As the Gods Will (film)
As the Gods Will | |
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Kami-sama no Iu Toori and Akeji Fujimuraby Muneyuki Kaneshiro | |
Produced by | Yūsuke Ishiguro Shigeji Maeda Misako Saka Hisashi Usui |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Nobuyasu Kita |
Edited by | Kenji Yamashita |
Music by | Koji Endo |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Toho |
Release dates |
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Running time | 117 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Box office | $1.9 million[2] |
As the Gods Will (神さまの言うとおり, Kami-sama no Iu Tōri) is a 2014 Japanese
Plot
High school student Shun Takahata spends much of his time playing violent video games. One morning at school, he also whines that his life is completely boring. During class, the teacher's head explodes in a spray of blood and red
After finishing the game, Shun meets up with his girlfriend Ichika Akimoto and they make their way to the school gym. There, they initiate the second game, Belling the Cat, featuring a Maneki-neko, where students dressed as mice attempt to throw a bell into a hoop attached to the collar, while trying not to be eaten or crushed. The game is won with the aid of Takeru Amaya, a troubled classmate who beats up other students, seems to revel in the opportunity to see so many deaths, and who kills all the other survivors besides Shun and Ichika after winning the game. The three of them are then put out of consciousness by sleeping gas released by the cat. Meanwhile, the news around Japan broadcast what’s going on, revealing the city contains a giant floating white cube above the city and that the survivors are deemed “God’s Children”.
Shun wakes up to find himself with other students, Taira, Taoka and his ex-classmate Shoko Takase in a hospital-like room inside the giant floating cube cube hovering over Tokyo, facing the next test. Taira reveals that students across the world are facing similar tests, and the handful of survivors are being brought inside the cubes to continue their tasks there. Four Kokeshi dolls, Taro, Akemi, Kenichi and Hanako, enter the room and announce that the next game is Kagome Kagome, where the students one by one are blindfolded and have to guess which of the four dolls is behind them within 10 seconds after the end of the song. If they fail to do so, they will be hit with a red laser and the dolls will use telekinesis to destroy their bodies. If the player manages to guess who is behind them and the Kokeshis lose, they will all explode and one of them releases an answer key with the students being able to leave the room and enter the next phase. Taira and Taoka get killed, but Shun clears by using his phone to record Hanako’s voice, and leaves together with Shoko. Later, they reunite with Ichika and another player, Yukio Sanada, both of whom they save from being killed by a fifth Kokeshi by holding hands.
The four join Eiji Oku and Kotaro Maeda to the next level, where they have to use their keys to unlock a giant Kokeshi head. Amaya brings in three more keys and kills another player that he brings into the room. The seven survivors use their keys along with being given their own clothes to change into and the giant head rolls away to reveal a tunnel leading into the next room. Meanwhile, each player is displayed on television screens for the others to see. The next game is Shirokuma, a white polar bear that appears to them inside a frozen room. The students have to all answer the white bear's questions honestly; otherwise, they will be forced to single out the one that they suspect to be lying to be killed. Shoko and Yukio get killed, and Shun soon notices a black patch on the bear’s fist and realizes that the bear is the true liar and that its real color is black, therefore winning the game and surviving with the other four students.
The final game, presented by three
Takeru celebrates while Shun kneels in despair from the loss of his friends, stating that "there is no God". One of the Matryoshka dolls corrects him and suggests that those deadly games will lead them to "God", as it shows him a
Cast
- Sota Fukushi as Shun Takahata
- Hirona Yamazaki as Ichika Akimoto
- Ryūnosuke Kamikias Takeru Amaya
- Mio Yūki as Shoko Takase[4]
- Shōta Sometani as Satake[4]
- Jingi Irie as Eiji Oku
- Ryosuke Yamamoto as Mikinori Taira
- Minori Hagiwara as Yumi Taoka
- Sasuke Otsuru as Yukio Sanada
- Naoto Takahashi as Kotaro Maeda
- Nijiro Murakamias Haruhiko Yoshikawa
- Lily Franky as Homeless man/God
- Nao Omorias Takumi
- Dori Sakurada as Class president (cameo)
- Atsuko Maeda as Maneki-neko (voice)
- Tsutomu Yamazaki as Polar Bear (voice)
Box office
The film earned $1.5 million domestically in Japan in its first weekend in November.[5]
Controversy
The 2021 survival thriller K-drama series Squid Game has been accused of plagiarizing the movie, as both involve children's games where the penalty for losing is death, with the first games in both being Red Light, Green Light. However, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk claimed he wrote Squid Game's script in 2009 (five years before As the Gods Will was released), saying "the similarities that were pointed out are purely coincidental and there is no copying from either party."[6]
References
- ^ Jay Weissberg (January 22, 2015). "'As the Gods Will' Review: Takashi Miike's Latest Splatterfest | Variety". variety.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
- ^ "Kamisama no iu tôri (As the Gods Will)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ^ "Funimation Lists Live-Action As the Gods Will, Prison School Home Video Releases". Anime News Network. March 15, 2018. Archived from the original on September 26, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
- ^ a b 映画「神さまの言うとおり」に優希美青、染谷将太が出演 [Mio Yuki and Shota Sometani appear in the movie As the Gods Will]. Natalie (in Japanese). May 20, 2014. Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
- ^ "Film Review: 'As the Gods Will'". January 22, 2015. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
- ^ "'Squid Game' director reacts to plagiarism accusations: 'Not applicable'". www.thenews.com.pk. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
External links
- As the Gods Will at IMDb