*** Medieval Japanese Adventure Story Starring Four Kids and a Giant Statue

I truly dislike subtitles. Anyways, this is the second movie of the Daimajin trilogy made by Daiei back in 1966. All three movies were made at the same time by three different directors, essentially meaning that the same story is told three different ways with slightly different settings. After buying all three movies, I watched them all in the same night, and yes it does get a little repetitive. Still, Return of Daimajin here takes the series in a unique way, presenting a sort of adventure story starring children as they make their way across dangerous terrain to rescue their family. Don’t worry though, cause Maijin does eventually show up to do the usual village trashing.

The movie starts by showing a bunch of natural disasters destroying model villages and blaming those events on Majin, which kind of doesn’t make sense considering the rest of the movie. Anywho, your usual evil warlord guy decides to take slave labor from a local village for his construction project in Hell’s Valley (called that due to sulfur pits, which are mined for gunpowder). The villagers of course want to rescue their family and friends after an escapee tells them of their plight, but winter is coming soon and nobody wants to risk trekking across the mountains. Four boys decide to run off and make the journey anyways, taking a route through "Majin’s Mountain" as a shortcut. Along the way they fight the terrain as well as some of the evil warlord’s minions, who decide to go after them, but manage to succeed in avoiding certain death through cunning tactics (well except for that one time with the river). Eventually winter hits, and as the three remaining boys are freezing to death the minion-types decide to shoot the kids but end up inciting the wrath of Majin’s hawk. One shot bird and one noble near-sacrifice latter, and Majin is unleashed. The unstoppable living statue walks through Hell’s Valley causing mayhem and destruction, and succeeds in stabbing the evil warlord and dropping him in a sulfur pit. The villagers are saved thanks to Majin, who crumbles away to nothing once his job is done.

The plot ranges from cutesy to brutal, depending on if the kids are doing cute things or facing great dangers. The result is a typical children adventure story with a dark twist. Despite this, even adults will find the movie entertaining because in all actuality, the plot is set-up pretty well. All the usual Daimajin stuff occurs, and meanwhile we are kept entertained with enough twists and turns. There is also a lot of great scenery to look at due to the very nice choices in locations. Sometimes the beautiful mountain locations are good enough alone, but occasional they through in a mate painting to make the movie a bit more mythical in nature. The rest of the special effects, particularly the usual rampaging Majin scenes at the end, are all very well done and greatly exceeds the "par" for the time period. Although lacking the samurais, fans of the genera as well as fans of giant monster movies will find this movie entertaining because both parts are well done.

Although it is my least-favorite Daimajin movie, I still recognize that this is a pretty good movie. Everything is set up well, plenty of interesting stuff happens, and although it does get slow-paced at times it still manages to not be boring. Overall, it’s a good movie.

Good plot

Great special effects (for the time)

Great music

Plenty of beautiful mountainous scenery

Action, adventure, drama, giant living statues, this movie has it all

The generally child-based plot does get a little annoying to those over the age of 12

Although the special effects were good for the time, it doesn’t hold up all that well

A number of plot-points failed to have full explanations as to what the heck is going on

Kid-friendly movies don’t generally have some of the kids dying

Yeah, sure, blame Majin for your disastrous weather patterns and then except him to help you in your time of need

Credits