| VincentP | 3.25 | A decent piece of fantasy sublimated by Sanada's performance. |
Although Onmyoji was publicized as the Japanese response to Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, a much more insightful view of the film in my opinion—if we had to compare it to anything Western—would be to think of a lesser-profiled, but nonetheless unrestrained Burton-like fantasy achievement, on the standard of a, say, Sleepy Hollow. Adapted from Baku Yumemakura’s novels, which also sprang a number of manga and TV series offshoots, the film depicts the adventures of a group of shamans—‘onmyojis’—, living in an erstwhile and fairy-dwelled Japan, whose task is to keep the most undesirable spirits at bay. I won’t go through the intricacy of the story because I think It would betray one the strongest points of this tale, and I understand some could consider it as very far-fetched, but if you’re ready to put on a musing and guileless mood, you’ll be somewhat moved by the poetry of some of the situations portrayed here. You might also be a bit disappointed if you expect any spectacular special effects, because obviously there needs to be a certain amount of suggestion on your part here (especially with the bird thing).
Although a reputed figure of Martial Arts movies, Hiroyuki Sanada doesn’t offer any particularly interesting physical performance here, but his artistic performance as Doson the arch-villain is a particularly compelling one. I wonder how they managed to have this character come back in the second instalment but someone here is eager to find out about that.
