Daimajin

I saw this at least twice on Channel 56 (Boston) Creature Double Feature when I was a kid- and it's the kind of movie you remember but can't believe existed. It was pretty amazing! This giant ancient Japanese warrior statue comes out of the sea and starts kicking ass. I had to wait for the internet and the debut of Google to find that I was right---it does exist. Now I am psyched and want to get the DVD if it exists. Right on !

Other films on Channel 56 were the original War of the Worlds, which scared the hell out of me (it's really scary for a bad old sci fi flick---its the tentacles which I could psyche myself could be outside my window) and also the X from outer space and some other weird stuff that I will no doubt find out about someday, but this is really hallucinatory and amazing.

I saw the American version of "Daimajin" which was dubbed and released by American-International...a company known for bringing us a lot of crap. And, I assumed it would be another Godzilla-style film...which, fortunately, it turned out not to be. Instead, it's more a samurai movie...and a pretty good one as well.

Early in the story, Samanosuke murders his master,, the local warlord. And, to make sure none of the dead man's family could reclaim the territory, he orders his men to track down all his family and kill them as well. Fortunately, his two children escape and time passes. During this time, Samanosuke has increased his power--and he's done that by tormenting his people and making them his slaves. In addition, he's blasphemous and eventually orders his men to destroy a giant statue of a god in the hills. After all, the local priestess said it would come to life and destroy him...and the idiotic man decides to incure the wrath of the gods. Not suprisingly, eventually the giant statue comes to life...but there seems to be no controlling it and it appears ready to kill everyone!

The giant is actually NOT cheesy looking and I think it helped to make him big but not Godzilla big. That way, there wouldn't need to be any cheesy sets to destroy...and it looked much more realistic. Overall, an exciting and watchable film...more a movie for samurai movie fans.

A good and just samurai lord is betrayed and murdered by one of his own men, who then claims the throne for himself. The samurai's two children, a boy and a girl, escape to the mountains and take refuge near a huge stone statue...a statue called Daimaijin, a huge man-god whom all fear. Ten years go by and the evil new lord has decimated the valley, enslaving all of its inhabitants and turning a deaf ear to the warnings of the wise woman; Daimaijin will not allow the evil overlord to go unpunished...and neither will the samurai's now adult son, who descends from the mountain, seeking vengeance.

Daimaijin is a simplistic fairy tale, beautifully executed. The noble samurai, the evil usurper, the determined son and the innocent girl whose voice and tears are the only thing the giant Daimaijin will respond to; all of the necessary elements are here. Though perhaps too violent for very young children, this film still reminded me of the films I loved as a child, i.e. Sinbad or Jason and the Argonauts. It's a simple tale of good versus evil with a triumphant, satisfying ending and lots of real estate trampled beneath Daimaijins stone feet. If you liked Godzilla, or the massive monsters created by Ray Harryhausen, you should see this one.

This is more of a samurai movie than a kaiju, but once the statue comes alive, then it really shines. That's not to say it's bad, because it's not, but if you're expecting giant statue smashing then temper that a bit because that's only the final 15 minutes or so.

I picked up this movie because I like giant monster films and was expecting this to be your average monster smash up. Often with giant monster films the bits with humans in are nothing more than padding and have little or nothing to do with the plot. I'm thinking of Godzilla vs King Kong with the pointless magic string guys or the awful little poet kid in Godzilla vs The Smog Monster. This film is nothing like that, the story is interesting in its own right.

The real draw is of course the big guy and he's excellent too. His inevitable rampage is well put together with some nice special effects. I was really surprised by this film, it was a lot better than I expected and definitely worth seeing.