Blu-ray Review: The Daimajin Trilogy (Limited Edition)

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

There seemed to be only two kinds of movies that came from Japan when I was a kid in the ’70s. The first was giant monster movies such as Godzilla and Gamera. The second were Samurai films directed by Akira Kurosawa. While it was easy to think that these two genres were extremes, one movie series dared to merge Mega-monster and samurais into a single experience. Daimajin was about a supernatural statue that would come to life and stomp out various warlords that were doing horrible things to the people that lived in the area. While there were three films, for some reason only the first two made it to America. Daimajin and Return of Daimajin did play the Creature Double Feature on WLVI 56 in Boston so the stone Demon God had its fans.

Unlike Godzilla or its own Gamera, Daiei Films took a very unusual approach to Daimajin. They didn’t merely make the first one and rush the second into production if they had a hit on their hands. Daiei Films put all three films into production so that all three films could be made around the same time. The movies had the same producer (Masaichi Nagata), screenwriter (Tetsuro Yoshida), director of photography (Fujio Morita), editor (Hiroshi Yamada) and composer (Akira Ifukube) . The only different key crew member was the director. Kimiyoshi Yasuda (Adventures of Zatoichi) helmed Daimajin. Kenji Misumi directed Return of Daimajin. Finally Kazuo Mori (Rampaging Dog) called the shots on Wraith of Daimajin. This worked out well for the series since each director brings a slightly different approach to their film. But the lack of time between each production keeps them from having to swap up the tone in order to appeal to a changing audience. There’s no desire to make Daimajin be a friend to children or get more comical like Godzilla and Gamera became over the years. Daimajin remains stone cold when he begins to move and exact revenge on those who messed with his worshippers.

Daimajin (1966 – 84 minutes) opens with a small village in Samurai times getting shaken up by minor earthquakes. The locals fear that shakes are from the mountain god Daimajin trying to break free. Two people who think this foolish are Lord Hanabasa, and his chamberlain, Samanosuke. Of course Lord Hanabasa foolishly believes that Samanosuke is loyal to him. Turns our out his right hand man stabs him in the back. His loyal henchmen make a complete power grab on the village and force the villagers in to a life of slave labor. Of the few people that escape are Lord Hanabasa’s son and daughter. They head up the mountains. The villagers believe that the Daimajin will rise up and rescue them. Samanosuke can’t allow their faith to ruin their focus on being enslaved. He sends his men up in the mountains to destroy the statue of Daimajin. This turns out to be a very bad move as the statue comes alive and attacks the village.

Return of Daimajin (1966 – 79 minutes) is the tale of two peaceful villages near a lake. In the middle of the lake is an island where the statue of Daimajin now rests. But nothing can remain peaceful in Feudal Japan. A warlord from a third village decides to attack the other two towns. Many of the people flee to the island to be closer to the god. This does not prove to be a sanctuary from the attack. Besides attacking the people, the warlord takes blows up the statue of Daimajin. But is being blown to chunks of stone going to stop Daimajin from saving the innocent that have been lashed to crosses and prepared to be set on fire? It’s hard to imagine Return of Daimajin playing often on TV stations in the South with the imagery of Daimajin holding a woman on a cross like she’s a Popsicle.

Wrath of Daimajin (1966 – 87 minutes) takes place in the winter which is a right when the original film was released in Japan. This time another evil warlord has taken the men of a village hostage in order to make gun powder. Four children escape during the attack to try and find help. They head up the mountain and pay honor to the statue of Daimajin that’s trapped at the top. When the warlord arrives at the mountain, he offends the statue which cause the snow-covered Daimajin to come to life and get revenge. While the plot involves four kids, they don’t turn all cutesy like the various Kennys found in Gamera films. They are on a mission to survive so there’s a bit more desperation in their journey. Even though AIP brought the first two movies to American TV, somehow they decided to leave the third entry out of the deal. Perhaps the kids weren’t enough comic relief for their taste? The only good news is that even without distribution in the US and UK, the studio made an English dub for the film. Like the other two films, you can enjoy Wrath of Daimajin in either language. Although it is funny when the dub actors keep talking about The Village People. Almost expect to see everyone break into “YMCA.”

The mixing of the samurai and the monster oddly enough seems to have made the films not quite as popular in America as you’d imagine. Many of the fans of Samurai films were rather turned off that their movie was going to feature a giant stone creature smashing up the countryside instead of Shoguns battling it out. Fans of giant monsters from Japan were irritated since the transformed Daimajin didn’t start moving around until the last part of the film. They didn’t want to sit through all the Samurai activities that set up the big action payoff. It’s easy to think of a 10 year old Godzilla lover constantly asking, “When is the giant statue going to stomp these people?” The action is so worth the wait when Daimajin sheds his emotionless stone face and begins smashing away. While the three films were made and released in a short amount of time, they aren’t really connected. You can watch them in whatever order you want. Although if you buy the boxset, you’ll want to go in order. While Daimajin didn’t attract these instant audiences; the movies made its own fandom over the decades of viewers who enjoy how the films linked Japan’s finest genres. The Daimajin Trilogy really brings the series up to the level of Godzilla and Gamera or even Lone Wolf and Cub. Daimajin merged into the best of both viewing experiences.

