bad chemistry, poor effects, decent storyline!

...and the woman looked TOO OLD to be acting so childish & agitating in the 1st half for the thief role!!!She looked like an over-the-hill Robin Hood...like a Japanese female Mel Gibson! Geez, or maybe the lead role looks young for his age?? And, there was no chemistry between her and the lead role but the ending was fantastic

Lastly, the special effects for the monsters were horrible until the end when the father changed. My take on it is that it was no where as good as the 'user reviews' claimed but the 2nd half got better. More tolerable for a present day Japanese film. Everybody else did good in their roles but with a better & younger looking actress for the thief, or without the thief..this would have been definitely worth buying and watching more than once. I gave it 4 pts.