Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

When the animated movie Spirited Away hit the West, as well as the obligatory new wave of 'Anime Experts' and rise in sales of Akira and Ghost in the Shell, it also brought to the screen some of Japan's traditional ghosts, based on real legends and ghost stories from the land of the rising sun.

If you thought the character design for some of these ghosts was highly original, you may be surprised to discover that some of them, and many more Japanese ghosts and apparitions, hit the screen as early as the 1960s, when Daei Studios, more famous for it's Gamera, Daimajin and Zatoichi movies, released 3 movies featuring the creatures, 3 features that recently made their way to US shelves under the banner of the Yokai Monsters series. Oddly, this movie, Spook Warfare, has been put out as the 'first' in the series, which is odd for 2 reasons. First of all, it was predated by One Hundred Ghost Stories, released in the USA recently as Yokai Monsters 2:100 Monsters, and second because I don't think the movies are really a series as such, and are more just three features that feature the some of the same characters, or more to the point ghosts.

Spook Warfare, or Big Ghost War, to give it it's translated title, obviously made some impact on Japanese cinema, as I've seen toys available of the movie's villain Daimon, on quite a few occasions, which would indicate some form of following.

The movie is set in Feudal times, and opens in the remnants of Babylonia, as some explorers uncover a mysterious staff in a cursed cave, and accidentally unleash the vampire-like demon Daimon(Chikara Hashimoto - Destroy All Planets), who drinks their blood before flying off to sea, where he eventually lands in Japan.

He bumps into a local magistrate, before killing him and assuming his face and body as a diguise to enter a position of power. In the magistrate's home, he also takes control of the head steward Saheji(Gen Kimura - Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo), and kills the magistrate's daughter Chie's(Akane Kawasaki - Sister Streetfighter 3) friend Shinobu(Hiromi Inoue). This doesn't go beyond the detection of the in-house studly Samurai Shinpachiro(Yoshiko Aoyama - Majin, Monster of Terror), who dedicates himself to finding out what is going on.

Also clued in to something being wrong is a water imp named Kappa(Gen Kuroki - Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo), who confronts Daimon, because he can see through his disguise, but gets stomped and kicked out of his pond home for his troubles.

He tries to gather his Yokai Monster buddies to aid him in his attack of Daimon, but he isn't listed in any Japanese folklore, so they don't believe him. Eventually two children fleeing his soldiers, as well as a ghost with a psychic gut, convince the ghosts that they should stand up to him, which they set off to do.

It should be noted that the Yokai are a bizarre bunch of ghosts and apparitions. Kappa is a muppet-esque turtle man, and his buddies include a woman with a snake neck, the aforementioned clairvoyant fatty, a woman who is beautiful on one side of her head and monstrous on the other, a cycloptic umbrella with a longue tongue and one leg and a little guy with a stone head amongst others.

However, Daimon easily dispatches of them, and Shinpachiro decides to take a try. He first consults his monk Uncle, who gives him a bow and arrow and tells him to blind Daimon and he and the Buddhist monks will do the rest. Shinpachiro succeeds in hitting him in one eye, he thinks killing him, but Daimon is merely tricking him, and takes control of the next magistrate and puts Shinpachiro under arrest for murder.

The Yokai have been observing this while trapped in a pot(don't ask), and upon their escape, they enlist the aid of all of Japan's ghosts to help get rid of this monster that will ruin their reputation as friendly spirits. Taking a cue from Shinpachiro, they aim for his remaining eye, but this becomes more troublesome as he first multiplies, then grows to a size which makes you wonder if Majin is going to have to arrive to stand a chance. With all of Japan's ghosts against him, the Ghost War has just begun...

The plot of Spook Warfare isn't really that complicated, but the rather eccentric creatures that inhabit it make it seem so more interesting than it really should be. It may not be an epic and intelligent masterpiece, but it is a rather quirky and unique little movie that only the Japanese, in the 1960s, could have come up with. You get the feeling it was designed for kids, with the only instances of adult content being a swearword, which was probably just put in the subtitles, and some excessive blood shown splattering when Daimon bites a victim. However, none of the monsters, even Daimon, for the most part anyway, are scary.

I was roughly familiar with the Kappa, but that aside the mythology this movie's creatures were based on is completely alien to me, yet I still found them fascinating, and while in some cases rather silly looking, for the most part I was genuinely intrigued by their appearances and abilities. The fact the movie is based on myths also adds a whiff of Clash of the Titans or Jason & The Argonauts to it. While it may not be as good as those, that is the kind of mindset to approach the film with, it's a film that mashes up lots of myths into an amusing little adventure.

The film, while fairly straightforward in plot, contains enough nice touches to make me smile. While benign, the Yokai are still weak to religious charms, and in the scene where they are talking to the kids, they have to politely ask them to put their charms away before they can talk to them, and a charm designed to harm Daimon ends up causing them grief by accident. The fact that all of the monsters are given a really nice sort of mini-personality, given that they have to cram a good few of them, also adds to them a lot.

Daimon, is, I believe, designed uniquely for the movie, and is actually one of it's weakest points. He has a dark green, monstrous humanoid-Raven like body, which is actually pretty cool, but his head...god this ruins the suit. In one scene his eyes are played by a real man's, which looks great and is the one scary scene in the movie. The rest of the time, his head looks like a mouldy butternut squash with a face carved into it, which kind of ruins the effect.

Speaking of the effects, Spook Warfare doesn't exactly sport great effects. The monsters are accomplished by the standard man-in-a-rubber-suit method, and needless to say, with the amount required for the movie, they aren't Daei's best monster suits...in fact some of them are pretty bad. Personally I'm well adjusted to bad effects in movies, and in this movie, they almost add to the charm of it, looking more like old drawings done at the time they were believed in, realistically executed, some of the ghosts may actually appear scary, which they aren't intended to.

Acting in the movie is fairly hard to gauge, seeing as the subtitles are rather questionable(I greatly doubt the line "Buddha you suck!" was in the original script, come to think of it, the use of anything sucking is questionable), and half of the cast are under a rubber suit of some description. The few human actors do fine, if not standing out for greatness, but I was most impressed with the actor playing the Kappa, whose body movements really gave off the impression of a jumpy and exciteable sprite, and I liked the creepy but good natured snake girl as well.

Musically, the movie has a nice little score, that fits the playful nature of the film rather well. It's not particularly memorable after the movie ends, but while watching it I did take note that it did fit the picture very well.

Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare is a movie it's very hard to call. While it's effects may not be spectacular, for sheer quirkiness and enjoyment, there is no doubt in my mind that it's great, and I wasn't bored for a second while watching it. Going into it expecting any form of serious, meaningful movie would be futile, but if your intention is to witness a rather bizarre Japanese monster movie of a different kind, I would recommend Spook Warfare to you, providing that primitive effects don't put you off. Had I seen this as a kid I'm sure I would have fallen head over heels for it, it's a non-stop fun tale of weirdness, that even today, as a fairly immature 20 year old, I can greatly enjoy. I would say it's entertaining enough, and filled to the brim with zany creatures that mean even scenes where nothing is happening(which are rare in themselves) are interesting enough to warrant 4 Stars.

Year:1968
Titles:Yokai Daisenso
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare
Big Ghost War

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4