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Daimajin (film)
Daimajin poster
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Mitsuru Tanabe
Written by Tetsuro Yoshida
Starring Miwa Takada
Yoshihiko Aoyama
Music by Akira Ifukube
Cinematography Fujio Morita
Editing by Hiroshi Yamada
Distributed by Daiei
American International Television
Released April 17, 1966
August 9, 1968
Running time 84 minutes
Budget ¥???,???,???
Gross revenue ¥???,???,???
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Followed by Return of Daimajin

Daimajin (大魔神,   Daimajin?, lit. Giant Demon God) is a 1966 daikaiju eiga (giant-monster movie), the first entry in the Daimajin series about a giant statue that comes to life named Daimajin.

a giant statue of a samurai comes to life to help children (Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama) of a slain 18th-century lord.

Plot[]

Large tremors send villagers scattering, as they fear that an ancient spirit, named Arakatsuma, is beginning to wake up. The entire village then gathers at their shrine to pray that it will remain imprisoned. This torchlit ceremony, led by their Priestess Shinobu is observed by the local feudal boss, Lord Hanabusa, who respects the beliefs of his villagers but does not believe in the Daimajin. Hanabusa then sends his chamberlain named Samanosuke down to the ceremony to provide a sense of security, but Samanosuke uses the distraction as a means of staging a coup. He kills Hanabusa and began to storm the castle.

A loyal vassal named Kogenta goes to protect Hanabusa's children, Tadafumi and Kozasa Hanabusa and prepares to smuggle them out of the kingdom. They make their way to a stable with the help of some other vassals but are cornered by Samanosuke's guards. They begin to burn the stable down and the vassals make a vow to meet back in town in ten years from that day. Kogenta and the children escape the building but have to be cautious of guards as Kogenta takes them to his aunt Shinobu's house. They hide from the soldiers when they come to search the house, and when they are gone Shinobu takes them up Majin's Mountain and leaves them in a cave that is believed to have once been the home of their god, on the assurance that Samanosuke's men will never look there.

Ten years later, Kogenta goes down from his mountain home and into the village. On the road, he encounters a patrol of Samanosuke's guards and is captured. On hearing this, Tadafumi goes into town to rescue him and a young villager pleads to Shinobu to let him pray at the Idol of Arakatsuma to bring his wrath on Samanosuke who is using the villagers as slaves to build an impenetrable fortress. He is denied but is assured that their god will hear his prayers and send him, but the boy runs from her house and up the mountain where he mistakes Kozasa for a god.

In town, Tadafumi sneaked through the construction site where Kogenta was being dangled from a pole, but was himself captured, as Kogenta had been used as bait for him. After learning that neither had returned, Shinobu went to Samanosuke to warn him that his continued tyrannical acts would bring the wrath of Arakatsuma on him, which caused him to fire an unloaded gun in her face to test her faith before brutally murdering her with a sword. He then ordered that a group of soldiers be sent to Majin's Mountain to destroy the idol of Arakatsuma.

As the crew travels up the mountain, they capture Kozasa and the boy and force them to take them to the statue. They try to destroy it with hammers but see no results, which leads them to try to drive a chisel through the idol's head, which makes the statue bleed. An earthquake then creates a fissure that swallows the demolition team, but not Kozasa or the boy. Kozasa then tries to awaken Arakatsuma and even goes as far as to offer her life to the god by throwing herself off a nearby waterfall, but is held back by the boy. She begins to cry on the statue and that causes it to stand up and change into an organic form resembling a giant samurai. Kozasa then offers her prayer to the statue and informs it that Lord Samanosuke is being unjust in the city. Arakatsuma then transports himself to the village and begins to destroy it in his attempt to reach Samanosuke. In the chaos, Tadafumi and Kogenta are able to escape their prison cell and meet up with Kozasa. The three then watch as Arakatsuma reaches into the ruined palace and holds up the terrified Samanosuke. He then removes the chisel that was still in his head from the earlier attempt to destroy him and impales him on a ruined wall of the palace.

Even after his mission is complete, Arakatsuma, being an immortal god of endless wrath, continues to destroy the village. Again Kozasa offers her life to the Daimajin, but once again it is her tears that bring him to a stop. After the tears hit him he transforms back into a statue before a ball of light flies out of him and disappears into the sky before the statue crumbles to dust.

Cast[]

  • Miwa Takada   as   Kozasa Hanabusa
  • Yoshihiko Aoyama   as   Tadafumi Hanabusa
  • Jun Fujimaki   as   Kogenta
  • Ryutaro Gomi   as   Samanosuke
  • Ryuzo Shimada   as   Tadakiyo Hanabusa
  • Tatsuo Endo   as   Gunjuro
  • Shosaku Sugiyama
  • Saburo Date   as   Ippei Cyjuma
  • Otome Tsukimiya   as   Priestess Shinobu - The Shrine Maiden
  • Keiko Kayama   as   Haruno
  • Eigoro Onoe   as   Gosaku
  • Gen Kimura   as   Mosuke
  • Hideki Ninomiya   as   Young Tadafumi
  • Shizuhiro Izoguchi   as   Take-bo
  • Yutaro Ban   as   Mondo
  • Hideo Kuroki   as   Magojuro
  • Akira Shiga
  • Jun Osugi
  • Jun Katsumura
  • Kazuo Moriuchi
  • Akira Amemiya
  • Shinjiro Akatsuki
  • Kanji Uehara
  • Masako Morishita   as   Young Kozasa
  • Hatsumi Yoshikawa
  • Chikara Hashimoto   as   Daimajin

Production[]

The cinematographer on Daimajin is sometimes credited to Yoshiyuki Kuroda and sometimes to Fujio Morita.

Award[]

  • The Japanese Society of Cinematographers Miura Award (Fujio Morita)

American release[]

Daimajin International poster

Daimajin was exhibited in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 15, 1966, at the city's Kokusai Theater. The film was also screened in Japanese with English subtitles at 55th Street Playhouse in New York City in August 1968.

In 1967, American International Television licensed Daimajin for syndication as Majin, Monster of Terror. It was dubbed into English in Rome by the English Language Dubbers Association.

English titles[]

  • Majin, the Monster of Terror 
  • Majin, Monster of Terror
  • Majin, the Stone Samurai
  • The Vengeance of the Monster
  • The Giant Majin
  • Majin
  • Fury of Mountain God
  • Majin the Hideous Idol
  • The Devil Got Angry

References[]

Kadokawa Pictures (formerly Daiei Motion Picture Company)
Era Icon - Showa
Kaiju
Movie
Era Icon - Daimajin


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