I loved this movie from the start. Is there going to be a part II or ...? I am obsessed.

It had been a few years since I had seen a new Takashi Miike movie before somehow stumbling upon the trailer for As the Gods Will, which had such delightful and self-consciously silly visuals like a floating head (or a Doramus or whatever it's called) making teenagers heads explode - the blood is actually red marbles though so it's alright - or a talking Polar bear crushing other teens into mulch for being caught as liars. Seeing this was a very good reminder about how much fun Miike can have when he has some characters that he likes - and others he knows he can kill in some creative and occasionally gruesome ways - but it's also about translating a Manga to screen in a way that is... I won't say more "kid" friendly, but certainly more accessible than the transgressive and really bonkers Ichi the Killer, also based on a Manga. But as with most things, with Miike there is a curve.So many of his films are bizarre WTF-fests that something like As the Gods Will gets kind of close to the top... ten perhaps, maybe not five, but that's saying just how insane he's taken the visuals and surrealism and fantasy in his past work - also see The Happiness of the Katakuris, Gozu or The Great Yokhai War for more examples, or any given Dead or Alive movie, mostly the first one - and how he could give less than a damn about good taste or morality, at least in the sense of offending imprudent tastes. With this, the parallels one might think to Battle Royale are apparent up front, with high schoolers being slaughtered left and right (though in this case one by one by a giant floating talking head that will only stop if, according to him/it, someone presses the big red button on the opposite side of its face), but there's also here a much cheerier version of Saw, where there are many "games" to play, but it's not like these students have been picked out for being bad or need to be taught lessons.Matter of fact, its not totally clear why there are these objects like a giant cat that will kill the students in the gym it's at because, uh, there are mice costumes that need to be put on(!) or the Polar Bear or other floating dolls that sing songs and make one guess who is singing and so on. I think this is perhaps due to being a *very* Japanese movie (I haven't read the Manga, but also this movie is hard to track down in the US, it's only available as an import and even rarer to get to play on an American DVD player), and that there is not much at all explained in the way of why there are these... giant floating cubes ala the movie Arrival floating above major cities. Are there terrorist attacks? Nope, says a guy who looks like a Japanese Wario from the NES games; these are aliens... or are they? Why are they coming to Earth to make teenagers play these life/death games? What do these "Gods" want from us? But on the other hand, hey, who cares? Miike gets us invested enough in the small handful of characters that seem to be liking, Shun being the main character who has lived a "boring" life before and is now having to think on his wits every moment of these games, so that we are focused on their will-they-won't-theys as they face off against these bizarro elements. The characters, including the punk Amayo who seems like he's ego-maniacal from minute one, are types, but the writers and Miike know how to make them into human beings that we can get behind in all of his, and as bat**** everything gets, we have them as an anchor, at least of a sort. So while there certainly could be just a little, even a small scene, where things could be explained (a friend I watched this with said more might come in a sequel, and good luck with all of that I say), and a small side character that is on the outside world, a shut-in, watching all of what's happening on TV could've had a little more going on with him, what the filmmaker does with these five acts (and it's really five, not three) is remarkable.This is tenacious, entertaining cinema that will certainly delight those who are more accustomed to the... idiosyncrasies of Japanese genre cinema (bordering, or just, exploitation filmmaking, though Miike is a cut above, say, the guys who do like Tokyo Gore Police or the Machine Girl or schlock like that, he really cares about his shots and he has had for a long time a great sense of comic timing). There's even an element of, in short, if this were a Japanese anime/animated film, we probably might not think twice about 75% of what goes on here. That it's in live action makes it all the more purely Gonzo, and all the more of a fun time for it, albeit with a sad ending.

Before I start my review, I want to say that I have not read the original manga, so I don't know how faithful this adaptation is. I started watching this movie without any knowledge about the plot, and I have to say, I was entertained a lot by it.The movie has a simple premise: a bunch of Japanese teenage students are forced to play a death game. It kinda reminds you of another Japanese classic: "Battle Royale". However, the execution of "As the Gods Will" is quite different. Apart from the usual gore and exploding heads, Takashi Miike fills the film with a healthy dose of humor and silliness, irony and some social commentary. While the cgi monsters may look a bit out of place in a horror movie, they kinda add something to the overall atmosphere.The acting in the film is overall fine, although none of the performances is worth mentioning, also due to the nature of the movie.Overall, this movie is a fast-paced and wild ride from start to finish. It ultimately delivers, as the puzzles are quite entertaining and manage to keep the viewer glued to the screen for the duration of the movie.

Seeing that it's based on a manga for boys and rising young popular actors were cast in it, obviously, this movie was targeted at 10s to early 20s. As such, the gore and violence was pretty tame for a Miike movie. The death games that the high schoolers have to survive are so simple, thus not so interesting, but the opening sequence with the Daruma doll, where gore was replaced with 80,000 red marbles/bouncy balls, was well executed along the theme of child's play succeeding in creating surrealistic imagery and is considered as the highlight of the movie. The CG was not so bad overall. I like the modeling of the Daruma doll with glaring bloodshot eyes. Also I like the twisted casting for the deadly matreshka dolls dubbed by the voice actors who play Doraemon and Jibanyan, 2 iconic anime characters loved by the nation.Acting wise, feels like Ryunosuke Kamiki stole the show and the character played by Nao Omori was totally unnecessary.