Your Ad Here (‘The Great Yokai War’)

Takashi Miike has, in the past, given the world an ode to rape fantasy, explicit daughter-as-prostitute-father-as-customer sex, the world’s most interesting/surprising/hilarious three-way/birth scene.  He has disemboweled, decapitated, decorated restaurant windows with the insides of small dogs.

So, hey, why not get him to make a children’s movie?

The Great Yokai War (trailer, Winamp) amasses a strategically solid set-up:  Young Takashi’s parents have recently divorced; he and his mother have moved from urban Tokyo to a small town to live with his senile grandfather.  A rural ritual names the boy “The Kirin Rider,” a legendary warrior. Unfortunately, a supernatural war soon starts.

The evil Kato Yasunori, who embodies the resentment of all things discarded, has been combining the life force of captured, forgotten Yokai with human technological garbage to create an army of angry, mechanical rubbish.  Takashi and the remaining Yokai – who only he can see – must thwart Kato’s plans lest his revenge consume all mankind.

It’s a smart approach to one of the more consistent themes in Japanese cinema – the conflict between Old and New – equating broken homes and even the process of growing up with tossed-off traditions and carted-off refuse.  According to plan, the child should find value in the old ways and learn to apply them in a modern context, mixing reverence and relevance, reestablishing harmony.

But this is a Miike film, and he’s not going to follow anyone’s plan but his own... even though War is ostensibly a remake of a 1968 rubber monster movie.  Having this director helm a kid flick makes sense, sort of:  What makes him one of the most interesting filmmakers working, today, is his inability to censor himself.  He shows the darndest things.

It’s also a good idea because Miike seems to hate children’s movies as much as you do.

An oozing, newborn calf with a human head is braying about the apocalypse.  The hero’s inevitable cuddly pet/sidekick – a squeaky rodent hand-puppet named Sunekosuri – gets tortured, at length; it seems to bleed butterscotch.  A human cop accidentally shoots someone in the head as comic relief.  There’s a fascination with the soft, dripping thighs of a river princess.  Our young hero’s journey to “Goblin Mountain” is an extended series of shocks during which he never stops screaming.

Miike even takes time to one-up the most disturbing convention of Japanese cinema:  Those little shorts in which the prepubescent boys run around.  Here, when dressing as the Kirin Rider, our hero hikes up a pair of taut, leather drawers.  “Isn’t this a bit much?” he asks.

Not very functional, a kid’s movie that’ll traumatize your kids.  But a lot of fun.  After the director’s oh-so-serious Izo it’s nice to watch him have some of that.  The demands of the sugar-addled genre also keep Miike on the move; his usual lull-them shock-them pacing is trampled by a nonstop parade of ridiculous latex-and-digital beasties (think Beetlejuice meets the Kroffts).  It is, perhaps(*), the most accessible and enjoyable Miike film since his Sound of Music-goes-to-hell musical Happiness of the Katakuris (rent).

Which isn’t to say it makes a whole lot of sense.  Though the story hits on basic folkloric touchstones – trials of character, a sword that can only be unsheathed by a chosen one, weapons that have to be recast, supernatural helpers – Miike doesn’t bother with even fairy tale logic.  Momentum is what works here; rules may be kept unclear on purpose, keeping the audience and hero off-balance.  When solutions are needed, Miike relies on a couple deus ex cashmachinas.

Like so many children’s films, The Great Yokai War turns out to be all about its product placement.  Not toys or candy; Miike’s pushing booze and beans.  When named “Kirin Rider,” young Takashi never wonders where his “kirin” (Japanese for, apparently, “giraffe”) might be.  I’m not sure how much the translation adds to the situation, but “Kirin Rider” might well refer to the contract rider for a popular brand of beer.  The plot, then, is as easy to follow as that of your basic Bud Light advertisement:  Use the right product, everything will turn out fine.

Miike’s depiction of “fine,” though, is likely to drive some to drink.  As commercial jingles echo down the hellmouth of a consumptive culture, forgotten histories get giddy and ready to repeat themselves.  Sequel, anyone?

The Great Yokai War begins a run at Anthology Film Archives on June 30th; check their schedule for showtimes.  It’s best to see Miike with an audience; that way, you can enjoy both the movie and the mass WTF? reaction.

(*)I say “perhaps,” of course, because there’s no way to see all of Miike’s movies.  But while he’s been averaging something like seven a year, Yokai is the only feature with his credit from 2005 (there was also some work done for television).  Is he finally slowing down?

*

Miike directed an episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology.  It proved too strong for the pay-cable channel and was pulled from their schedule.  It did run in the UK, and you can see the trailer here;  a very brief, icky scene is here (winamp).

*

The Chinese also love to torture their children under the guise of “entertainment.”  Check out this video (via BoingBoing):

Here in the U.S. of A., though, want our youngins to rock the fuck out.  Stevie Wonder, on Sesame Street, circa 197? (ibid)  Love them kids:

tags: takashi miike  great yokai war  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    reddit