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The Daimajin Trilogy

Blu ray – All Region

Arrow Films

1966

Starring Miwa Takada, Kojiro Hongo, Hideki Ninomiya

Cinematography by Fujio Morita, Shozo Tanaka, Hiroshi Imai

Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kenji Misumi, Kazuo Mori

Japanese monsters seem to bring out the best in home video companies—Arrow Films’ The Daimajin Trilogy is the most beautifully wrought Blu ray release since Criterion’s momentous Godzilla set. Though the films themselves don’t match the kaleidoscopic allure of Matt Frank’s cover illustrations, the Daimajin movies remain rousing entertainment for both monster-crazy kids and seasoned movie fans who should appreciate the sky-scraping samurai’s exciting if utterly predictable adventures.

Predictable, because each film in the trilogy is essentially the same movie—same beginning, same middle, same end. Utterly predictable but then so are the Bond films—the lack of any real surprises is fundamental to their comfort food aesthetic. Produced one after another in...

After the sprawling success of the first film, Daiei Studios returned to the fabled stone warrior Daimajin for a second round of feudal-set tokusatsu action. Bringing even more storyline elements from the Jewish fable of the Golem into the picture than the first film, jidaigeki master Kenji Misumi manages to produce a no less entertaining but far less impactful retelling, in a different location in this second entry in the trilogy, available in a Blu-Ray collection from Arrow Video.

After conquering a village, evil warlord Danjo (Takashi Kanda) sets his sights on another one by the lakeside. He kidnaps village local Katsushige Nakoshi (Koichi Uenoyama) and offers an ultimatum to the villagers to hand over one of their protectors, Lord Juro (Kojiro Hongo), in exchange for the release of Katsushige. However, Lord Juro, his sister Sayuri (Shiho Fujimura and the brave people of the village defy the...

In the district of the Mino Mountains, the locals believe that there is a legendary female spirit who comes out at night and kills anyone who’s unfortunate enough to lay eyes on her. This horror folktale of the snow woman was also one of the four stories told in Masaki Kobayashi’s “Kwaidan” (StrangeTales) from 1965.

Yosaku is an orphan, an apprentice who works for master sculptor Shigetomo. The movie starts off with them looking for a suitable tree to carve a statue of the goddess of mercy for their temple. However, they’re caught in a snow storm on their back prompting them to take refuge in a rundown cabin. During the night, the evil snow spirit pays them a visit and freezes the old sculptor to death. Being enchanted by Yosaku’s innocence looks, she spares his life but on the promise that he has to keep the encounter a secret.

Even though traveling on the road without being allowed permanent peace anywhere is what has defined the character of Zatoichi it was not until the fifth part of the franchise this condition was put as the core theme of one of the films. Played by Shintaro Katsu, the blind masseur had become a fugitive as well as the target of many revenge schemes of individual people as well as yakuza bosses, branding him a man without a home and destined to always be on the move. While there is no direct connection to the fourth film of the series “Zatoichi the Fugitive”, you might consider these two films a closer look at this life-defining condition of the character.

At the beginning of the film, we have an almost typical moment for Zatoichi (Katsu) as he promises a dying man to escort a girl named Omitsu (Shiho Fujimura) to Edo.