Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts

Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (Tokaido Obake Dochu) (1969)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Yoshiyuki Kuroda/Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Starring: Kojiro Hongo, Pepe Hozumi, Masami Furukido, Mutsuhiro, Rokko Toura

From: Daiei

Bizarre monsters in feudal Japan helping a little girl along with some human do-gooders… I was entertained. October of 2021 I saw the first film in this trilogy and the second the following March. Both were weird and quirky but enjoyable yet there is no good reason for me to not conclude the trilogy from Japan’s Daiei studios until last night. The impetus for finally doing so: a mutual commented on my review of Daimajin that they made the entire trilogy concurrently and they were rather similar to one another. It will either be months or years before I see the sequels but they then referenced the Yokai Monsters films, requiring me to mention that this is the one I hadn’t tackled before.

While there isn’t as many monsters seen as you might expect (or hope) the film was still a good time at least for me. The crux is that the feudal version of the Yakuza murder a praying old man on sacred ground. They then go after his granddaughter-a little girl-because they want something in her possession. She is not only helped by an older boy and a wandering young man, the titular monsters get their revenge for those bastards spilling blood on their sacred grounds.

Some may think there’s a dearth of monster action or even just monster appearance and thus it is unsatisfying. Valid, although disappointment didn’t cross my mind as there’s some action with the girl’s adult protector doing battle against the heels and overall was an entertaining yarn. There were some nice sets that represented the woods; they set the mood for the domain of the Yokai; what delicious revenge they dished out.

The trilogy’s second entry-Spook Warfare-is the best in my eyes as the creatures do battle against “a Babylonian vampire” but all three are weirdly amusing. After all, the first two feature such monsters as a woman with a Stretch Armstrong neck and my personal favorite, the sentient lampshade w/ one leg, a face and a giant tongue that always hung out of its mouth, because Japan. The strangest you see here is what is best described as a giant brown pile of hay w/ googly eyes. Sadly, that only appears in one scene, yet left a lasting impact w/ me. Yes, I know Miike made a Yokai film in 2005; there’s something else that likely won’t be visited by me for a long, long time.