Daimajin, Vol. 3: Return of Daimajin

Daimajin, Vol. 3: Return of Daimajin Review

Probably the weakest of the Daimajin trilogy, this is still pretty good. Shifting the focus to a group of children travelling through the mountain of the god to resuce their fathers could have been much more cloying and irritating than it actually is.The kids themselves are nowhere near as annoying as, say, Kenny of Gamera fame, and the fact that the film puts them in very serious peril instead of treating everything with a Speilbergian sense of hollow awe. One of the children does die actually. Clearly this is still far from kids' stuff, and the presentation in the original Japanese helps considerably (think how loathsome these kids would be with high pitched, dubbed English voices). Of course, everything in this film becomes irrelevant once Daimajin is resurrected. These scenes, as always, are excellent and nicely comparable with the other two, superior, films. Here Daimajin's revival is heralded by the death of a bird, which seems to be an extension of his spirit, and the willing self sacrifice of one of the children. From this point, the film is wonderful, as Daimajin embarks on his snow swept rampage, with little regard for anything in his path. There's a great scene in which the villain tries to stop Daimajin by cutting loose several bundles of logs. Just as he thinks he has succeeded, the smoke clears, and Daimajin stands undeafeted. He then proceeds to use the logs as weapons against those who would stop him. Amazing. Once again, evil has come to plague the peasants of Japan. As a vicious overlord brutally crushes the life from a tiny village, only one group of young warriors remain to seek salvation for their people. Stalked and hunted like animals, the youngsters make a desperate trek across a blood-stained landscape of ice and stone seeking the legendary God of Vengeance, Daimajin. The hand of vengeance is coming… and the children shall guide it.