directed by Takashi Miike
Japan
118 minutes
4 stars out of 5
----
After enjoying Takashi Miike's first reboot of/tribute to the Yokai Monsters series, I definitely wanted to check out the second, which at the time I watched it was still very new. Neither of these movies seem particularly well-known outside of Japan, so I didn't know what I was getting into. Immediately, it became very apparent that where the previous movie had only a handful of moments that felt a little too sinister for a young audience, Guardians is wholly for the kids. If I didn't already know that Miike directed this, I would have had no idea; save for some of the humor, there's no trace of the director of Visitor Q and Audition here. Which is good - to be that versatile is an asset for any creator. But to me as a fan of Miike as a horror director first and foremost, it's surprising.
So the thing about this movie is that it kicks ass. I'm going to apologize right here and now for not viewing it objectively, because my unshakable opinion is that this movie kicks ass. I'm able to recognize that it has many flaws, and with a certain mindset it could be slightly embarrassing and overwrought. But I still think it's aces. The tone of it is pure, classic children's adventure story: like the first film, it's a coming-of-age thing, but with more emphasis on themes of protecting your family and being kind above all else. I haven't seen a movie this untaintedly joyful in a long time (and again, this is coming from the guy whose episode of Masters of Horror got banned for being too freaky). Saccharine, censored, cautious children's media is a dime a dozen, but it's rare to see something with a message about caring and trying to be a good person that's executed and written this well.
In classic fantasy movie fashion, our protagonist is a little boy who finds out he comes from a powerful lineage, going back a thousand years to his ancestor, Watanabe no Tsuna, an accomplished yōkai fighter. His bloodline grants him powers that can help him fulfill his destiny, but he needs to learn some courage first. Like in the first film, the main character's initial encounter with yōkai after finding out he has the ability to see them when most people don't is pure gold. There's an incredible variety of yōkai, from the humanoid to the weird, and I never get tired of seeing them all assembled in such masses that I couldn't possibly register every single one of them even if I paused the movie and stared at it for a while. In a funnier moment, the yōkai of Japan assemble other "yōkai" from across the world at a yōkai summit (a "Yammit") to ask for their assistance, and honestly, I'm obsessed with the idea that Pennywise is a yōkai. Many of the same creatures from the last movie are in it again, but as this seems to have little to do with its predecessor, they have a slightly different appearance and characterization. There are also more oni, who serve as kind of antagonistic figures, but they're less cut-and-dry Bad Guys than they are obstacles for the main character to figure out how to help and apply his philosophy of relentless goodness to.
The real antagonist isn't even an antagonist either. This movie, in more ways than one, ditches the good/evil dichotomy so inherent in modern Western interpretations of folklore and replaces it with something more nuanced, something that asks the viewer to take more than a few moments to judge a character. The threat that the main character, Kei, is called upon to face is a gigantic human/crustacean ghost hybrid that is in the process of rolling its way across Japan, directly through Tokyo, in an attempt to go back to the unspeakably ancient sea it remembers as its home. It has no ill intent, but it is born of grudges, an assemblage of unfulfilled dreams and a deep longing that causes it to coalesce, like a pearl by way of irritation. This is not an evil monster that has to be destroyed, this is an aching, homesick being.
At every stop, even though he gets a cool sword and then another, cooler sword, Kei faces his opponents with an eye towards understanding them and getting on their level rather than defeating them outright. Everything and everyone around him is as scheming and underhanded as usual, but he evades all of that by simply going through life asking what he can do to help. When his kitsune companion and their party are betrayed by a yōkai-oni double agent, and a horde of oni outnumber them by several orders of magnitude, he does not want to fight them, because "We don't fight friends of our friends". His initial reaction to the arrival of a huge number of enemies is not fear, in fact, but gladness to see that his two-timing new friend has other friends outside of his cell phone.
I don't even hate the CGI. There's much more of it than in the previous film, and it's much more noticeable, but the costumes still manage to take center stage. And like I said, it kicks ass. There are just so many moments in this where I was thinking "oh my god, yes". This movie is awesome in the way that a ten-year-old boy might use the word. Awesoooome!!!! as in radical, as in a cool skateboard trick, as in saving the city whilst being in the fifth grade. I loved every moment where this movie went over the top. I love the lengthy musical number at the end. I love Daimajin (yes, Daimajin) being swayed by the power of brotherly love. I love the tiny sideplot about the yuki-onna having a big old crush on Inugami Gyōbu, even though she's a creature of the cold and he's fiery and hot. I love the army of tanuki. This is a good movie because I liked it. It has problems but I'm too busy liking it to talk about them. Sorry.
No comments:
Post a Comment