The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfers bring out the solid special effects when the statue begins to move. The audio is LCPM mono tracks in Japanese and English. Daisei did a find job with the English dub tracks. The movie is subtitled in English.

Illustrated Collector’s 100 page Book featuring new essays by Jonathan Clements, Keith Aiken, Ed Godziszewski, Raffael Coronelli, Erik Homenick, Robin Gatto and Kevin Derendorf

Postcards featuring the original Japanese artwork for all three films

DISC ONE – DAIMAJIN

Audio Commentary by Japanese film expert Stuart Galbraith IV has him put the film in cultural context. Discuss how the studio was doing when the movies came out. He also provides audio clips from when he interviewed one of the stars over the phone recently.

Introduction by Kim Newman (15:23) points out how the three films aren’t really a trilogy. He talks about the variation of the people that need to get smacked down by Daimajin. I enjoy how even after all the times Newman has been part of bonus features, he hasn’t gone too chic with the corner of his living room. It still looks like devourer of books and CDs lives there. He points out how the movies never ran in Great Britain until this boxset arrived. People have smuggled them into the country.

Bringing the Avenging God to Life (17:11) is a video essay about the special effects of the Daimajin films by Japanese film historian Ed Godziszewski. He gives quite a history on how the statues were able to come to life and be big enough to pull off stomping the little town. People that worked on the movie had already been doing monsters on Ultra Q (the show before Ultraman). There’s lots of behind the scenes pictures of the crew at work.

Alternate opening credits (0:56) for the US release as Majin, the Monster of Terror in both 2.35:1 and 1.33:1.

Trailers for the original Japanese and US releases include the original Theatrical Trailer (2:32), Daimajin & Gamera vs. Barugon Double Feature (1:14) , TV Spot (1:07) and Alternate US TV Spot (1:07) when it was just called The Monster of Terror.

Image Gallery has dozens of press photos, lobby cards and posters.

DISC TWO – RETURN OF DAIMAJIN

Audio commentary by Japanese film experts Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp. The duo share the microphone. The two discuss how these film weren’t part of their childhood since they didn’t play on UK television. But they read about the films and craved to see them.

My Summer Holidays with Daimajin (33:45) is an interview with Professor Yoneo Ota, director of the Toy Film Museum, Kyoto Film Art Culture Research Institute, about the production of the Daimajin films at Daiei Kyoto. I really want to go to the Toy Film Museum. He had a summer job carrying around equipment on location for Return of Daimajin and was an extra. He also worked with the other two directors of Daimajin movies. He said the statue of Daimajin was outside the gates of Daiei’s studio.

From Storyboard to Screen: Bringing Return of Daimajin to Life (3:54) compares scenes in Return of Daimajin with the original storyboards. Most deal with a character being lashed down to a cross and set on fire.

Alternate opening credits (0:56) for the US release as Return of the Giant Majin in both 1.33:1 and 2:35:1.

Trailers for the original Japanese trailer (1:55) and US TV Spot (1:02) have the statue back and kicking butt. In the US it was called The Return of the Giant Maijin by American International Pictures.

Image Gallery has press photos, lobby cards and posters.

DISC THREE – WRATH OF DAIMAJIN

Audio Commentary by Asian historian Jonathan Clements starts up with him talking about how while Daiei was eager to make three of the films, they really didn’t quite know how to sell them. The first two were double featured with more kid friendly pictures. Wrath went out on its own, but didn’t quite hack it at the box office.

Interview with cinematographer Fujio Morita (87:27) has him discuss his career at Daiei and his work on the Daimajin Trilogy. He speaks in Japanese so the interview is subtitled in English. He talks about his long career at the studio. He used to sneak onto the complex as a kid. He relates the experience of shooting the three Daimajin movies in a row. He did both the live action and the special effects shots.

Trailers for the original Japanese release (2:24) and the teaser trailer (0:56).

Image Gallery has press photos, lobby cards and posters.

Arrow Video presents The Daimajin Trilogy. Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kenji Misumi & Kazuo Mori. Screenplay by: Tetsuro Yoshida. Starring: Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama, Jun Fujimaki, Ryûtarô Gomi and Ryûzô Shimada. Boxset contents: 3 movies on 3 Blu-ray discs. Release Date: July 27, 2021.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.