kluseba Based upon a manga series of the same name, As the Gods Will is a fantasy horror movie directed by experimental filmmaker Miike Takashi. The story revolves around bored high school student Shun who prays for an exciting change of routine. His prayer seems to be heard but not exactly the way he expected it when the head of his teacher explodes one morning and is replaced by a speaking doll that forces the students to play a deadly game. This is only the beginning of a series of challenges requesting endurance, intelligence, imagination and luck. Shun tries to survive the series of deadly games with friends, opponents and complete strangers who cross his path. His goals are to survive, to help his partners and to find out why they are forced to play this game in the first place.As the Gods Will is a wonderful movie for anyone who likes Japanese culture as the different games are related to Japanese traditional children's games with a deadly twist. The different games are creative, surprising and vivid and often offer surprising turns. The film convinces with tight pace and starts without a lengthy introduction as about twenty students die in the first ten minutes alone and keeps this steady flow until the very last scene that concludes the film well but offers enough room for a potential sequel. The characters are interesting and the actors play them very well. The most important characters are Shun who is admired by many of his peers but lacking self-confidence, his charismatic and dynamic childhood friend Ichika and psychopath Amaya who enjoys the deadly games and even tries to get as many players killed as possible. Even the animated characters like a speaking doll, a giant cat, floating wooden dolls, a drawn polar bear and a group of matryoshkas are quite diversified, intriguing and surprising. Seemingly unimportant side characters like a weird hermit and a homeless man with supernatural capabilities also have important roles to play outside the school building. The colourful special effects are nicely done and remind of the anime genre. The camera work is enjoyably calm, fluid and precise and avoids current shaky camera trends. The lighting techniques blend in very well and complement the diversified locations by adding some atmosphere to the film. The fitting soundtrack rounds this movie out perfectly. As the Gods Will is highly entertaining and you won't see the two hours passing by. I almost felt like watching this detailed movie again when it concluded and I will certainly watch it with some of my friends in the future. This movie isn't far from getting the perfect grade upon first impression.To keep it short, if you like imaginative plots with fast pace and over-the-top diversity, you will certainly appreciate As the Gods Will. Remember that this is a quite brutal movie though and it's not because it's set in a high school that minors should watch it. The great thing about this film is that it remains surprising, intellectual and creative despite its breathtaking brutality. Give it a try!

marcorivas54 Here is another good film by one of my favorite Japanese directors Takashi Miike. This film is based off a manga of the same name and shows the first arc of the manga. From the very beginning of the film it's really interesting and catches your attention unlike other films where the attention has to be caught sometime inwards. The basic premise of the film is students having to play games to survive and if you lost at these games you die gruesome deaths. There is a lot of blood and death and the characters in this film are a mix of actual people and CGI characters. I liked the CGI of the fictional characters in this film because it seemed to fit so well with everything. It's not like that completely horrible animation where it sucks.

lathe-of-heaven WOW! This is NOT my normal fare, let me tell you. Normally I would cross to the other side of the 'street' rather than watch many of Takashi Miike's films. BUT... I had indeed kind of braced myself for a bit of a cartoony gore-fest, although that is NOT my first choice in films. But, this premise was SO damn WAAAAAAAAY OUT there, that I just had to check it out.Man, I truly do not know where to start... I am still kind of reeling a bit from the film, which I JUST finished. Well, firstly, it was not really that realistically gory or graphic; it mostly had a more cartoon-like vibe to it. And, regardless of the director's NOTORIOUS proclivity for extreme, sadistic violence (thus my normal avoidance of his films) this one honestly came off as not really that explicit or 'Real'. Other films of his where he has actual PEOPLE doing horrific, REALISTIC things to other people, I wouldn't come within 100 miles of, but based upon the extremely Fantastical premise, I figured that this would not likely be another one of his super heavy-handed Sadist- fests, and it truly wasn't.YES, the basic premise of what these 'Gods' are doing to these students is of course in principle quite terrible. But, that really wasn't the point of the film; the primary focus was NOT just a big set-piece for a bunch of gory deaths, although those do happen, but for most part, with a couple of exceptions (where I did FF a bit) they were not graphic or overly explicit.At the end, without giving anything away, you are left with a feeling that there are more layers to this than seems evident on the surface. As a matter of fact, the last minute or two actually left me kind of puzzled because I didn't quite understand what exactly happened (so I will be frigg'n LIVING on discussion boards until I find that out!) One underlying level of the film is fairly apparent concerning the one fellow learning to appreciate the life that he has (sort of a Psychedelic, Acid-induced 'IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE' by way of Takashi Miike) But, even beyond that there are other things touched upon and quite unexpectedly thought-provoking.So, I can fully understand how some here (3/5?) who are likely VERY hard core Miike fans, would be BITTERLY disappointed that this is NOT one of his usual more horrific and sadistic films, and probably just find this one totally Stupid. Understandable... BUT... for me, NOT a usual fan of Miike, heh... what I would call by comparison a 'Normal' person (using the term VERY loosely) I think the movie if you give it some thought, actually is more intriguing and entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking than what might appear at first glance.So, I would say that if you are a hard core Miike fan and you really LIKE his usual hard core stuff, than this film will probably leave you flatter than Chaz Bono. BUT... If you like your Horror films REALLY Imaginative, and you aren't just looking for a bunch of torture-porn sadism, and if you can be patient and give the movie some thought, I think that many people will definitely come away from seeing this with several different feelings and levels that the movie touches in you that you would not expect...

hannabarbie-79736 I watched the whole of it just because I'm that type of person.I'm not one of those critics that goes to the movies just to find justifications for why they hate that particular film. I try to enjoy everything I watch and look for its good points and for that, I rate a lot of movies highly. I'd rate most of the films I've seen 7 and above out of ten, see how considerate I am? not in this one. this is just dumb and creepy and weird. please. spare yourself. no matter how intriguing the plot seemed, don't watch this.I've seen elfen lied and battle royale. those are 9 out of ten for me. so don't think this is one of those deep gory masterpieces.