The Great Yokai War on AllMovie

A group of grotesque supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore enlist the aid of a young boy recently bestowed with the title of Kirin Rider in defeating a powerful dark overlord who preys on humans and monsters alike in this kid-friendly fantasy from Takashi Miike. As a series of bizarre supernatural incidents plague the Japanese countryside and scores of children go missing, a mysterious series of mechanical monster attacks led by a dark mistress (Chiaki Kuriyama) sends the country into a panicked frenzy. In the midst of the otherworldly chaos, a young boy named Takashi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is named Kirin Rider at a rural shrine festival and sent into the hills to claim his sword from the Great Goblin as local legend dictates. Arriving at his destination to find that the mountain is populated by a variety of ghoulish inhabitants visible only to his eye, Takashi pledges to save his new Yokai friends and put an end to the apocalyptic plot set into motion by an evil entity determined to destroy mankind.