Les monstres de l'apocalypse

1966's "Magic Serpent" ("Kairyu Daikessen" or Decisive Battle of the Giant Magic Dragon) emerged from Toei Studios rather than Toho, perhaps best known for Sonny Chiba's "Terror Beneath the Sea" or Robert Horton's "The Green Slime," as well as TV feature "Voyage Into Space" (derived from JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT). Preceding Daiei's Majin trilogy by mere months, this joyous combination of ancient Japanese folklore with giant monsters opens with the betrayal and murder of Lord Ogata by once trusted general Yuki Daijo (Bin Amatsu), aided by ninja sorcerer Oroki Maru (Ryutaro Otomo), who then assumes the form of a sea serpent to pursue Ogata's son and rightful heir to the throne (the serpent is dubbed with Godzilla's roar combined with green Gargantua Gaira). All the men perish as their craft is crushed by the dragon, only for a giant eagle to carry the boy to safety (this winged savior is dubbed with the sound of Mothra). Ten years pass and the lad has grown into the handsome Ikazuki Maru (Hiroki Matsukata), like Oroki taught to master the mystic arts by the same teacher, elderly Dojin Hiki (Nobuo Kaneko), who has decided that the time has come for Ikazuki to learn the truth about his heritage and to avenge the honor of his parents. An ambush by Oroki's ninja servants results in what appears to be a beheading, Ikazuki's laughing head seating itself on a nearby log while his headless body frightens the would be assassin to take his own life (the head reattaches itself backwards, then makes the right adjustment). Pretty young Sunate (Tomoko Ogawa) witnesses the carnage, wrongfully assumes that the survivor was the aggressor, and finally realizes her mistake as he agrees to help find her long missing father, following her mother's recent death. Oroki manages to trick his old master into a fatal snake bite, though the dying man is still able to send the couple on their way to see usurper Yuki Daijo. Sunate learns the identity of her father yet cannot bring herself to obey his orders when it comes to taking a life, setting up a climactic battle between Oroki's water spouting dragon against Ikazuki's fire breathing horned toad (dubbed with the sound of Rodan), with a brief appearance from Sunate's summoning of a giant spider that spins its web all over the serpent. For once, the addition of four monsters weren't necessary to the plot, action packed and fast paced from start to finish, though obviously dubbed at a later date for AIP-TV since "The War of the Gargantuas" had yet to be made by Toho. The titular serpent closely resembles Manda from Toho's "Atragon" and later "Destroy All Monsters," only with larger claws that can be used more effectively in smashing its opponent. One can easily imagine filmmakers like George Lucas or Quentin Tarantino taking note of this unjustly forgotten opus for future reference, certainly good enough for US theatrical release.

It's always sad to see how a film as fun as this was released once it was outside of Japan. The dubbing for the A.I.P. print is abysmal compared to some of their other treatments of similar titles of the time, and the pan and scan cropping of the film destroys much of the majesty of the film itself. If you'd like this version of the film, however, it's being released soon by Retromedia (if I'm not mistaken).

But, thankfully, all is not lost. Toei Co. Ltd., a studio known more for it's sentai than for anything else, saw to it that this title, along with several other films that are nearly impossible to find, was released to Laserdisc in 1993. While currently out of print, the laserdisc is not impossible to find. If you have a player and some extra cash (while not impossible to find, a copy runs anywhere from $45 to well over $100 these days) I highly recommend it.

Kairyu Daikessen tells the story of a prince who's kingdom is over-taken by an evil warlord sometime in medieval Japan. A hawk sent by a kind wizard saves the young prince from a group of ninjas and a giant dragon that has killed off the rest of the royal lineage. The boy grows up with the wizard as his surrogate father and mentor. Eventually the prince goes out on his own to take back the kingdom, facing ghosts, ninjas, and an evil wizard along the way. The conclusion is an all out battle between the good prince and the evil wizard, who have transformed themselves into (respectively) a giant frog and a dragon.

As the other two reviewers have noted, the influence of this film on Star Wars is fairly obvious, though the character genders are reversed (the Luke Skywalker of the story is female while the Princess Leia is male). The special effects sequences are very dated but were very well managed for the time. The action sequences are imaginative and plentiful. The monster suits for the ending of the film are based on traditional Japanese art renditions of dragons and frogs. Overall, this is a very fun film, though it is infinately more enjoyable if viewed in its original format. I'm still hoping for a fully restored Region 2 dvd of the title to be released.

I can kind of understand why American-International Pictures picked up this movie for North American distribution. The movie has giant monsters, ninjas, samurai warriors, sword fights, magicians, and other colorful elements. However, I think that A.I.P. was wise to release this movie directly to television instead of trying to release it to theaters. The story is kind of confusing at times, though in fairness to the filmmakers, the A.I.P. print that I saw was cut by about ten minutes; so possibly some explanation for some murky elements got removed. Though at the same time, there are definitely some slow-moving scenes in the movie that will no doubt make the viewer impatient for some action to return to the movie. In the end, the movie probably has enough to attract die hard fans of Japanese fantasy movies, though other viewers may be squirming in their seats. By the way, I'm not sure why the movie is called "Magic Serpent", when there actually isn't that much footage of the title beast.

Although THE MAGIC SERPENT is clearly a film aimed at children, this Japanese fantasy epic really pushes the boat out in terms of production values. You have an adult sub-plot involving a traitor overthrowing a castle which is straight out of a samurai film; some impressively destructive kaiju monster fight scenes; and an action-adventure type narrative that no doubt inspired George Lucas when he made STAR WARS.

This production looks big budget with everything put up on screen and celebrated. The costumes and sets are quite fantastic and even the special effects don't disappoint, with a mix of men in monster costumes and scenes of flying heads and magic spells and the like. THE MAGIC SERPENT is an involved and involving fantasy film and one which really grabs the viewer's attention.

The story is about an evil usurper and the baby that escapes from a massacre. Years later, the baby has grown into an upstanding young hero under the tutelage of a wise old mystic, so he goes on an odyssey of revenge against the traitors. Along the way he teams up with a poor farming family and encounters various allies and enemies en route to the castle. There's plenty of action here and none of it disappoints, from the sword and gun battles to the hulking monster smash action. It's a colourful action romp, and highly satisfying with it.

This film used to come on one of the local stations here in Los Angeles at least once a year and it was a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy film. This film pretty much combines the elements of kaiju eiga along with another popular Japanese genre, the samurai film. As other viewers mentioned you pretty much can see that this film had an influence on the "Star Wars" saga especially when you look at the film early on as young Jiraiya (or Izakuchi-Maru) learns from his teacher, who obviously was an inspiration for Obi Won. The special effects are okay for a film not made by Toho and despite the swordplay, there is not that much blood. This film is defintely worth watching.

Also, a word of warning. This film has been released on DVD as part of a "double feature" with Gamera tai Gyaosu (aka. Return of the Giant Monsters). The quality of the film on DVD is not that great, but if you can get past that, I still recommend the film.