While very familiar with the numerous Toho monster/sci-fi movies, I was only vaguely aware of the Daimajin series. I had never seen a complete film and only excerpts from RETURN OF DAIMAJIN. When I saw that amazon had this blu-ray available at a greatly reduced price, I couldn’t resist and now I’m glad I didn’t. I’m also glad that when I finally got to see these movies, I got to see them in this form. I’ve recently taken advantage of the availablity of the original Japanese versions of the classic films like GODZILLA, RODAN & MOTHRA and have enjoyed them immensely. Not only do you not suffer through the horrible English dubbing but you get to see the movies with their original continuity and at the slower pace typical of the Japanese cinema at the time..
Since the DAIMAJIN series is a mixture of history and fantasy, It’s like watching Miyazaki’s animated films come to life. The period detail is rich, the photography memorable and the color scheme is suitably vivid. The stories are all simple and very similar with a powerful and evil warlord oppressing the peasants in one form or another only to have a giant stone statue come to life and set things to right. I found it interesting that, in the English subttitles, the Majin is referred to as God (capital G) rather than by his name or as a spirit. I would have thought this the whim of the translators except that one of the films THE RETURN OF DAIMAJIN is full of Christian imagery from crosses to crucifictions. Very curious.
All the movies were shot back to back in 1966 before the Daiei Film Company went international with the Gamera giant flying turtle series. Whether these weren’t that popular or there was nothing left to say (which didn’t hold Gamera or Godzilla back), there were only these three films. They seems like an ideal combination of the samurai film and the giant monster movie and I thought there would have been more. No matter. All three films have great production values with fantastic miniature sets, beautiful vistas, great music from GODZILLA’s Akira Ifukube and, of course, lots and lots of destruction. Plus there’s the added satisfaction of seeing the principal villians REALLY get their just desserts.
The first film DAIMAJIN introduces us to the character and is the one that most closely resembles a samurai film with its storyline of usurpation of power, murdered family members, revenge, sacrifice and ultimate triumph. The second film, RETURN OF DAIMAJIN is more detailed with further character development and, as mentioned earlier, lots of Christian symbolism. The death of the villain is particularly satisfying. The third film DAIMAJIN STRIKES AGAIN was apparently not released in the U.S. It’s principal characters are children and it takes on more of an INCREDIBLE JOURNEY aspect (minus the animals although there’s a hawk). All three end with the statue coming to life and doing its thing which is always impressive. I enjoy nothing more than new discoveries and I’m glad to have discovered the DAIMAJIN trilogy and on Blu-ray too.
The Capsule Critic 