Watches
December 03, 2021
When Miike made his Yokai film (a remake from another yokai horror, also from 1968), it dragged up some films that had long been forgotten. 100 Monsters is one of them. It's a surprisingly slow and somewhat sluggish samurai affair, in dire need of some actual yokai. Not the yokai fest the title promised.
Lord Tajimaya angers some local villagers when he decides to tear down their temple, only to replace it with a brothel. They revolt and try to stop Tajimaya, but he is ruthless and kills whoever gets in his way. The gods aren't too happy that their place of worship is destroyed, and they decide to help out the villagers.
The yokai scenes are pretty fun and amusing. The effects are cheesy, but charming. The problem is that there are surprisingly few of these moments, the rest of the film is extremely talkative, which really hurts the pacing. Some memorable moments here and there, but this was hardly what the title promised.