Tubi diving brought me to a couple of Japanese horror films I hadn't seen in a while.
Doomed Megalopolis, based on Hiroshi Aramata's bestselling fantasy/horror novel series
Teito Monogatari, published in the mid-1980s, an occult history of Tokyo where, over the course of decades, numerous characters, both fictional and historical, find themselves struggling against a mysterious immortal sorcerer, Yasunori Kato, who is supposedly a descendant of one of the early indigenous tribes of Japan and seeks revenge on Japan and it's Imperial Court for his people being conquered and slaughtered 2000 years before. He is said to be an incarnation of their curse against the Yamato people. His plans to destroy Tokyo included stirring up an ancient spirit of an 8th century samurai and provincial leader that had become a guardian spirit of Tokyo, whose disturbance from his rest will cause him to lash out and destroy everything in sight. This is, though, a very abridged adaption of the first 1/3 of the books, set in the 1920s, and through the rest of the series, Kato works behind the scenes of the 20th century to bring about occult disaster upon Japan, opposed by and interacting with many real and fictional folks, for instance, Yukio Mishima. Concepts such as fung shei, astrology, onmydo mysticism, occult groups like the Freemasons, and so on are touched upon - the series is credited with exploding a lot of these historical, mystical concepts back into the Japanese public consciousness that had either fallen by the wayside or otherwise played down over the decades.
Kato appeared in other novels by Aramata, and his on-screen appearances have led to him being often referenced in Japanese pop culture, and inspired many characters visually, what with his uniform and gloves. Bison from Street Fighter, is supposedly one example of a visually influenced character.
Kato's gloves are marked with a five-pointed "Seiman" star, a symbol of onmydo, a form of magic and divination based on Chinese astrology, and specifically the symbol of the most famous
onmyoji in history and Japanese folklore, Abe no Seimei. Kato is a onmyoji, but uses the magic for evil, and is opposed by one Yasumasa Hirai, also an onmyoji supposedly descended from Seimei, who even resembles the historical depictions of him, and in the novels leads a faction against Kato in defense of Japan.
The 1988 film was followed the next year by the sequel
Tokyo: The Last War which was very loosely based on the 11th book in the series, set during the final days of WWII - it was lighter on the SFX and budget but darker in its tone than the novels. Then there was another very abridged adaption of the first third of the books, the four episode direct to video anime (or Original Video Animation) series
Doomed Megalopolis which cranked up the horror, sex and violence - though not too over the top compared to other offerings from the time.
The character of Kato showed up on screen again in Takashi Miike's relatively light-hearted in comparison fantasy
The Great Yokai War, based on another of Aramata's novels. This time, Kato is back, having ditched his usual black Imperial Army-style uniforms for a suit, leading an army of disgruntled creatures of Japanese folklore, many of them based upon items and junk discarded by humans, opposed by other
yokai led by a young boy who learned he's a chosen one type.
