Best Movies about Youkai

Movies about Youkai

An avid lover and aficionado of Studio Ghibli’s work, I see references to and from it practically everywhere. Most recently at an exhibition about yōkai.

6 min čtení
2. 2021

Yokai are a class of supernatural creatures that roam the realm of spirits in Japanese folklore. The Japan Foundation organised traveling exhibition titled “Yōkai: Supernatural Monsters from Japan« introduces these curious spirits through a diverse range of media, including nishiki-e tisky, emaki picture scrolls, sculptures, toys and films.

Apart from the harmonious and subtle color palettes, the lush and peculiar imagination of the ancient artist, his experienced hand drawing each brush stroke, and the excitement of seeing a picture scroll in real life, what really intrigued me were the images that looked like a scene from a Studio Ghibli film. Listed below are some of the references I spotted.

1.Mount Ōe Picture Scroll and Princess Mononoke
First in line was this one illustrating the heroic tale of the brave samuraj Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who, according to legend, exterminated the quintessential yokai Shuten-dōji, a mythical Oni or demon leader of Japan. Although decapitated, the demon’s detached head still took a bite at the hero, who avoided death by wearing multiple helmets stacked on his head.

In Princezna Mononoke, on a few occasions Lady Eboshi warns her people that it will take more than a single shot to kill a wolf god: “A wolf’s severed head can still bite.” Ignoring Ashitaka’s warning and attempt to stop her from committing yet another godslaughter, Eboshi succeeds in murdering the Forest Spirit. This victory is short-lived, however, as soon after Eboshi gets her well-deserved punishment for angering the gods when the wolf god Moro’s decapitated head bites off her right arm: “Moro’s head. It moved on its own,” feels like Eboshi had foreshadowed her own misfortune.

2.The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Picture Scroll and
Howl’s Moving Castle
This is more of a visual than content resemblance. The big headed tengu and courtesan riding the cart instantly reminded me of the Witch of the Waste’s disproportionate head when she is similarly looking through the window of her palanquin carried around the city by her loyal henchmen.

3.The Nue and Princess Mononoke’s Forest Spirit
If you have ever leafed through The Art of Princess Mononoke book you might know that the Forest Spirit (shishigami) didn’t always have that same soothing smile and piercing eyes that are both amicable and cruel. In the early stages of his development his face was more human-like and uncanny than it is now. Though at first glance he resembles a deer, the Forest Spirit is actually a combination of several animals. This blog post lists them as follows: a red-monkey face covered with blue patterns, cat eyes and nose, goat ears, big body of a wild boar, the fur of a serow, and the tail of a dog. As a whole his appearance is one overflowing with peculiarity.

Similarly the Nue, a legendary yokai or mononoke, v Příběh o Heike, is described as having the head of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, the body of a dog and the front half of a snake for a tail. In other writings it is sometimes depicted to have the back of a tiger, the legs of a tanuki, the tail of a fox, the head of a cat, and the torso of a chicken.

The Nue is also said to have the ability to shape-shift, often into the form of a black cloud that can fly. Much like the Forest Spirit who at nightfall changes to the giant Nightwalker (deidarabotchi).

Another similarity worth mentioning is that in both cases the mythical creature is indirectly murdered by the Japanese emperor. Lady Eboshi intends to give the Forest Spirit’s head, which is believed to grant immortality, to the Emperor in return for protection from Lord Asano. In Příběh Heike, the samurai Minamoto no Yorimasa slays the Nue, because its very existence causes fear in the Emperor who falls ill and is unable to recuperate.

4.The Foot Washing Mansion and Spirited Away
Tento nishiki-e print depicts a large-footed yokai monster that descends from the ceiling and demands to be washed. The story is one of seven stories in the famous Seven Wonders of Honjo and goes as follows: At the time when the flowers were sleeping and the ushimitsu plant was blooming, a horrible, rotten stench would invade the house, and a giant foot bristling with hair would descend from the ceiling accompanied by an enormous sound. If you washed the foot, it would soon disappear back into the ceiling. But if you didn’t, the giant foot would rampage through the house until satisfied.

Většina Cesta do fantazie’s plot takes place within a bathhouse for gods and spirits, known as kami, whose proprietor is the greedy witch Yubaba. The majority of these kami habitually visit the bathhouse for a regular wash to keep themselves clean — unlike the unwelcome enormous and foul smelling guest who imposes his presence and causes turmoil. He smells so bad that at first everybody, unsuccessfully, tries to prevent him from entering the bathhouse. Eventually they realise he is harmless — only after Chihiro cleanses him and sets him free from the taint of humanity.

