Freak Show : As The God's Will (2014) Movie Review

As The God’s Will is a gory, good time

Director: Takashi Miike

Starring: Mio Yûki, Shôta Sometani, Nao Ômori

Studios: Toho Company

Release Dates: November 15, 2014

Plot: A group of high school students are forced to play a game of death without knowing who, why or how.

As The God’s Will (originally known as Kamisama no iu tori ) is probably one of the weirdest japanese movies I’ve seen. I guess one factor for that is because it is helmed by one of the craziest directors in the genre, Takashi Miike (Audition, Imprint). So it’s really no wonder that the whole film turned out really weird… but fun.

So here’s my review of As The God’s Will.

It’s Hunger Games meets Saw

Just by reading the short description above, you probably have an idea already of what’s going on with this film. Basically, it’s about a group of high school students that have been trapped and sealed off from society as they go through these games of death: you win, you live; you lose, you die.

So it shares similarities with movies like The Hunger Games. But there’s also some similarities with films like Saw. Some people kept on comparing it to the film Battle Royale, but I wont go to that thread because I haven’t seen that one yet. There’s a portion of the film where the teens are forced to sacrifice one another to live, which gives it The Hunger Games feel. But it’s more of like a bloodier, gorier version of the Hollywood movie, but with subtitles. The games kinda reminds me of the traps from the Saw franchise, most especially the opening scene itself.

Speaking of which, the opening scene of this movie is actually the best part of the film. It features the protagonist, together with his classmates, as they are forced to paly an elimination round for the games. This one features a moving and talking Daruma doll. In the game, whoever the Daruma doll catches moving among the students are going to get killed by having their heads blown off. I really love this part of the movie. It’s full of teens all cramped in one classroom, each getting their heads blown to bits one by one.

But even though I really enjoyed this part of the movie, this actually brings us to the very problem of the film.

Uneven Levels

Although the first part of the movie was a whole lot of fun, unfortunately, the film wasn’t able to maintain that level of excitement all throughout the film.

After the opening scene, the following games in the movie vary when it comes to it’s intensity. Some are a bit boring while some were okay. But none of them were able to surpass or at least meet the fun in the first few minutes of the movie. Of course, with that kind of opening, you would expect that you will get to see a much more, fun, bloody and gory games that will follow. But it’s not. As the whole movie progresses, the level of the fun decreases by each game.

This actually makes the latter half of the film somewhat a disappointment. And the ending isn’t also that good, for me. But despite that, the opening scene of this movie will always have a place in my heart as one of the best opening kills of the year.

A Really Gory, Good Time

Despite all this, the film was still a fun roller coaster ride in the end. It contains some of the best movie kills I’ve seen in a while. Takashi Miike really shows off a lot of skill when it comes to this aspect of the film. Of course, the head explosions during the first few minutes of the film are my most favorite. But aside from that, it also features some pretty good kills over the course of two hours (or so).

One of which involves these floating dolls who played a tug-of-war game by pulling the feet of a girl to different sides, ripping the body in half. That was quite excruciating to watch. Another one involves a guy being hypnotized by one of the dolls into hitting his forehead into the cement floor, crushing his face after each blow. Obviously, it ended up really, really messy.

Verdict:

Despite some shortcomings, it didn’t prevented the whole film to be totally entertaining.It gives what is promised by Takashi Miike: blood, gore, and weird storyline. And it is sure to give horror fans a really gory, good time.