Yamato Takeru

1994
1h 45m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

After killing his brother, Prince Yamato is banished from his father's kingdom until he can bring his dangerous powers under control. On his journey, he meets and joins with the magical prie... Read allAfter killing his brother, Prince Yamato is banished from his father's kingdom until he can bring his dangerous powers under control. On his journey, he meets and joins with the magical priestess Oto, and together they go to fight against an evil god that has been ravaging the Ea... Read allAfter killing his brother, Prince Yamato is banished from his father's kingdom until he can bring his dangerous powers under control. On his journey, he meets and joins with the magical priestess Oto, and together they go to fight against an evil god that has been ravaging the Earth in the form of an enormous hydra. Will Yamato ever return home to reclaim his rightful... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

365

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Photos8

User reviews12

6.3365

Featured reviews

ChungMo

Fun but uneven period fantasy

A real mix of styles. Part imitation magic kung fu epic, part Ultraman episode, part samurai drama. The budget is good and there are a number of excellent parts but the whole affair is very uneven and paced poorly. The fight scenes go from pretty good to oddly slow. The hydra is a great Ghidrah-like monster but the final fight takes place on the moon with the hero turning into a giant robot!

Good for a light viewing but there are a few moments when the film has some gory stabbings that are not recommended for young children. The film makers could have left these out.

GodzillaMusic

A fun fantasy movie

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It had some really nice special effects. It was a fun fantasy movie in the same vein as the US Sinbad movies complete with a Dragon. I first saw this as a Japanese import with English subtitles and was glad when it was released here in the US last year on video with English dubbing. The US video title is "Orochi: The Eight Headed Dragon". A fun way to waste a few hours and get lost in your imagination.

2kool888

A rip off of every genre in the last 20 years, avoid at all cost

I have sat through this movie twice and I have concluded that this is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Loosely based on Japanese creation myth, it turns into a very bad version of Transformers. The plot is ridiculous, the acting is laughable and the action is plain silly. This is basically a mish mesh of styles, stolen from various genre. You see traces from Japanese as well as other folklore: Greek "Oedipus", Roman "Romulas an Remus", English "Excalibre", Chinese "Journey to the East" and Godzilla and Transformers. Supposedly set in Ancient Japan, the sets and armor looks like it came out of "Conan the Barbarian".

If this was an anime, it would be bad. As a live action, it's beyond redemption. Avoid at all cost.

8Gigan64

Surprise Hit

This movie starts out with a great plot and lots of action, it has good special effects, character development isn't all that good. But you still seem to get a bit of "presence" toward each character. This movie would have been one of the best movies I have ever seen, that is if it didn't fall into a "slump". This "slump" beginning after the return from their quest, the movie takes a unseen turn into space, and starts going downhill from there. But still a great movie.

10thalgoralgorim

The most underrated movie I know of

This is one of the best sword & sorcery movies I've ever seen, with an unusually high production value for a movie so little discussed and an extremely satisfying ending that is something you'd only see from Japan. Keeps up a very good pacing with a lot of variety in the action scenes, it feels like a lot of inspiration and care went into the making of this movie. Anyone who is into fantasy, sword & sorcery, or Japanese films should absolutely watch this.

A very great movie and easily the biggest disparity I know of between quality and popularity. I have no idea why it's unknown or has a low score here, it doesn't make a scrap of sense to me.

Trivia
Planned as a trilogy, box office results lead to the sequels being canceled. The second film would have featured Yamato going up against Bagan and the third would have featured an ancient monster that Godzilla was named after that was only mentioned in the original [link=Godzilla (1954). Bagan was a monster Toho had created in early drafts of Le Retour de Godzilla (1984) but was scrapped in favor of making that film more like the original Godzilla (1954) and a film called Mothra vs. Bagan had been planned but disappointing box office returns for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) forced them to cancel the project in favor of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991).