Return of Daimajin (1966)

directed by Kenji Misumi

Japan

79 minutes

4 stars out of 5

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In keeping with the theme of watching somewhat unconventional kaiju films this month, here I watched something that I'm on the fence about calling a kaiju film at all. It's definitely adjacent, but while Daimajin is a giant thing, he isn't a giant monster. As this uses most of the techniques that a more monster-y tokusatsu film would use - miniatures, suitmation, et cetera - I feel comfortable categorizing it alongside such films, but it's not of them.

I watched the first Daimajin a long time ago, well before I was interested in or even aware of tokusatsu at all, and I was quite taken by it because I was still of the (very wrong) opinion that guys in goofy rubber suits could not possibly be an effective method of conveying any kind of moral or political message. The giant majin statue is not just a spirit-filled idol that comes to life and smashes things indiscriminately - it is a living god, an embodiment of the rage of a beaten-down people. It's a savior meting out justice that does not look pretty or neat and has no room for negotiations. It takes a while to get the majin's blood up, especially in this second film, but when you do, there's no escaping it. Return of Daimajin is far more of a historical piece than anything else - I almost want to call it an "epic", but it's difficult to apply that word to something that's barely 80 minutes long - and being helmed by Kenji Misumi, director of arguably some of the most famous samurai films of all time, guarantees that it's going to be as intense and unwavering as his other work.

The majority of this film's running time is spent watching everything slowly go down the drain as it seems like the fist of power will just keep coming down on a subjugated people over and over. An ambitious tyrant seeks control of a fertile mountainous region where people worship the giant majin statue that we all know and love, and in the process of seizing control of this land, much life is lost - deliberately; the tyrant has no qualms about snuffing out resistance by simply making it a numbers game, killing the opposing side until they just don't have enough people to fight him. It's not a sad film, but it's full of strife and turmoil and bound to make you at least a little angry about injustice.

Another thing that makes Return of Daimajin similar to many classic kaiju films is that the star of the show doesn't actually show up until the last twenty minutes. As a Godzilla fan, I am fairly used to that. I want to take a different approach to this, though, and re-examine the giant majin's place in the film as an object, because this isn't the kind of thing where you watch it specifically to see a huge monster stomp stuff. The draw of it shouldn't be the giant majin, and just waiting around for that one part to develop robs you of the ability to appreciate the film as a whole. This is a movie that has as much human story as it has practical effects. And I would argue that keeping the appearance of the living statue to the very very end is absolutely vital to enforcing how powerful the statue is - there has to be the suggestion of a possibility that maybe the god won't show up, maybe all the praying and suffering is for naught. Even though we know we will see the majin statue come to the rescue, we have to see it from the perspective of the oppressors for at least a little while and be able to doubt that the mountain-dwellers are actually doing anything effective when they pray to their god. This allows the appearance of the majin to feel more like a triumph and less like an inevitability.

And let me just say that the last twenty minutes of this are absolutely incredible. It is a long wait for the payoff, especially if you're not fond of or just not experienced with samurai film, but once Daimajin rises up and parts the waters to smite those who would subjugate his people, everything that came before was wholly worthwhile. I was not expecting Akira Ifukube's soundtrack, as I was unaware that he worked with studios outside of Toho, so as you can imagine, the arrival of Daimajin is backed by the most epic, compelling symphonic score you could hope for. I feel like Shiho Fujimura, who plays Lady Sayuri, does an understated but important job in carrying a large part of this film, and even though once Daimajin shows up, language kind of seems to fail everybody, she manages to convey a sense of deep awe and respect when facing him. There's a fluidity to the effects in this that you don't usually see, particularly in scenes like the iconic one where Daimajin takes Sayuri down from being crucified - there's no goofy "King Kong holding that lady" vibe where it is so clearly a doll that it takes you out of the moment, it just looks real. And the shots of Sayuri looking at Daimajin, no words, just reverence - that was perfect.

So it might be a little slow at times if you're not in general a fan of either historical stuff involving this specific time period and location or anything with giant creatures, but I feel like even someone who is not into those things would appreciate how well this movie is made as an artistic endeavor. I unfortunately can't remember the first movie well enough to say if I liked it better than this, but certainly it introduced me to a side of tokusatsu that I was unaware existed at that point.