I recently watched a Japanese movie “Gegege no Kitaro” starring Wentz Eiji and Inoue Mao. The movie was originated from a manga which drawn by cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki in 1959. Recently yokai or supernatural creatures had gaining its popularity in Japan, and many yokai themed animated films were produced like “Dororo” and this movie.
You can read more about this movie from lunapark6.com review. The movie was good, with eye-candy casts as well as the variety of cute, funny and evil looking spirited creatures. I know some of the creatures since small, like the umbrella yokai (Kasa Obake) and sandal yokai (Bakezouri) shown picture below, because I had seen it in Doraemon comic and Ikkyu cartoon since small.
From left to right: Kasa Obake, Bakezouri, Nurikabe
Well, just enter the well designed official movie site to get the ghostly feel and take a look at all the supernatural creatures that appear in the movie. There is one creature that really stands out, and it is Kitaro’s father Medama Oyaji! He is tiny and he has an eyeball with red iris that makes up his head. Well knowledged and kind hearted, he loves to bath in a small bowl, haha. He is cute!
The official site also make use of the cuteness of Medama Oyaji by making him interactible guider on the website. Drag him, throwing him up side down and you will see him flying around. Damn funny! Besides that, in the real world, Medama Oyaji even makes his way to become decoration for handphones. He is famous!
Quiz: How many Medama Oyaji are there in the picture above?
Some other notable creatures like Neko Musume because she was acted by cute idol Rena Tanaka, Nurikabe, and many more, it’s so many. Well, to know more about Japanese yokai, you can check out the links: List of legendary creatures from Japan and Mizuki Shigeru no Yokai Vault. If really interested, why don’t travel to Japan and pay a visit to Yokai Rakuen.
I can’t classified Gegege no Kitaro as great movie but it is entertaining and fun to watch, plus it is educational because you can learn something about Japanese traditional supernatural creatures, which I think is good! Definitely a movie to watch. By the way, the DVD for this movie was released.
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