Plot: Seimei Abe is one of the most talented onmyoji students, but he's not at all interested in becoming one. He looks down on his other students for the tasks they perform. But when a nobleman seeks him out and asks him to help Yoshiko, a member of the royal family, Abe's interest is piqued.
Watches
December 18, 2024
Japan's answer to the Detective Dee films, even more so than its more recent Chinese namesakes. The Ying Yang Master is a mystery embellished with fantasy elements, set in ancient Japan. It's a fun and competent blockbuster, but it's not as consistently good as its Chinese counterpart.
The mystery isn't that interesting and the introduction is quite slow, with a lot of info on who the onmyoji are and what role they fulfilled. Once the plot gets going more fantasy elements are added and the film gets a bit more intense, but it never pulls out all the stops. Still, I had a lot of fun with it, I'd just hoped for that little extra.