Summary: (excerpted from Lunapark6)
From the classic Japanese manga “Ge Ge No Kitaro” comes the live action film of the same name. The manga itself was published in the late 1950’s and popularized the Yokai – spirit monsters originating from Japanese folklore. To this day the Yokai are still popular subject matter in Japanese media, just reference Takeshi Miike’s “The Great Yokai War” or the the anime series “Naruto” for further proof. Now the live action version of the classic manga is brought to the big screen by director Katsuhide Motoki (Drugstore Girl) and features a fun cast of popular Japanese performers.

Since the movie is set within the world of Japanese spirits and monsters, you can expect to see a lot of colorful special effects. A large potion of those special effects were done by the Hong Kong company Centro Digital Pictures (“Kill Bill 1 & 2”, “Kung Fu Hustle”). The quality of the special effects ranged from the impressive, to the not so impressive, to the downright bizarre. However the quality, the specials effects were done in a consistently fun manner and worked well to make the movie all the more enjoyable.

“Gegege No Kitaro” starts off with a young boy, named Kento, as he sends a letter to a Yokai named Kitaro. Kento’s apartment building is overrun with ghosts & spirits and he asks Kitaro for his help. Shortly afterwards, Kento finds himself surrounded by spirits late at night. Kitaro appears out of the blue and saves Kento, while sending the Yokai spirits away. Kento’s older sister walks into the picture after the spirits are banished and reprimands Kitaro for staying out late with her younger brother. Strangely enough, Kitaro finds himself attracted to Kento’s older sister and her tough mannerisms.

Kitaro himself is half human & half Yokai. He lives with his father, who has come back to life as an eyeball in a tree house. Other people that live in the tree house are Cat Girl and Sand Witch. Kitaro also has a friend named Rat Man. His friend, Rat Man, is an unscrupulous creature that is about to get Kitaro in a heap of trouble.

Rat Man unknowingly falls into the dangerous lair of the Fox spirits. He finds a mysterious stone that glows brightly and without hesitation steals the stone. The stone wields incredible power and was to be used by the Fox spirits in their attempts to takeout the human race. Rat Man, still unaware of what the stone wields, pawns off the stone at an antique dealer store the next day.

After Rat Man pawns off the stone, Kento’s father walks into the antique shop. He notices the glowing stone, as it was left unattended on the counter, and ends up stealing it for himself. The police are quickly called to the store and they narrow the suspects down to Kento’s father. Right before Kento’s father is captured by the police, he gives the stone to Kento to hold and makes him promise that he will keep it a secret.

Now the Fox spirits are in hot pursuit of the stone and the little boy Kento. Kitaro, unaware that Kento possesses the evil stone, must keep the Foxes at bay, while trying to locate the stone himself and keep it out of the wrong hands.

The movie stars Eiji Wentz as Kitaro. The actor is well know in Japan as one half of the J-Pop duo WaT (the other half of WaT is Teppei Koike the actor in Love Com). Eiji Wentz gives an appealing performance, easily bringing the Kitaro character to life. On a side note, if you find the long bangs hanging over Kitaro’s face to be an annoyance, you should know there’s a reason why he wears his hair that way. In the manga, but not explained in the movie, Kitaro is missing his left eye and has an empty left eye socket.

There’s also plenty of fun cameo appearances that may go unnoticed. Mrs. Spiral Neck was played by none other than You (Nobody Knows). The judge from the Night Court was played by Shido Nakamura (Dragon from Ping Pong). Lastly, Naoto Takenaka (the coach from Ping Pong and the music teacher from Swing Girls) makes a brief appearance as the cook in the restaurant where Rat Man orders Kitaro plain noodles. (http://lunapark6.com/kitaro-gegege-no-kitaro.html)

Words From Me:
I just wanted to see this film because of Inoue Mao. After watching it, I also started to like the lead guy. Eiji Wentz... he really looks so kawai and definitely a good choice to act as Kitaro. It was a funny film, might be average for some viewers but i liked it. For some reason I don't know why i like it when the pace of the story was a bit fast and the cinematography was so obvious it was computerized. I liked it not just because of Mao or Eiji. For some really bizarre unknown reason I like it.