The Great Yokai War
Now, if you’re familiar with extreme Japanese thrillers/horror, you might be thinking, “there’s no way I’m letting my kids watch a Takashi Miike film” — in fact, his Ichi the Killer had me squirming from the opening scene … I turned it off at the point where a guy who was suspended by his back-flesh from meat hooks was being doused with boiling oil. But The Great Yokai War is straightforward kid’s stuff; its fx are weak by U.S. cinema standards, but I think it’s meant, in part, to be a wink and nod to those grand old plastic-monsters-slugging-it-out-over-Tokyo films. The rating is problematic, though. It’s a bit strong for really young kids — scary monsters, violence, beer jokes — but I think 13-year-olds would find the effects and costuming too lame for their tastes, and the young protagonist Tadashi insufficiently cool and obnoxious (which, for adult viewers, is rather refreshing, actually). You have to get to the age where camp is cool again to really find the right audience for this, I think.
Be warned; the movie draws very heavily on Japanese folklore. Wikipedia’s article about the film identifies some of the critters. My yokai from the Manzanar story makes a small appearance in it, but I’m still waiting for someone to explain the daikon radish spirit to me — we get a glimpse of him in a crowd scene, and he was in Spirited Away, too. And I’m afraid that the whole highly plot-significant azuki bean reference went over my head … I know beans are good luck, but there must be more there…. 
drupagliassotti @ July 30, 2007