Director: Yoji Unno
Year: 2021
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After learning of various Yokai intermingling with humanity, a young woman and her companion set off to track the creatures down resulting in a series of confrontations throughout the countryside as she struggles to keep everything from getting out of control.
Review:
Overall, there’s a lot to like here. Among the best aspects featured is a fun and engaging atmosphere that manages to incorporate silly human characters with creepy horror vibes. The first story here focuses on the outright goofiness of her treatment for the spreading skin disease that includes confrontational exchanges to the treatments alongside the preparation and application of such treatments in the first place. As well, scenes including the various tricks the yokai are forced to pull on people that eventually draw her attention into the area are generally goofy and fun. Combined with the horror of the Yokai shown eating people and killing them, the contrast between these elements is quite enjoyable.
Alongside this fun setup, the film offers up a lot of fun creature encounters despite being kept to a brief confrontation. The initial Yokai in the forest eating her friends’ father is a great starting point to this with her creative means to dispatch it, a tactic that gets repeated throughout the confrontations elsewhere in the film and becomes quite enjoyable with its repeated use. With the later encounters bringing about a wilder variety of creatures and spirits for her to battle that are generally goofy designs and concepts that fall in line with the spirit of the film, there’s enough keeping the film going until it gets to her final battle that comes into play. Featuring some enjoyable starting points with the Yokai taunting his human target before she gets involved to fight off the creature, this section is quite fun and gives this the most to like.
The film doesn’t have too much wrong with it but there are some issues. The main drawback is the approach that treats the film as if it’s a series of vignettes or television show episodes edited together into a feature-length adaptation. The interstitial title cards are another clue offered for this approach, with the film taking on the appearance of the two traveling someplace new, meeting something strange, and doing battle with it to stop it from tormenting people. Since the cards are the changeover into a new location and a new creature to battle, the overall approach taken is one of a television show utilizing the standard monster-of-the-week formula. That leaves the film with little-to-no-build-up of who she is, her character, or her motivations beyond stopping Yokai from pulling tricks on people. This storyline approach leaves the film quite disjointed as a result.
Overview: **/5
Featuring some likable qualities surrounded by a problematic, disjointed presentation, the film is likable enough for what it is but the problems on display are enough to lower it quite highly. Give this a look if you’re intrigued by the idea or the concept here as well as those who enjoy this kind of genre effort overall, but most others should heed extreme caution especially if you’re turned off by the flaws on display.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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