5.Personified Daikon Radish and Spirited Away’s Oshirasama
According to Japanese ideas of animism, spirit-like entities are believed to reside in all things, both the living and the dead, including natural phenomena and objects. kami a yokai inhabit the spirit domain and in shape or nature can be either humans, animals, plants, natural phenomena or artifacts. Like for example this daikon radish (can you spot it?) appearing on omocha-e play pictures made for children’s entertainment as early as the Meiji éry (1868–1912).

Root vegetables like radishes and carrots have often become internet sensations due to the occasional deformations they suffer. Their wonky shapes might have displeased a farmer in the past and ended up in the garbage instead of as pickles. Similar destiny had already befallen the objects of a house possessed by spirits. Discarded while the house was being exorcised, the aggrieved objects transform into yokai and start plotting their revenge.

Oshirasama (Radish Spirit or Great White Lord) is the white, hefty, slow-moving guest at Yubaba’s bathhouse who resembles a radish sumo wrestler. His name, Oshirasama, is also the name of a kami of agriculture in the Shinto faith.

Have you noticed any of these? Do you perhaps know of another reference I might have missed out. How about re-watching the above mentioned films with this newly gained perspective?
Japanese folklore is rich, extraordinarily original and beautiful. And so are Studio Ghibli’s films.

Movies about Youkai

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Explainer | From My Neighbour Totoro to Yokaipedia, Japanese ‘yokai’ movies and what you need to know about the mythological creatures

• Yokai are supernatural entities from Japanese folklore that can assume different forms – from animals to humans to inanimate objects
• The ’60s series GeGeGe no Kitaro helped popularise yokai in modern culture, while films like My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away took them into the mainstream

Zveřejněno: 4:15, 5. dubna 2023

Takashi Yamazaki’s fantastical adventure Yokaipedia, which opens in Hong Kong cinemas this week, tells the story of three middle-schoolers from a small Japanese town who must do battle with a host of mythological creatures, known as yokai, to save their ailing classmate.

In the film, these otherworldly creatures take on a variety of different forms and wield unique powers, challenging the young protagonists to overcome them through a combination of intelligence and strength, with help from the eponymous magical tome of the title.

Ale co přesně jsou yokai, and how have they featured in Japanese cinema over the years?

V podstatě, yokai are supernatural entities from Japanese folklore that have existed in myths and legends for as long as there have been stories to tell.

Similar to fairies, nymphs or sprites from Western mythology – rather than ghosts or demons – yokai are not inherently evil or dangerous, although different types can prove more malevolent or benevolent to humans depending on the circumstances.

Odlišný yokai can assume different forms – ranging from animals such as foxes, cats or snakes to human shapes – or even resemble inanimate objects like lanterns or even tofu. In Yokaipedia, one of the spirits encountered takes the form of an enormous dragon, while another resembles an ordinary children’s climbing frame.

Jeden z prvních odkazů na yokai appeared in the classical Japanese history text Shoku Nihongi, published in the eighth century.

Aligning with traditional Shinto beliefs in animism – the concept that all creatures, objects and places are imbued with a unique spiritual essence – the term yokai was used to explain away any kind of strange or otherwise undefinable phenomena.

Remote rural communities were more inclined to propagate such concepts and myths than more sophisticated urban communities.

As such, many tales featuring yokai revolve around lakes, rivers, mountains and the like, often involving jilted lovers, tragic deaths or other quirks of nature – even something as innocuous as being defecated on by a bird – which have ultimately come to be embodied by a bizarre or ghoulish corporeal form.

During Japan’s Edo period, which began in the early 17th century, the publishing boom saw many of these stories committed to print and widely circulated for the first time.

They were accompanied by increasingly elaborate illustrations, which finally put grotesque faces to many of these ethereal beings.

Similarly, the increasing demand for such stories, both in print and as a result of popular storytelling games like “Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai” (“A gathering of 100 Supernatural Tales”), resulted in writers and artists creating new yokai – complete with unique appearance and tragic backstory – simply to meet the demands of the exploding marketplace.

For modern audiences, the proliferation of yokai in contemporary popular culture can be most readily attributed to the work of celebrated manga artist Shigeru Mizuki.

His smash hit series GeGeGe no Kitaro, first published in 1960, follows Kitaro, a one-eyed demon boy who was born in a graveyard, on his wild and crazy adventures in a spooky, yokai-infested world.

Working as a crime-fighting intermediary between the human and spirit worlds, Kitaro is the last surviving member of the Ghost Tribe, which makes him a yokai sám.

Together with a small band of similarly afflicted friends, including a sentient eyeball that was once his father, feline romantic interest Neko Musume, and duplicitous rodent-human halfling Nezumi Otoko, Kitaro must battle all manner of supernatural beings, both from Japan and further afield.

