Daimajin (1966)

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Credits for Daimajin (film)
Daimajin (film) soundtrack


Daimajin media
None
Daimajin
Return of Daimajin
Daimajin
The Japanese poster for Daimajin
Alternate titles
Flagicon Japan.png The Great Devil (1966)
Flagicon United States.png Majin, the Monster
of Terror
(TV 1967)
See alternate titles
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Producer Masaichi Nagata
Written by Tetsuro Yoshida
Music by Akira Ifukube
Special
effects by
Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Distributor DaieiJP, AITVUS
Rating Not Rated
Budget ¥600,000,000
Running time 84 minutesJP
(1 hour, 24 minutes)
83 minutesUS
(1 hour, 23 minutes)
Aspect ratio 2.35:1JP
1.33:1US TV
Rate this film!
4.46
(13 votes)

Daimajin (大魔神,   Daimajin, lit. "The Great Devil") is a 1966 tokusatsu film directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda and written by Tetsuro Yoshida, with special effects by Yoshiyuki Kuroda. Produced by Daiei, it is the first entry in the Daimajin trilogy. It stars Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama, Jun Fujimaki, Ryutaro Gomi, Ryuzo Shimada, and Tatsuo Endo. The film was released to Japanese theaters by Daiei on April 17, 1966 as a double bill with Gamera vs. Barugon.

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 Sarumaru 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 10 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 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.

Staff

Main article: Daimajin (film)/Credits.

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

Cast

Main article: Daimajin (film)/Credits.

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

  • Miwa Takada   as   Kozasa Hanabusa
  • Yoshihiko Aoyama   as   Tadafumi Hanabusa
  • Jun Fujimaki   as   Kogenta Sarumaru
  • Ryutaro Gomi   as   Samanosuke
  • Ryuzo Shimada   as   Tadakiyo Hanabusa
  • Tatsuo Endo   as   Gunjuro
  • Shosaku Sugiyama
  • Saburo Date   as   Ippei Cyjuma
  • Otome Tsukimiya   as   Shinobu, priestess
  • 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

ELDA English dub

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

Appearances

Monsters

Gallery

Main article: Daimajin (film)/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: Daimajin (film)/Soundtrack.

Alternate titles

  • The Great Devil (literal Japanese title, used on the continuity script)[1]
  • The Hideous Idol Majin (international title)
    • Majin (shortened international title)
  • Fury of the Mountain God (Singapore)
  • Majin, the Monster of Terror (United States)
  • Vengeance of the Monster (Canada)
  • Majin, the Stone Samurai (Мадзин - каменный самурай; Russia)
  • Daimajín, the Evil God (Daimajín, El Dios Diabólico; Spain)
  • Daimajin - Frankenstein's Monster Awakens (Daimajin - Frankensteins Monster erwacht; West Germany)
  • Majin (France)
  • Majin, Monster of Terror
  • The Giant Majin
  • The Devil Got Angry

Theatrical releases

U.S. release

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 the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City in August 1968.

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

Video releases

ADV Films DVD (2002) [The Complete Daimajin Trilogy]

  • Region: 1
  • Discs: 3
  • Audio: Japanese (2.0 Mono)
  • Special features: Trailers
  • Notes: Out of print. Packaged with Return of Daimajin and Wrath of Daimajin. Reissued as a single disc in 2005.

Mill Creek Blu-ray (2012) [Daimajin Triple Feature]

  • Region: N/A
  • Discs: 2
  • Audio: Japanese (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0), English (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0)
  • Special features: Trailers for all three Daimajin films, interviews with cinematographer Fujio Morita on the making of each film (28, 31, and 28 minutes).
  • Notes: Out of print. Packaged with Return of Daimajin and Wrath of Daimajin (with the third film titled here Daimajin Strikes Again).

Arrow Video Blu-ray (2021) [The Daimajin Trilogy][3]

  • Region: A or B
  • Discs: 3
  • Audio: Japanese and English (Mono)
  • Subtitles: English
  • Special features: 100-page book with essays by Jonathan Clements, Keith Aiken, Ed Godziszewski, Raffael Coronelli, Erik Homenick, Robin Gatto, and Kevin Derendorf; audio commentaries by Stuart Galbraith IV (Daimajin), Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp (Return of Daimajin), and Jonathan Clements (Wrath of Daimajin); Daimajin introduction by Kim Newman; "Bringing the Avenging God to Life" video essay about the trilogy's special effects by Ed Godziszewski; AITV opening credits for Majin, the Monster of Terror and Return of Giant Majin; "My Summer Holidays with Daimajin" interview with Professor Yoneo Ota about the trilogy's production; "From Storyboard to Screen: Bringing Return of Daimajin to Life" comparison of storyboards and scenes from the finished film; interview with cinematographer Fujio Mori; Japanese and U.S. trailers for all three films (with the exception of a U.S. trailer for Wrath of Daimajin); image galleries; postcards

Kadokawa Blu-ray + DVD (2021)[4] [Daimajin Sealed Box]

Videos

Trailers

Japanese Daimajin trailer
Japanese newsflash for Daimajin and Gamera vs. Barugon
U.S. Majin, the Monster
of Terror
TV trailer
Mill Creek Daimajin Triple
Feature
Blu-ray trailer
Arrow Video The Daimajin Trilogy
Blu-ray teaser trailer

Trivia

  • This films sets up several conventions that are followed over the course of the trilogy.
    • Daimajin is unleashed by people to solve feudal issues, which culminate in the toppling of an oppressive leader.
    • Daimajin does not appear until late in the film's plot.
    • Daimajin's alignment is often neutral, and he will attack anything which hinders him.

References

This is a list of references for Daimajin (film). These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. Godziszewski, Ed. "Daiei`s Idol of Terror: DAIMAJIN, THE AVENGING GOD". SciFi Japan. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. "大魔神 (電影) - Wikipedia".
  3. "The Daimajin Trilogy Blu-ray". Arrow Films. 30 April 2021.
  4. "「大魔神封印函」4K修復版 Blu-ray BOX 【完全初回生産限定】". Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 10 June 2021.

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