen Hidari). Jinbel is visiting a shrine and warns off the gangsters from ambushing a courier who carrying an incriminating letter- as they will be cursed by ghosts. The gang promptly slash both the priest, the courier and his friend, dumping the last two in the marsh. They are just about to go on their way, but Higuruma realises he's misplaced the letter- finding it in the hands of Miyo (Masami Burukido), the 7-year-old granddaughter of Jinbel- they give chase, but looser her. And the remainder of the film finds Miyo making her way across the country to find her father who she has never met. Along the way she meets seemingly caring and nice samurai Hyakasuro (Kôjirô Hongô), a young courier and a few other folks. The gangsters follow close behind, and at points, they are a little bumbling with some light humour coming into play. The more horror fed moments are largely restricted to a few night-time in the forest scenes- where the gangster gets attacked by wizened ghosts, crawling tree hands, etc. We only get very fleeting appearances of the Yokai Monsters from the other films, with the most memorable of these being when two faceless figures are turned around. The forest set moments to have an effectively creepy atmosphere to them, with a very dark fairy-tale vibe. On the whole Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts was entertaining enough- though it’s much more of a thriller/ Asian western with sentimental and heartfelt moments, than an all-out horror/ monster film. On this disc extra wise, we have just original trailers, US reissue trailers, and image gallery
On the third and final disc in the set, we have 2005’s The Great Yokai War (aka Spook Warfare). It was directed by genre-shifting auteur Takashi Miike, and is a really enjoyable family fantasy film, with some great bizarre and wacky moments.
The film is set in modern-day Japan, with its unlikely hero being ten-year-old Tadashi Ino (Ryunosuke Kamiki)- a decidedly jumpy child who’s recently moved to small-town Japan to live with his grandpa. One day the local boys are once more taunting him, and along the way, they mention the legend Kirin Rider- a mortal who comes to the fore to help the world battle against the forces of darkness. Part of the legend deals with Kirin going to the nearby mountain where a giant goblin lives. One night young Tadashi finds himself near the path that leads to the mountain, a strange voice calls- and he runs to a nearby yellow bus- he jumps on board, and as he travels along with monsters faces, limbs and tentacles press against the buses window- he’s understandably terrified, but he looks down and finds a cute furry guinea pig creature he calls Sunekosuri- as it likes rubbing folks shins.
As the film moves on Tadashi gets pulled into the Yokai world- meeting first the faceless woman, then the neck stretching woman, and the massive face witch. Fairly soon he meets the main Yokai’s of this story- Kawahime, the River Princess (Seiko Iwaidô), Kawataro, the River Sprite (Sadao Abe), and Shojo, the Kirin Herald(Masaomi Kondô). After Tadashi's very believable shock and fear- the group head out for the mountain of the goblins, where he must attain a mystical sword. Just as he’s doing so, we get sight of our first baddie- Agi(Chiaki Kuriyama) is a white beehive dominatrix with attitude. As the film unfolds, we get to meet General Nurarihyon(Kiyoshirô Imawano)- a sleeked back raven-haired baddie, all dressed in black with silver pentagram collars. He wants to attack/ destroy Tokyo with his huge floating industrial fortress, that’s manned by huge junk made hench-monsters. So it’s up to Tadashi to stop him.
The just over two-hour film is full to brim with crazed and creepy monsters, tense and dramatic action setups, as well as some great and fairly epic battles- with lots of camp ‘n’ heart mixed into brew. It manages to shift very well between creepily playful, rewardingly adventure fed, and the wacky and strange. The Monsters are given loads of screen time, and we get a good mix of different monsters- yet the plots flow still remains firm and focused. Yes, this is the wacky and intense genre filmmaker Miike doing a family fantasy film, and it does manage to remain all fairly PG- though he does push things here and there, on both the imagery and violence front- so I'm sure some children would be fairly freaked out by the film.
The only new extra on this final disc is a commentary track with Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes, who has also written a few books on director Miike. Mes turns up on many of Arrow Japanese cinema releases, and he always makes for a most informative and entertaining commentator. For this track, he moves from talking about how the film to hand fits into Miike’s large and wider filmography. He talks about how this film was somewhat a turning point for the director into the mainstream, he discusses how the film still has its shocking/non-family film scenes. As he moves on, he talks about how he’s reassessed the film since he first saw it when it was released. He talks about the history of Yokai, comments on-screen action, discusses Miike recently released film The Great Yokai War: Guardians, and what he expects from it. So a great track. Otherwise extra wise we find a
selection of archive interviews with the cast and crew, including director Miike. Short Drama of Yokai, two shorts detailing the further adventures of the yokai. Another Story of Kawataro, two shorts featuring the continuing story of the kappa character in the film. World Yokai Conference, a publicity event where Miike speaks about the film. Promotional Events, video of the press conference to announce the start and completion of filming, as well as the premiere in Tokyo. And a documentary on the film’s young star, Ryunosuki Kamiki, and his experience making the film.
All in all, Yokai Monsters Collection is another wonderful boxset from the folks at Arrow Video, with a great selection of new prints for each of the films, and small if worthy selection of extras on the discs. A release that will be of interest to fans of horror, fantasy, and wider Japanese cinema.