Tôkaidô obake dôchû

Unlike Daiei Film's previous two 'yôkai' films (Yôkai hyaku monogatari (1968) and Yôkai daisensô (1968)), the monsters/ghosts/apparitions are not the central characters in this tale. Instead, we get a reasonably interesting samurai/gangster story about a crime boss trying to recover an incriminating document that was found by a little girl who is trying to find the father who abandoned her when she was born. The boss' henchmen kill an old man at prayer (the girl's grandfather), a desecration that arouses anger in the spirit world. The cursed gang-members are tormented by the yôkai as well as pursued by a rival gangster whose boss was murdered at the shrine. The entire supernatural subtext seems to be an afterthought and certainly is not necessary to the actual story. Lacking the permeating hallucinatory imagery of the first two 'yôkai' films, "Along with Ghosts" (Tôkaidô obake dôchû), while watchable, is not nearly as original or entertaining.