(by gedanielson on 6 January 2007)

Yokai Monsters Along Came Ghosts is the third in the series. A poor grandpa gets caught in the cross fire between rival bosses. Nearly slashed to death he crawls off home. With his dying breath he hands his 7 year old granddaughter a pair of dice and instructions on how to find her father. She heads off to town with some guys chasing her. She's helped along the way by a nice kid and one of the men of the dead boss. It's a story of murder, vengeance and redemption. With ghosts. The film is more reminiscence of a Zatoichi movie, and not surprisingly. One of the two directors, Kimiyoshi Yasuda, directed some of that series. I enjoyed the movie but sadly there weren't enough monsters, especially after seeing Yokai Monsters - 100 Monsters. That's not a very serious complaint, although I wouldn't mind seeing YM - 300 Monsters. Maybe someone should get on that. I liked the little girl and the hero played by Kojiro Hongo. She was cute and he was heroic and valiant. The villains were your typical bad sorts whose fall is enjoyable. Eventually the good guys prevail and things are as good as you can expect in feudal Japan, by which I mean you aren't being killed right this minute.