As someone who grew up with Jim Henson movies like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, I really enjoyed this kids movie (that’s not necessarily for kids). Even though I’m not Japanese and probably missed a lot of the cultural references, I still enjoyed the story and the characters. Specifically the yôkai; spirits/monsters/creatures, some bad, some mischevious, some good, from Japanese folklore. Almost everything has it’s own yôkai; lost objects (represented by an umbrella with a long tougne), the red bean (represented by a man who continuously counts them), lots of animals, and countless others, and I just love them. This movie has a ton of them – some puppets, some CGI and they are fascinating!
The story is about a little boy, Tadashi, who has a sad family life. However, he gets picked to be the ‘kirin rider;’ the spiritual champion of the peace and justice. He has to get a magical sword to fight the evil yôkai, and is aided by some good yôkai. Battle ensues.
Another very interesting thing about this movie is that it is directed by Takashi Miike who is best known for his extremely violent films like ‘Ichi the Killer’ and ‘Dead or Alive.’ As far as I know this is his only “kid’s” movie, and that’s probably a good thing.
More: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425661/
Yôkai: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai
