# As the Gods Will (film)

As the Gods Will (神さまの言うとおり, Kami-sama no Iu Tōri) is a 2014 Japanese supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Miike. It is based on the first arc of the eponymous manga series by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Akeji Fujimura. The film was released on home media in the United States by Funimation.

## Plot

High school student Shun Takahata spends much of his time playing violent video games. At school he is suddenly forced to participate in a deadly game of Daruma-san ga koronda. When the Daruma doll turns toward the blackboard it exposes a button on its back that the students can attempt to press to end the game but if the doll spins back around and sees anyone moving then those students' heads will explode. Everyone in the class except Shun dies in this first game.
After the game, Shun finds his childhood friend Ichika and they make their way to the school gym. There they play a Maneki Neko, where students dressed as mice attempt to throw a ball into a hoop attached to the collar of a giant cat doll. Those who miss are killed. Amaya wins this challenge and enables the students to move on to the next challenge in a giant cube hovering Tokyo, as hundreds of schools in Japan and elsewhere face similar tests.
Shun must keep winning a series of different deadly children's games in order to protect himself and Ichika. He has no knowledge of who is behind the games or what their ultimate purpose is. Meanwhile, a troubled classmate named Takeru seems to revel in the opportunity to cause the death of other students. Taruka and Shun fight but they are knocked out by sleeping gas released by the giant cat doll.
The next game is Kagome Kagome, in which the students are blindfolded to guess which of four floating Kokeshi wooden dolls is behind. If they fail, they will be killed with a red laser and telekinesis. If the Kokeshi lose, one of them reveals an answer key which opens the doors and frees the students to the next level. There, Shun meets Takase, whom he will save and will enter the next level.
The next game is Shirou Kuma. The students have to answer the white bear's questions politely, while Takase and a friend get killed. Shun soon realized that the bear was the liar and its real color is black.
The final game was Matryoshka. The remaining five students draw lots to see who is the ″Devil″· Whoever allows his face to be seen by the Devil is caught. Shun kicked a can and found armor to protect his face from the Devil. Shun drowned himself and Takeru pulled the armor off to save him. They had an ice cream party at which they learned their fates. Shun and Takeru lived while Ichika and the others died.

## Cast

* Sota Fukushi as Shun Takahata
* Hirona Yamazaki as Ichika Akimoto
* Ryūnosuke Kamiki as Takeru Amaya
* Mio Yūki as Shoko Takase
* Shōta Sometani as Satake
* Jingi Irie as Eiji Oku
* Ryosuke Yamamoto as Mikinori Taira
* Minori Hagiwara as Yumi Taoka
* Sasuke Otsuru as Yukio Sanada
* Naoto Takahashi as Kotaro Maeda
* Nijiro Murakami as Haruhiko Yoshikawa
* Lily Franky as Homeless man/God
* Nao Omori as Takumi
* Dori Sakurada as Class president (cameo)
* Atsuko Maeda as Maneki-neko (voice)
* Tsutomu Yamazaki as Polar Bear (voice)

## Box office

The film earned $1.5 million domestically in Japan in its first weekend in November.

## Controversy

In 2021, the South Korean Netflix series Squid Game was accused of plagiarizing the movie, as both involve children's games where the penalty for losing is death, with the first games in both being Red Light, Green Light. However, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk claimed he wrote Squid Game's script in 2009, five years before As the Gods Will was released, stating "the similarities that were pointed out are purely coincidental and there is no copying from either party."