Le Retour de Majin

The Daimajin trilogy is quite an odd one. The main ... well I'll call him character (no pun intended Mr. God) is quite stiff through most of the movie. Again sorry for the pun, but it is true you see. And this is true for all three movies, that are not sequels to each other but just a bit of slightly different variations of each other.

All released in one year and been done with. Quite curious to say the least. This one seems to or at least feels like it is as good as the first one (or bad if you didn't like it). That being said, the action sequences and stunts work for the time they were made. The effects were good as they were in the first one. Still this also has pacing issues - if you are not that patient and all that.

The end justifies the mean(s)? Or just another pun - you'll be the judge (Daimajin will be the executioner)

Daiei Studios' Return of Daimajin is the first sequel to the movie featuring the giant stone god. In this plot, villagers defy an evil warlord's order to turn over one of their protectors, Lord Juro (Kôjirô Hongô), and end up seeing their people being brutally attacked by the warlord and his soldiers. As a result, the villagers pray upon Daimajin, the great stone god, to fight for them.

The plot, I thought, was not as suspenseful and solid as the original movie, as it has more of a general "turn over your hero to us or we'll screw your village over" story line. But, there is plenty of sword-wielding and good guy vs. bad guy action to keep the film engaging, and the nastiness of the villains will make you want to root for the god to awaken and teach them a lesson they'll never forget - showing them that they shouldn't mess with the faithful.

The acting was pretty good, cinematography was brilliant and special effects were neat. Also, you really can't go wrong having the great Akira Ifukube score the music soundtrack to this film, though, much of the music is reused or reworked from the scores of past Toho films.

Overall, it's a rather entertaining feature that fans of Japanese sci-fi/fantasy films could enjoy.

Grade B-

Anyone who finds themselves obsessed with kaiju movies is eventually going to stumble on the Daimajin series (probably once they run out of Godzilla movies). That's my experience at least, and I remember the first movie in this series not really doing much for me, even though its mix of samurai drama/action with scenes of the titular giant (rock) monster sounded like a match made in heaven. A samurai + kaiju movie? "Sign me up," I thought.

The first film didn't work for me all that much, and neither has this sequel, Return of Daimajin. It's honestly not terrible, in terms of how it looks and how the action's pulled off. It just feels oddly lifeless and uninspired to me, like it doesn't want to be a deadly serious samurai drama, but it also doesn't want to be too goofy (or generous) with its kaiju scenes. At under 80 minutes, it didn't test my patience as much as it could've, but it didn't really have the time to venture into any interesting directions narratively.

Like the first movie, this one was admittedly watchable. It wasn't offensive. It wasn't terrible. It just didn't do nearly as much for me as I wanted it too, and if my memory serves me correctly, I felt basically the same after finishing the first Daimajin.

This is the second installment of the Daimajin trilogy although the three stories are not connected.

Daimajin is a talismanic 50 ft stone statue embodied with the spirit of local god. It normally sits idle with a peaceful face, but when the people are oppressed, it wakes up and changes to fierce expression to protect the innocent.

The settings is in samurai era Japan. Country of Chigusa is invaded by the neighboring warlord of Mikoshiba. What the warlord of Mikoshiba doesn't know is that Chigusa is protected by Daimajin. He wreaks havoc on the people of Chigusa until - you guessed it - he pisses off the Daimajin !

Even seen as samurai movie, this movie has one of the best cinematography showing Daiei's experience in making samurai movies. Special effects are one of the best for '60s Japanese movie as well. Kojiro Hongo who was the star of '60s and '90s Gamera series also stars in this movie. Supporting casts are good too, and they deliver superb performance.

The movie is an interesting mixture of samurai and giant monster movie, but it works.

The recent TV mini-series "Daimajin Kanon" is a direct homage to this series and features the Daimajin in modern settings.

Return of Daimajin (1966) is a Japanese gem I recently watched on a random streaming service. The storyline follows a small town that is getting conquered by an evil dictators army. A young lady escapes and flees to a sacred temple and prays to their god to come save them. When the young lady is captured and made an example of the village god returns one last time to save the village.

This movie is directed by Kenji Misumi (Shogun Assassin) and stars Kôjirô Hongô (Satan's Sword), Shiho Fujimura (Zatoichi's Cane Sword), Tarô Marui (Fangs of Vengeance), Takashi Kanda (The Devil's Ballad) and Kôji Fujiyama (Bullet Train).

These are all a nice mix of samurai genre and monster movie, even if the monster doesn't appear until there's about 25 minutes left in the movie. The action scenes are very well choreographed and take place in some fun settings. I always love a good samurai sword fight scene. The effects on the monster is essentially a costume, mask and makeup but it works. The attack on the village at the end is good as is the final scene to conclude the series.

Overall this series is fairly consistent and worth watching for horror fans who enjoy samurai movies. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend giving it a try.