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Excellent but underrated film

Don't Believe the Hype

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I rented this movie to see Hiroyuki Sanada. Of course he looked gorgeous in it as usual so for that I'm grateful. However the rest of the movie I'm not too sure about. It's a story about demons and using them to curse other people, stuff like that. But my problem is while watching it I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a kids movie or a movie for adults. The cheesiness of it made me think it was for kids but there is a vampire type character and strange fighting scenes that would probably be inappropriate for children. On top of that I was simultaneously reminding of both Return to Witch Mountain and Mortal Kombat (the movie). So I don't know what to think.Another big problem that is endemic of Japanese movies are these awful effects. I almost wonder if they make it look bad on purpose so it won't be so realistic and therefore less upsetting. But in this and at least Ichi the Killer, I saw effects that stopped me dead in my tracks to think "Geez, that is so cheap looking". I think it was Zatoichi that I stopped about 10 minutes in because of the silly effects. I can't take something seriously if the effects look like they were done with Silly Putty, Kool-Aid, and Microsoft Paint. When I think of Japan, I almost immediately think of technology so this makes no sense. If they're doing it on purpose, Stop It! The story was okay I guess and the acting was passable. But I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. If you're the type who like sword fighting movies this isn't what you're looking for because there is only one scene like that and only one guy has a sword. It's really about magic, uninteresting magic at that.

When You first look at the cover you expect some hazy film, with a half baked plot and horrible fight scenes. Well this exceeds even the best movies I have seen. For a once a period piece that doesn't put me to sleep like so many foreign films.Abe no Seimei who by far has just made my top ten list of characters I love,the actors bring there character to life. Not only that but for once the leads in the film are handsome. The plot only adds to this splendid movie, while it includes everything that someone would want in a film. From beginning to end I was captivated and enthralled. Slight reminders of the mummy returns, though they don't intend to show any.It has it all from a cursed family to your angry evil spirits that take over the soldiers, unrequited love until its too late, a great love story, simply beautiful costuming, great music and of course you can't forget demons. The filming is clear and pristine, while lighting only adds to the appeal. The final fight while being not only being played out well, bridges that fine between overdone and short but sweet. Somewhere in all this wonder they have a great deal of character development and leave no big gaps to be filled. The only true question you will have is how quickly can I get this DVD delivered.

What the hell is anyone talking about that this movie is even remotely worth looking at? This is the worst cheesiest effects I have ever seen in a movie that didn't have the Kroft Superstars involved. The script, if it was adapted a bit has potential but the actors, the effects, the lighting, the filming are absolutely terrible on all counts. This movie is unwatchable and lame. I really believe you must have encountered lead paint in your childhood in large quantities if you even sort of like this turd. I would be proud to present this as a student film but to try and pretend it is anything above that ultra low quality is pure folly. It's garbage through and through. The script has potential though. Maybe a bigger effects budget(like more than 3 dollars for a mechanical bird that looks like it was taken from a 70's amusement park?). If you took someone that loved the movie HERO with Jet Li and strapped them in a chair and made them watch this after you promised it was Hero2 you could hear their screams a mile away as they gnawed off their limbs to escape.

I rented this movie expecting it to be cool in certain ways, which only goes to prove the old adage: never judge a DVD by its cover. Especially not in a dusty, abandoned corner of your local Blockbuster. In any case, Onmyouji was pretty much not-cool at all in any of the ways I had anticipated coolness; its wholly unique brand of cool came from somewhere else, somewhere unexpected, somewhere completely different. In the end, that's what won me over -- Onmyouji is the cool you just don't expect.Most of that cool stems from the acting and, therefore, from the characters themselves; the former operating on multiple levels of "fantastic" and the latter managing to intrigue, amuse and inspire great fondness by the movie's conclusion. I think the main joy of watching Onmyouji is Nomura Mansai's stellar performance; you get the picture early on that he's the real deal. He moves like some otherworldly spirit gracing his audience with his at once delicate and wry presence; some sort of living embodiment of mono no aware with a smirking edge and quirky eyebrows. I felt instinctively that it was an honor just to be watching him on my living room TV.Sanada Hiroyuki, while I felt sometimes that he'd stumbled onto the wrong set by accident and then figured "Hey, what the hell, maybe I'll get paid," delivered a wonderful performance as well. I was a fan of his before this movie, and I remain a fan.The special effects and some of the stages may be a bit on the cheap side but part of me feels that it was an intentional super-awareness of the movie-as-a-stage. The whole film watched and felt like traditional Japanese theatre, and not just because of Nomura Mansai's traditional Japanese theatre aura. As some sort of wild throwback to Murasaki Shikibu's classic and the literary tropes of Heian court culture, this film is a definite winner. Listen not to the people who were expecting a grand and lavish cinematic spectacular; this movie wanted to look like a stage and so it created one, on which its excellent stage actors excelled.