Site Features
- Asian Film Awards
- Site Recommendations

- Reader Poll Results

- The Sponsor Page
- The FAQ Page
 
support this site by shopping at
Click to visit YesAsia.com
Asian Blu-ray discs at YesAsia.com
 
 
 
 
 
Daimajin
Year: 1966

It's Daimajin!
Director: Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Cast: Asao Uchida, Hideki Ninomiya, Jun Fujimaki, Junichiro Yamashita, Kojiro Hongo, Masahide Iizuka, Miwa Takada, Muneyuki Nagatomo, Ryutaro Gomi, Ryuzo Shimada, Shiho Fujimura, Shinji Horii, Tanie Kitabayashi, Taro Marui, Yoshihiko Aoyama
The Skinny: A giant stone God with the spirit of a warrior trapped inside awakens when he is angered by the injustices bestowed upon his village by its new evil Lord.
Review
by
Magicvoice:

     Daimajin opens in a small Japanese village in feudal Japan being overthrown by an evil overlord named Samanosuke (Yutaro Gomi). He kills everyone in the royal family except the young Princess and Prince Tadafumi, who go into hiding on the mountain where the statue of the God Majin stands. Legend has it that Majin has the soul of a warrior trapped inside him, and must not be angered lest there be grave consequences. After ten years of repression and starvation, an attempt is made to restore the old regime but Samanosuke is simply too powerful. That is, until he decides to mock the God Majin and has his cronies try to destroy it by pounding a chisel into the statue's head. Majin wakes up in a really bad mood and goes on a wild rampage to set things straight.
     Daimajin holds up very well after almost forty years. It is different from most giant monster movies of the sixties in that it is a period piece, and therefore seems timeless to modern audiences. It also can just as easily be called a samurai film as a giant monster movie. Sadly, we don't get to see Majin until the final reel of the film, and the action ends just as abruptly as it began. Still, there's plenty of good acting and special effects to be had, and the miniature sets are extremely well photographed, with some of the shots eclipsing the bigger budget efforts of the time. The supernatural elements of the story are expertly interwoven with the human drama, and Majin never comes off as a fun monster the way Gamera (Daiei's other star of the period) did. Adding to the moodiness of the piece is a brooding score by Akira Ifukube, who composed the majority of the Godzilla films over at Toho Studios. Daimajin is a serious film with very little humor, but it is still very enjoyable. (Magicvoice 2003)

Availability: DVD (USA)
Region 1 NTSC
AD Vision
3-Disc Edition containing Daimajin, Wrath of Daimajin and Return of Daimajin
Widescreen
Japanese Language
Removable English Subtitles
DVD (Japan)
Region 2 NTSC
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Japanese Language
Removable English Subtitles
Also available in a Box Set with Wrath of Daimajin and Return of Daimajin
 
 
 
LoveHKFilm.com Copyright ©2002-2017 Ross Chen