The Dirty Half-Dozen.

Here are some of the TV spots for エクスペンダブルズ. As you can see, I had a cameo in the movie!

As I mentioned earlier, I saw Expendables the other night. "Very stupid, very fun." (That'd make a good sales pitch, I feel.)  I equated some of the cast with Yōkai-clones. I already cloned Li, Statham, Dolph & Rourke and I'm afraid I don't know anything about Randy Couture, Steve Austin or Terry Crews (all wrestlers, perhaps) but I've like Eric Roberts since his sleazy turn as Stratton/Hemingway's killer in Star 80 and just as sleazy in Heroes! This creepy fellow, あまめはぎ (Amamehagi) fits the bill I think. It bears a slight resemblance to him as well.
Amamehagi is to Hokuriku as Namahage is observed throughout Oga Peninsula in northern Japan. Originally it is said to be a ritual for cleansing people's soul, and praying that the coming year is to be a good one. It is a kind of 年神(Toshigami=(God of the New Year.)
On New Year's Eve, a group of young village men dressed up as fierce demons, or Namahage/Amamehagi , visit each house in the village, interrogating loudly "any misbehaving kids live here?" They then come up to children in the house, to menace them telling not to be lazy or cry, though little children bursting out crying is usually the case. Then parents will assure Namahage/Amamehagi there is no bad child in their house, and treat refreshments to the demons.

An obvious purpose of the festival is to encourage young children to obey their parents and to behave, important qualities in Japan's heavily structured society.

Apart from its hairstyle there's not much to compare 泥田坊 (Dorotabo (the ghost of an old man whose rice fields were neglected and sold) with Bruce Willis but I was disappointed by his meager cameo. (Here's some unembeddable Gegege goodness.)

An even more disappointing cameo was by Ahnold whose ever expanding ego is similar to 見あげ入道 (Miage-Nyudo, a spirit which grows as fast as you can look up at it.)

I don't want to disregard the ladies in the movie but since I'm unfamiliar with Giselle Itié, I'll focus on Cordelia  Charisma Carpenter who plays the frigid girlfriend similar to the つらら女 (Tsurara-Onna or Icicle Woman.)

Finally, we come to the guy who put the whole thing together a certain Sly fox named Stallone who must be portrayed by 白蔵主 (Haku-Zousu, a fox who disguised himself as a trapper's uncle.)

Expandables!

Tonight I saw the crapfest known as エクスペンダブルズ/"The Expendables" and I had a wonderful time. It was definitely a 4-beer/1-pee movie (2 smuggled beers, 2 from the Concession Stand; 1 pee in the loo.) Really stupid; really fun!

I think it should have been called the Dirty Half-Dozen, it certainly had a 60's vibe going on. I guess I'm not the only one who noticed it...to whit:

I'd like to think that these Yōkai would have made valuable assets to Sly's team. Apart from an appearance on GeGeGe, ゲドガキのバケモの (GedoGaki no Bakemono), I can't find much info on this particular spook except that he comes from Nagasaki-Ken, picks fights with young men in the dead of night and if triumphant...he eats them. (Perhaps he could be played by Jason Statham.)

化け銀杏の精 (Bake Ichi-You no Sei), the meaning of which I was unable to discern. Some ghostly Water-sprite who shows up when you're starving and rings a bell/gong to announce himself. The picture doesn't do him justice for the text states that he has Yellow hands, feet and face and he seems rather crimson to me. (I give him Jet Li's part.)

油すまし Abura-Sumashi is a fairly benevolent spirit who literally presses oils. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to give tattoo artist, Mickey Rourke its part.

山童 (Yama Waro) - a hairy, one-eyed spirit, sometimes considered a kappa who has gone into the mountains for the winter, certainly bears a striking resemblance to Dolph Lundgren.

I'm too sleepy (and tipsy) to make more comparisons tonight. Perhaps I can round out the rest of the cast tomorrow.