*** ½          Japanese Samurai/Kaiju flick.

First of all I would have to say that I absolutely despise subtitles. Never liked the things. They're distracting, and instead of sitting back and watching a movie you have to "read" the movie. However, the only edition of this movie out now is the subbed one. ADV films apparently decided to cash in on the whole craze brought on by a movie about tigers that crouch and dragons that hide. So basically this is a Japanese subtitled samurai movie. So why am I reviewing it? The giant living statue that walks around and squashes people, of course.

In medieval Japan, there is a village that worships various "gods"; one of which is Majin, who is imprisoned in a giant stone statue. The good ruler of this village is killed by an evil usurper, but his children, a son and daughter, and his loyal bodyguard-types escape. Ten years later (and it goes by in an instant), those aforementioned bodyguard-types come back as planned. However Mr. Usurper stops them from gaining back the village. In those ten years this guy gained a lot of power through forced labor of the villagers. Despite warnings that "Majin" will come back and kill him, he ignores it and proceeds to attempt to execute some people and to destroy the Majin statue. They jab a big spike into the statue's forehead, but instead of cracking up the forehead bleeds, and lightning bolts come down, the earth splits, yadde yadda. After a bit of prayer from the dead good ruler's daughter, the statue comes to life, transforms into a giant living "god", and proceeds to go to the village after that one usurper bad guy. He squashes people, destroys buildings, saves the people being executed, and most notably of all, he picks up the main evil dude, takes the giant spike out of his forehead, and nails him to a wall. His rampage doesn't seem to end until that one girl's tears calm him down, and his spirit flies away while the statue crumbles. Seems like the end of Majin, but a couple of sequels say otherwise.

When I first heard that Daiei made this thing, I figured it would be a pathetically rubbery campy monster movie. Instead I got a samurai movie for the first hour, and after that I got a very dramatic stomping of a village. Majin walks around, seemingly unstoppable, and kills things with authority. To top it off is a good music score and very good special effects (for the time and country of origin). Basically if you're willing to sit through a bunch of medieval Japan stuff for an hour, you will get a very well done and very dramatic attack by a giant living statue. The samurai elements may be tough to follow due to subtitles, and it is a pretty generic story line, but this still proves that Daiei can make a samurai flick about as good as a monster flick. This movie is a rather unique mix of elements, and so thereby fans of either genera are both rather pleased and rather disappointed. My complaint is there is not enough Majin stomping, but samurai fans might complain about a giant mythical beast in there. Fans of both will get a real big kick out of this though.

It’s a very dramatic movie, but the overly literal subtitles threw a bit of camp in to. There are some pretty funny lines in here, mainly because of lack of creativity in the translation. Kinda ruins the drama a bit, but then again as dramatic as it may be it's tough to take seriously. So if your looking for a movie about samurais and giant village stomping statues that is both dramatic and fun, then here is a movie for you. And if you are itching for more, they made a couple of sequels to (at the same time as this one was made, I heard). The moral of the story: don't be evil, mean, and unjust, or you will be impaled by a giant vengeful statue.

Good plot

Very good special effects (relatively)

Very dramatic, and yet not too much.

Interesting, but somehow complimentary genera combo.

Daiei made this back in '66? Sounds impossible, but it isn't.

Those, annoying, SUBTITLES!!!!

Kinda boring, and yet tough to follow.

A whole hour of samurai junk just to see village stomping?!

It may be good for 1966, but nowadays it looks quite fake.

*Thunk* Now that’s what I call posting a message!

Credits