| Astec | 3.5  |
Beautiful and original |
| drélium | 3.75 |
|
| Ordell Robbie | 1.5 |
This first episode of the Majin saga sets up as the model, in the narration structure and the visual approach, for the two other movies. First of all, we have the basis of a classical samurai movie: feudal conflict between a good and a bad lord (here it’s a bad lieutenant), heirs -son and daughter- whose escape is due to the sacrifice of faithful samurais and local population suffering from this situation… All is set to linearly go to the final climax in a typical plot of vengeance, however here it’s not a Mifune or a Nakadai who will beat the bad guy and his troops in a last duel but a giant golem measuring more than three meters in height.
It’s clearly in his hybrid approach mixing jidai geki (historical samurai movie) and kaiju eiga (giant monster movie) that Daimajin trilogy finds its own way: the mixture of the genres. Daiei, concurrent company of Toho, had already produced the Gamera saga -at the middle of the 60’s too- to compete with Godzilla movies. With Majin, Daiei wants to create an original kaiju by using its studio experience in the two concerned genres. The result is a foreseeable but well done epoch story with an unexpected giant monster movie. All events preceding the last fifteen minutes - exclusively devoted to Majin- remain in the jidai geki stereotypes but avoid banality thanks to the excellent visual level of the film making. As for the appearances (very discreet except in the last quarter of the movie) of "God of the mountain", the stone giant, they stay –retrospectively- among the bests ever made in this kaiju period. And Majin's look is so cool...
