Sono Sion and Nicolas Cage, I was so waiting for this one... but it's a big disappointment.

What is good: the visuals. The first scene is so Sono Sion, too bad the rest is not at the same level. Anyway the japanese town decor is great, and the ghostland town, and all the costumes there too. It looks great, there's no denying that.

The governor's character is really good too. A sharp contrast with the hero that is totally bland.

And it starts well too. The introduction of the hero, the costume that might blow his balls off, and the leaving for his mission on a bicycle instead of the car he's given.

Aaaaaaand, that's it. After that, nothing much is worth watching. Well except actually having [spoiler]one of his balls blown, without touching the other[/spoiler]!

His mission is to go to this mysterious ghostland to find a girl. But he just gets there, and here she is, doesn't even have to look for her. Not exactly sure what the people there are. Rebels ? Criminals ? Society rejects ? They're forcefully stopping a clock, that seems to be the main activity.

There seem to be issues with the so called ghosts, but it's not exactly clear what the issue is supposed to be as the hero just meets with them, is like "be cool guys" and they're like "sure", and that's it.

So part from the reveal (not that it was not obvious before) that [spoiler]the governor is the bad guy here[/spoiler], it feels like the whole main part of the movie is missing. There is no real action, nothing significant happening. The whole ghostland part, between the intro and the final fight, is basically empty.

Not clear either what the world is. Whether the japanese town or the ghost land. Are they an artificial world/virtual reality, a mind prison or something ? Or a metaphor for something else ? The world looks more normal in the bank robbery flashback, you kinda expect to come back to that, but no, never any mention.

There are some fights, not that interesting, and they mostly focus on Yasujiro, the governor's bodyguard. Strangely it's never clear who/why he's fighting. In the beginning he seem to protect the hero from the mob around (though why would they attack him in front of the governor giving him a mission ? Made no sense). But in the ending, as he is clearly fighting the hero, he's still protecting him from the other guys that attack him, exactly like in the beginning. Makes even less sense.

There is probably some meaning behind all that, and not that hard to find, but the story and action were boring enough that I didn't manage to pay attention.