Mizuki’s original manga ran for almost a decade and has since been adapted for both the big and small screens. The GeGeGe no Kitaro animated series first aired in 1968, with new seasons arriving intermittently as recently as 2020.

There have to date been two live-action feature films, released in 2007 and 2008, starring Eiji Wentz as Kitaro, as well as two animated features, the second of which is scheduled for release later this year.

Aimed squarely at a younger audience, GeGeGe no Kitaro has served as a trustworthy guide into the fantastical world of the supernatural for generations of fans, bridging the gap between adventure and horror in much the same way as films like Monsters, Inc, ParaNorman a Ukradené Vánoce have done in the West.

Počáteční úspěch GeGeGe no Kitaro caused something of a “yokai boom” in Japan during the late 1960s, not least after the enormous success of the animated series on Fuji TV.

With everyone looking to cash in, Daiei Film studio produced a number of tokusatsu features – a Japanese filmmaking style that uses lots of practical special effects – that prominently featured yokai and other assorted fantasy creatures.

Its trilogy of Daimajin films – incredibly, all released in 1966 – chronicle events in similar, remote communities, who call upon the eponymous vengeful mountain spirit to help them in their hour of need. This leads to a huge stone warrior figure running rampant across the countryside, enrapturing audiences in the process.

These were followed up quickly with a second, unrelated trilogy of supernatural treats called Yokai Monsters. These films employed a fantastic array of practical effects and camera tricks, together with elaborate costumes, rubber suits and puppetry, in a series of spooky, carnivalesque encounters with a parade of outrageous yokai postavy.

Audiences were treated to seemingly living, breathing incarnations of faceless noppera-bo ghosts, goofy-looking kasa-obake umbrella spirits, one-eyed tsuchi-korobi, and terrifying snake-necked women known as rokurokubi, Abychom jmenovali jen několik.

Decades later, the second film in the series, Yokai Monsters: Strašidelná válka, would serve as the basis for Takashi Miike’s star-studded remake Velká Yokaiská válka (2005), and its 2021 sequel.

Ne vše yokai films target a young audience, of course. Numerous horror films tailored squarely for more mature viewers also prominently feature the supernatural spirits.

Kaneto Shindo’s visually dazzling 1968 ghost story kuroneko features a pair of murdered women who return in bewitching cat form to take their revenge, and could be classified as yokai. Princezna Mýval, from the late, great Seijun Suzuki, casts Zhang Ziyi as a beautiful tanuki, or raccoon dog, who seduces Joe Odagiri’s persecuted prince.

Similarly, the classic turtle-like kappa is reimagined as an unlikely romantic conquest in Shinji Imaoka’s one-of-a-kind 2011 pink musical Podvodní láska, shot by Wong Kar-wai’s go-to cinematographer, Christopher Doyle.

The work of Hayao Miyazaki has also been instrumental in bringing yokai into the mainstream. Beloved films such as Můj soused Totoro, Princezna Mononoke a Cesta do fantazie hinge upon pivotal interactions between young human protagonists and mystical entities that emerge from unfamiliar, rural surroundings.

The giant furry wood sprite Totoro has developed a gargantuan cult following since Můj soused Totoro’s original release in 1988. He has become a national icon in Japan, as well as the official mascot of his parent company, Studio Ghibli .

As a result, Totoro can probably lay claim to being the most recognisable yokai in the world – with the possible exception of Pikachu. After all, what are the Pokémon if not competitive yokai, doing their part to save the world?

Yo-kai Watch Movies

A Yo-kai Watch movie is a theatrical release that is usually based on the anime series, but have a greater length of detail to them compared to the episodes. Some of the other ones are based on different adaptations of the franchise and usually have a tie-in of some sort in the corresponding game released around the time.

Every movie usually comes out during the winter in Japan, along with an announcement in the spring and summer season, and a home video release in next summer. So far, only one of the movies have been dubbed into English.

There are currently a total of eight movies released.

