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Ghost Sweeper Mikami Movie
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Title Info
- type: movie
- grade: watchable
- made: unknown
- Review created: Sun Dec 10 16:21:55 EST 2000
- mod: none
It'll be an awful lot easier to follow this movie if you're familiar with the TV series. This is because while all the cool extra characters get to show up there's limited time for introductions.
Essentially Ghost Sweepers are basically commercial ghost exterminators, using a variety of mystical/religious traditions to banish ghosts and demons. The most powerful one in modern tokyo being the attractive, potent but incredibly mercenary Mikaki. Along with her super lecherous assistant (mostly used as bait) and a 300 year old ghost of a young female (the balanced one in the group, mostly serves tea) there's no ghost she can't defeat in exchange for large amounts of money.
There's also a bunch of other ghost hunters, with various powers, most of whom are less than totally supportive of Mikami. After all, it's a very competitive business. Still, they're a fairly entertaining bunch and can be guaranteed to make any mission more challenging and exciting than it really needs to be.
Mind you, this mission doesn't need any help. It seems that the re-birth of Nosferatu, the sort of vampire that terrifies vampires, is imminent. And a Demon hunter from the past has selected the most powerful modern ghost hunter to finish the job he started. Which, unfortunately, just happens to be Mikami. While all the old stalwarts arrive to get involved in the end it is up to Mikami to face the most powerful monster in the world (and his spider demon samurai servant) before he (literally) sucks the life out of Japan.
In other words it's the typical movie thing. Since it has a bit more money it tries to do something impressive by introducing a super potent bad guy. However this, combined with the time pressure and the large inherited cast, means that character and story are reduced. Thus the action, which admittedly was a sizable part of the TV series, dominates as they fight it out over tokyo. This does mean it's quite watchable, but unless you are familiar with the series the flashes of character might be somewhat confusing. And Mikami herself looks even more mercenary, to the point of endangering her friends (and the world) than she ever was in the TV series.
It's also true that, even with more money, the production quality still looks fairly dated. In some strange ways it even looks worse than the TV series. This is because, while the linework is more complex and the motion far superior (some lovely swordfighting in here) the linework combines with the broad coloring to make it look quite messy. Likewise the complex shapes sometimes go `out of control' and shift quite disturbingly. On top of this the characters largely retain the simple, and sort of strange, look familiar to those who have seen the TV series. This retained style tends to look a bit strange against the more complex backgrounds. Still, it's all entertaining enough and the action shows some imagination and style to make the whole thing worth watching.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:18 WST 2009