Yokai Monsters (妖怪シリーズ) is a trilogy of Japanese horror/fantasy films written by Tetsuro Yoshida and released in the late 1960s. The films were produced by Daiei Film.

There were originally three movies made:

While not canonically linked, all three were thematically joined by their inclusion of a group of creatures from Japanese mythology known as yōkai (妖怪, lit. "strange things").

Influence and legacy

Receiving little attention outside Japan, the films are remembered mainly for their special effects, which include a lot of puppetry, suitmation, and even traditional animation. The films made use of yōkai ("strange apparition"), based on traditional illustrations from Japanese folklore. The puppet used for the Kasa-obake in particular has become a recognizable rendering of the creature.

Reboot series

In 2005, Takashi Miike directed a remake of Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare titled The Great Yokai War. The film is not officially related to the Yokai Monsters trilogy, but draws a lot of its influence from similar sources, notably the legend of Momotarō and Shigeru Mizuki's GeGeGe no Kitarō series of the same name.[1] Mizuki himself appears in this version, though neither the remake nor the original films make use of his yōkai creations, preferring instead to feature more traditional creatures.

A sequel to The Great Yokai War, titled The Great Yokai War: Guardians, was released in Japan on August 13, 2021.[2]

Yōkai Heaven in 1986 and Sakuya Yōkaiden in 2000 were released by different companies, however these films were redeveloped from reboot attempts of the Yokai Monsters by Daiei Films and Tokuma Shoten, also appointing staffs previously involved in the Gamera franchise including the director Tomoo Haraguchi and others such as Shinji Higuchi where Daiei's yōkai films were largely influenced by Gamera and Daimajin, the character being also redeveloped from the Gamera franchise.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Papp, Zilia (2009). "Monsters at War: The Great Yōkai Wars, 1968-2005". Mechademia. 4 (War/Time): 225–239. doi:10.1353/mec.0.0073. JSTOR 41510938. S2CID 52229518.
  2. ↑ "映画『妖怪大戦争 ガーディアンズ』公式サイト". 映画『妖怪大戦争 ガーディアンズ』公式サイト (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  3. ↑ Matsunomoto, Kazuhiro, 1996, The Gamera Chronicles, p.104-105, Takeshobo
  4. ↑ 甦れ!妖怪映画大集合!! 2005, p.97, p.116-119, Takeshobo


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