Obsah

• 1 List of Movies
  • 1.1 Original Series
  • 1.2 Yo-kai Watch Shadowside
  • 1.3 Y School Heroes
  • 1.4 Yo-kai Watch♪
  • 2.1 Japonsko

  List of Movies [ ]

  Original Series [ ]

  

  

  

  Yo-kai Watch Shadowside [ ]

  

  Y School Heroes [ ]

  

  Yo-kai Watch♪ [ ]

  

  

  Box Office Total [ ]

  Japonsko [ ]

  Film	Pokladna	Celkové příjmy	špička
  Yo-kai Watch: The Movie	¥ 1,628,893,000	¥ 7,800,000,000	2
  Enma-daiō to Itsutsu no Monogatari da-nyan!	¥ 937,238,108	¥ 5,530,000,000	2
  Soratobu Kujira to Daburu Sekai no Dai-bōken da-nyan!	¥ 559,879,188	¥ 3,260,000,000	2
  Yo-kai Watch Shadowside: Oni-ō no Fukkatsu	¥ 384,990,204	¥ 2,040,000,000	2
  Yo-kai Watch: FOREVER FRIENDS	¥111,179,800 [1]	¥1,150,000,000 [2]	7
  Yo-kai Watch Jam The Movie: Yo-kai Academy Y — Může být kočka hrdinou?	¥130,000,000 [3]	¥730,000,000 [4] *	4

  Connection with the anime [ ]

  There have been instances where the Yo-kai Watch movies connect with the anime or not, depending if there’s a setup or anything else.

  Umístění časové osy Yo-kai Watch: The Movie in the anime series has been debated, with the placement usually taking place between EP049 and EP050 (which is around the time of the movie’s theatrical release in Japan), or after Whisper’s Secret Past, as Kin and Gin never appear in the anime ever again. Elements related to the movie would be mentioned later on in the anime such as Nathaniel shown to have created the first watch, confirming that the movie does canonically take place in the anime series.

  Nicméně, Christmas Blackout! Time for a Yo-kai Watch Update! serves as a proper prologue to M02, with Duke Doggy and Aristokat being the antagonists of the episode, Lord Enma’s human form making a cameo at the end and Nate and Hailey welding the upgraded watches in the movie. The movie’s Japanese release after the episode’s original airing further confirms it.

  The events of M03 have not been confirmed just like the first movie, but EP200 has a plot where Komasan is a giant whale that makes wishes come true, in a similar vein to the one in the movie. The movie’s television premiere followed afterwards, suggesting that the events of the movie happen after that episode.

  M04, M05 and M06 are stories that don’t focus on Nathan Adams, Jibanyan and Whisper, but rather with a different cast of characters instead. The fourth movie serves as an overall prologue to the Yo-kai Watch Shadowside anime, with the events of it being recapped in the first episode of the series. The same also applies to M06, with the series taking place after the movie.

  Tie-ins with the video games [ ]

  In most of the Yo-kai Watch video games, content from the movies are occasionally included for promotional purposes.

  The entire plot of Yo-kai Watch: The Movie je založeno na Hodinky Yo-kai 2, with several elements taken from Psychické přízraky like Dame Dedtime’s backstory and the presence of Bronzlow. The movie itself was also released in Japan around the time Psychické přízraky came out. Unlockable concept art from the movie can be found by completing a Quest exclusive to that version.

  Projekt Moon Rabbit Crew rozšíření pro Blastery hodinek Yo-kai, adds several new Yo-kai, Missions and Big Bosses that appear in M02. Some of the missions are also loosely based on the story’s plot, with the Zazel battle being the most reminiscent of the movie.

  Výhradně v Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki, there is a quest that is loosely based on M03, that makes the characters and Yo-kai look more real based on a mysterious flying whale.

  M04 ties into two games, which are Yo-kai Watch Busters 2 a do určité míry Hodinky Yo-kai 4, despite the latter basing it more from the anime series. Lord Ananta and Lord Acala can be befriended in Yo-kai Watch Busters 2 by obtaining certain key items, which will allow the player to battle them. The plot of M05 also ties into Yo-kai Watch 4, as well as the series of Yo-kai Watch Shadowside as a whole.

  There is a small Quest in Hodinky Yo-kai 4 which involves Jinpei Jiba suddenly transported to the future world, which is further expanded in the 4++ expansion to tie in with M06’s release.

  drobnosti [ ]

  • Before the Zazel Boss fight in Moon Rabbit Crew, Spoilerina breaks the fourth wall by warning everyone that the next mission will «contain spoilers for the next movie». However, the line is fully translated in all European languages, even though the second movie has yet to get an English dub.
    • However, M02 eventually got dubbed into Latin Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese which was released on Disney XD on December 7, 2019.

    Externí odkazy [ ]

    Reference [ ]

    1. ↑https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2018W51/?area=JP&ref_=bo_wey_table_2
    2. ↑https://pixiin.com/yo-kai-watch-movie/
    3. ↑https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/anime-news/2019/12/23-1/japan-box-office-my-hero-academia-heroes-rising-debuts-at-3-with-solid-283-million-yen
    4. ↑https://eiga.com/news/20200106/17/
    5. ↑https://www.reddit.com/r/yokaiwatch/comments/c9l04y/yokai_watch_4_western_localization_announced_at/esze43w?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

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