is a 1966 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by

Kimiyoshi Yasuda (born February 15, 1911 Tokyo, Japan, died July 26, 1983) was a Japanese film director from the 1930s to 1970s. He directed six films about Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman. He signed with Nikkatsu Kyoto studio as an assistant director and started w ...

. Produced and distributed by

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

, it is the first film in the ''

Daimajin is a series of Japanese films. The trilogy of films were all shot simultaneously and released in 1966 with three different directors and predominantly the same crew. The series was produced by Daiei Film and contained similar plot structures inv ...

'' trilogy. The plot centers around a wrathful spirit (the eponymous Daimajin) sealed inside an ancient statue, which comes to life to help the surviving children of the slain

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

Tanba Province was a province of Japan in the area of central Kyoto and east-central Hyōgo Prefectures. Tanba bordered on Harima, Ōmi, Settsu, Tajima, Wakasa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō sys ...

(

Miwa Takada is a Japanese film, TV and stage actress. She has starred in several Japanese movies that are today considered classics (especially in the '' Zatoichi saga'', and the ''Daimajin'' trilogy). Takada also worked as a singer, and the duet she reco ...

and Yoshihiko Aoyama).

Plot

In a remote village in the province of Tanba, a household of peasants cowers during a series of earth tremors that are interpreted as the escape attempts of Arakatsuma (阿羅羯磨), also known as Daimajin (大魔神, "Great Demon God"), a violent divine spirit said to be trapped within the nearby mountain held in fear and reverence by the locals. As the village gathers at the local

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...

to perform an ancient ritual to pacify Daimajin, Ōdate Samanosuke (Ryūtarō Gomi), chamberlain to the local

Hanabusa Tadakiyo (Ryūzō Shimada), stages a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

. He and his henchmen slaughter Hanabusa and his wife, but their son and daughter escape, aided by the heroic

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

Kogenta (Jun Fujimaki). Back at the shrine, Samanosuke's men break up the ceremony, forbidding all such gatherings in the future. The elderly priestess, Shinobu (Otome Tsukimiya), issues a dire warning, but the men ignore her. Kogenta takes the two children to his aunt Shinobu's house. The priestess takes them up the mountain, into forbidden territory, where a gigantic stone idol of the

mountain god Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many rel ...

who had sealed Daimajin long ago stands half-buried atop a waterfall. Near this idol is an ancient temple - safe as only Shinobu knows of its existence. The children grow to adulthood. The son, Tadafumi (Yoshihiko Aoyama) reaches his 18th birthday. The years have been miserable for the villagers. Samanosuke is a brutal leader (in one scene, he gouges out an old woman's eye with a red-hot iron hook) who is using every man in the starving village as slave labor. The place is ripe for revolution, and surviving Hanabusa retainers are starting to return. Kogenta journeys to the village to try to gather the old retainers but get himself captured. A boy, Take-bō, gets word to Tadafumi and his sister, Kozasa (

) that their friend is a prisoner. Tadafumi tries to rescue him, only to discover it is a trap. With both awaiting executions, Shinobu tries to talk to the tyrant, warning him that the god of the mountain's curse will befall him should he continue his evildoing ways. Samanosuke, refusing to heed Shinobu's words, kills her and orders the idol demolished. With her dying breath, Shinobu curses Samanosuke to die a harsh, merciless death and declares that if he attempts to destroy the idol, the wrathful Arakatsuma sealed inside it will come out. The crew that travels up the mountain to smash the idol accidentally discovers Kozasa and Take-bō and forces them to take them to the statue. The soldiers bring out an enormous chisel and proceed to hammer it into the idol's head; they stop when they see blood beginning to drip from it. Horrified, the men attempt to flee, but the earth cracks open and swallows them. Kozasa begs the god of the mountain to save her brother and Kogenta and punish the wicked Samanosuke. At the fortress, Tadafumi and Kogenta are tied to large crosses, awaiting their fates. Kozasa offers her life to the god and attempts to throw herself over the nearby waterfall, but the rock and earth covering the lower half of the idol fall away, and it comes to life. As it walks out into the clearing, Kozasa prostrates herself before it; the idol, animated by the reawakened Daimajin Arakatsuma, assumes a terrifying appearance and goes to Samanosuke's stronghold. Daimajin rescues both Kogenta and Tadafumi and proceeds to utterly destroy the fortress. After impaling Samanosuke with the chisel on its forehead, Daimajin now turns its wrath upon everyone in sight. Take-bō unsuccessfully begs Daimajin to stop; as the boy was about to get trampled on by the idol, Kozasa steps in and saves him. Kozasa tearfully pleads with Daimajin to cease its rampage, letting her tears fall on its stone feet. Its anger now quelled, Daimajin's spirit leaves the idol, restoring it to its former appearance before it collapses into a heap of rubble.

