Yeeeees, Miike is Back in fine form again with this very
commercial Teeny Bop movie Highschool flick. Noooo i'm
just kidding. This was a strange one indeed. Beautifully, Mind-Bogglingly
Bizarre with a sensational Mind-Fuck of
a start. I Love You Takashi Miike and i love also the wonderful innovative
japanese manga comics that provides the
stories and then the scipts to these great films.
If this weirdo High School SCi-Fi Horror actually is a Mainstream teenage
film in Japan, i don't know what to say, then
the japanese youths must be hailed for their EXQUISITE taste in the
esoteric and bizarre. These kids rule and hopefully
the creative juices of manga and film script writers will continue flowing
in the future. Japan - the hope for film lovers.
Sure, some western kids would for sure like this film, but most would
surely prefer watching the Hollywood crap
Above: The2015 Hong Kong
Deltamac DVD
The talented Takashi Miike was once the maybe most untamed
and wildly inventive power of japanese film making.
A God for all nonconformistic film lovers world wide with films like
Gozu, Audition, The Happiness of the Katakuris,
Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, his yakuza remakings or The Bird People
in China.
A decade ago or so Miike started to make mostly mainstream films and
often then with a Teeny Bop movie slant to it,
even though he somehow managed to keep something of his personal stamp
on them. With Teeny Bop i mean films
(maybe) appealing to a youthful audience and his Highschool films have
been almost countless since then.
But, he's made some special one's too as "God's Puzzle" and
even in his mainstream efforts there are always some bizarre
things in it, some little unavoidable touch of his personality even
though i much prefer his older indie movie efforts.
Wikipedia says: "As The Gods Will" is based
on a manga by Kaneshiro Muneyuki published 2011-2012 and the films
script are written by Hiroyuki Yatsu. The Film was released in cinemas
in Japan november 2014 and it's 117 minutes
Bloody Games
As the Gods Will - Miike's japanese
bizarro version of the Hunger Games ?
Or maybe a Death Survival Game as Saw? A teenager Body
Count game as Battle Royale?
The Story - Spoiler Warnings below:
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The Film starts with the thoughts of a bored teenager,
he really wants something to happen and something will for sure.
In the next scene schoolkids are screaming in classroom terror. A Living
and Ultra-Nasty Daruma Doll (see pic higher
up on this page) is playing a game with them, a deadly game - red light,
green light (1-2-3 rött ljus/staty leken ?).
The First Deadly Doll Game is played simultaneously all over the world
with high school teenagers, and when the Daruma
Head turns and someone moves or utters a sound they die with their heads
blown off and with marbles flowing from
their body cavities, yuck. Splatter and gore (but with red marbles)
and the classroom turns into a Slaughterhouse.
If they haven't found a way to stop the dollhead within a couple of
minutes they all will die.
Note: A Daruma Doll, a popular doll
in japan after Bodhidharma the founder of buddhist Zen.
The Matryoshka Doll
The smart Shun Takahata (Sota Fukushi) is the only one
who survives from his class and soon he meets some other
survivors from his school, as his childhood friend Ichika Akimoto (Hirona
Yamazaki) and the psychotic schoolyard bully
Amaya Takeru (Ryunosuke Kamiki). They can't leave the school no matter
what they try and soon they're all locked
into the gym where they will have a meeting with the
Maneki Neko - The Calling Cat, a huge "living"
metal cat statue
and the the Doll Game no. 2 starts.
Note: A Maneki Neko, is a good luck talisman in Japan, a friendly
cat
The Cat starts to eat them and do you think Shun will be able
to defeat it before they all die. Yes, he can.
TV media reports about the Global Apocalypse taking place with teenagers
world wide dying in millions and millions
and big Cubes are floating over the earths surface. Is it Aliens or
the Gods that has appeared on Earth and who arranges
the deadly games ? Everyone can follow the games on hijacked monitor
screens.
Locked into the Cube are the surviving teenage Gamers and the masses
on the streets below call them - God's Children
Fireworks
In the floating Cube survivors from japanese high-schools
are gathered, and i suppose there's cubes also above other
countries in the world. Now the Killing continues and time for a meeting
with the Kokesho Dolls.
Note: Female figures made in wood and without arms or legs
And then the Shirokuma,
the stop-motion Polar Bear Doll ..... and then the Matryoshka's,
the Russian dolls.
A Fun and mighty bizarre teenage horror sci-fi survival
game film that starts with a Bang, nothing can match that Nasty
Daruma Doll opening. The Film follows a slightly downward path from
that, with the Maneki Neko cat as the 2nd
greatest death game and then there are some pacing problems as things
slow up somewhat.
But, still Miike delivers again with a very unusual and entertaining
film, and again the new CG technique possibilities
are used in a smart and very effective way by japanese filmmakers. Just
as in Parasyte and (i think, i haven't seen it
yet) in Assassination Classroom. Cute figures, very Kawaii, are created
as Teddybear Ted (in Hollywood though) and
the deadly Maneki Neko cat here, and the less cute but still charming
parasyte alien hand in Parasyte Part 1 and the
absolutely NOT cute Daruma Doll Devil here - The
Best Bad Guy Alien God in any film i've ever seen.
The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen with japanese or english
audio Dolby True HD 5.1 and with
english subtitles, Region A. Only japanese trailers as extra plus trailers
for some other films
