wow . so much fun . probably a bit much for normal american kid and and really it a stretch to call this a kid film and this movie remind me a quite a bit of time bandit very terry gilliam all the way through . while the overall narrative be pretty much straight forward and miike still throw in a lot of surreal and bunuel esquire moment . the whole first act violently juxtapose from scene to scene the normal family life of the main kid or hero and with the spirit world and the evil than be ensue therein . and while the end do have a bit of an ambiguous aspect that be common of miike work and the layer of meaning and metaphor and particularly the anti war or anti revenge message of human folly and be pretty damn poignant . a manic and imaginatively fun a other great miike film and only instead of over the top torture and gore and he give u an endless amount of monster and yokai from japanese folk lore creatively conceive via cg and puppetry wrap into an imaginative multi faceted adventure . fn rad and and one of miike best .