Cast

as Hanabusa Kozasa (花房小笹) * Masako Morishita as Young Kozasa * Yoshihiko Aoyama as Hanabusa Tadafumi (青山良彦) * Hideki Ninomiya as Young Tadafumi * Jun Fujimaki as Sarumaru Kogenta (猿丸小源太) * Otome Tsukimiya as Shinobu (信夫) * Ryūtarō Gomi as Ōdate Samanosuke (大舘左馬之助) * Ryūzō Shimada as Hanabusa Tadakiyo (花房忠清) * Tatsuo Endō as Inugami Gunjūrō (犬上軍十郎) *

Saburō Date was a Japanese actor. In 1945, he signed a contract with Daiei Film company and started his acting career. Following year, he made his film debut with ''Okagura Kyōdai'' directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. At the same time, he was given the stage nam ...

as Chūma Ippei (中馬逸平) * Shosaku Sugiyama as Kajiura Yūsuke (梶浦有助) * Hideo Kuroki as Harada Magojūrō (原田孫十郎) * Shizuhiro Izoguchi as Take-bō (竹坊) aka The Boy * Gen Kimura as Mosuke (茂助), Take-bō's father * Keiko Kayama as Haruno (悠乃) * Eigorō Onoe as Gosaku (吾作) *

Chikara Hashimoto , also erroneously called , was a Japanese professional baseball player and actor. Hashimoto played baseball for Mainichi Orions in the 1950s. He was forced to retire in 1958 following an injury, and then joined Daiei Studios. As an actor, he is ...

as Daimajin (uncredited)

Production

The proposal for this film was submitted to Daiei headquarters in 1965 at the 124th planning meeting in the first week of November. Hisashi Okuda, who was the deputy director of planning, decided to use the golem legend depicted in the Czechoslovakian movie ''

Le Golem ''Le Golem'' ( cs, Golem) is a 1936 Czechoslovakian monster movie directed by Julien Duvivier in French language. Plot In a Prague ghetto, poor Jews find themselves oppressed by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (Harry Baur) which leads to talk am ...

'' (1936) and utilize the special effects technology of Daiei Kyoto Studio. The cinematographer on ''Daimajin'' is sometimes credited to

Yoshiyuki Kuroda was a Japanese filmmaker and special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction films and television shows. Early life Kuroda was born on March 4, 1928, in Matsuyama, Ehime, in his youth Kuroda's family moved to Kyoto. Kur ...

and sometimes to Fujio Morita.

Release

Theatrical

''Daimajin'' was released theatrically in Japan on April 17, 1966, as a double feature with ''

Gamera vs. Barugon is a 1966 Japanese Kaiju, ''kaiju'' film directed by Shigeo Tanaka, with special effects by Noriaki Yuasa and Kazufumi Fujii. Produced by Daiei Film, it is the second entry in the Gamera, ''Gamera'' franchise, and stars Kōjirō Hongō, Kyōko E ...

''. The film did not receive a theatrical release in the United States, instead being released directly to television by

American International Television American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fil ...

in 1968 under the title ''Majin the Monster of Terror''.Galbraith IV, Stuart. ''Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films'' Venice, California: Feral House. 1998. pg. 165

Home media

Boutique label Arrow Video released the trilogy in 2021, in a Blu-Ray set featuring new commentaries on all three films and other special features.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* *
Daimajin
' at AllMovie {{Kimiyoshi Yasuda 1966 films 1960s fantasy films Films directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda 1960s Japanese-language films Kaiju films Daiei Film tokusatsu films Films scored by Akira Ifukube Daiei Film films Films set in feudal Japan Giant monster films Films produced by Masaichi Nagata 1960s exploitation films 1960s Japanese films ja:大魔神#『大魔神』