Search - Yokai Monsters - 100 Monsters on DVD

Weakest entry in the "Yokai Monsters" series

Brian Camp | Bronx, NY | 08/09/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"100 MONSTERS is one of a trilogy of "yokai" films made in 1968-69 that focused on "Japanese apparitions," ghosts and demon characters out of Japanese folklore that include a woman with a long, snake-like neck and a one-legged umbrella with a long tongue. This is the least interesting film in the series, which also includes SPOOK WARFARE and ALONG WITH GHOSTS. It's got a simple plot about a landlord in feudal Japan who decides to tear down a revered shrine in his village and the block of "tenement houses" next to it, a group of connected one-story wooden houses occupied by struggling peasant families. The local demons are upset by these actions and begin harassing the landlord, his family and his men. One amusing encounter involves the landlord's grown, mentally handicapped son who finds the umbrella ghost to be a valued and fun companion.

There are no real heroes in this, just a group of tenants who band together to protest the landlord's action. Not much happens, there's not a lot of action, and there's virtually no suspense. A lot of time is spent on the "100 Stories" ceremony and we see a flashback to a famous ghost story about two men who catch a fish in a sacred river despite warnings against it and the fate that befalls them. There's also a "curse eliminating" ritual that needs to be done in order to avoid harassment by the demons, but the landlord is above such things and lives to regret it. All this seems like padding for a story that has difficulty filling out its already short 78-minute running time.

ALONG WITH GHOSTS has a better storyline, but the best of the three is SPOOK WARFARE, also reviewed on this site, which makes good dramatic use of its demon characters and actually has a suspenseful showdown between the good demons and an evil demon invading from afar.

This series was made by the Daiei Studio, home of Gamera, and it's a lot lower-budgeted than a similar effort would have been at Toho, Toei, or Shochiku.
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Welcome back to Weirdsville

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 06/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Those wacky spooks return to medieval Japan in "Yokai Monsters - 100 Monsters," the second of three weird, hilarious adventures. This one is slightly less charming than the first installment, but the solid writing and eerie spookery is enough to win over even jaded moviegoers.

The tenants of a local building are appalled when they find out that the greedy Magistrate plans to raze their building -- and a nearby shrine -- and have a brothel built instead. They do their best to oppose the Magistrate, but his men abuse or kill the tenants -- and finally murder the landlord. The only one who seems to defend them is a mystery samurai (Jun Fujimaki).

But the tenants aren't alone. In wrecking the shrine and fishing in a sacred lake, the thugs have offended the local demons. Before long they're hallucinating about faceless warriors, giant cackling hags, long-necked women, and armies of "yokai monsters" invading the place....

This is a more serious movie than "Yokai Monsters - Spook Warfare," and unfortunately it doesn't focus much on the spooks themselves (although some familiar faces turn up). They are probably the most fascinating characters in it, but in "100 Monsters" the focus is shifted to the humans and their battles.

Not that this isn't funny, because it is. It's entertaining to see the heartless thugs getting scared to death by the spooks (sometimes literally); there's also a charming subplot about the Magistrate's mentally handicapped son befriending an umbrella demon. What's more, the seemingly simple plot gets a twist near the end when Yasutaro's identity is revealed.

And though this movie was made in the late 1960s, it has surprisingly good special effects. If you can get past the fuzzy cyclops, that is. The giant hags, rubber-necked goblins, and ugly furry creatures are all surprisingly realistic. The only flat moment is a cutesy animated bit where a drawing of an umbrella demon starts dancing around the room.

While it lacks the innocent charm of the first movie, "100 Monsters" is still a satisfying, funny film full of monsters (and not all of them are spooks). Recommended."