Arrow Blu-ray Film Reviews

‘Yōkai Monsters’ Collection (1968–2005) • Blu-ray [Arrow Video]

A review of Arrow Video’s box-set ‘Yōkai Monsters’ Collection, featuring ‘100 Monsters’, ‘Spook Warfare’, ‘Along with Ghosts’, and ‘The Great Yōkai War’.

This attractive box set from Arrow Video should please anyone with an interest in folklore, fantasy, ghost stories, fairy tales, and weird world cinema. Gathered here are Daiei’s Yōkai Trilogy, consisting of 100 Monsters (1968), Spook Warfare (1968) and Along with Ghosts (1969), all made back-to-back and directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda. The fourth film, Takashi Miike’s The Great Yōkai War (2005), is an audacious reboot rather than a remake. If you already know what yōkai are, you’ve probably already placed a pre-order!

Likewise, if you’re familiar with Daiei’s output, you’ll find these of interest, as the Daiei Studios were one of the two major studios in post-war Japan, making an international impact with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and dominating the chanbara genre with the immensely popular Zatoichi series of films…