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By the mid-1960s, Toho Studios had fully showcased the broad, international appeal of the kaiju film with numerous Godzilla and other stand-alone genre entries like Rodan, Varan the Unbelievable, and Mothra among numerous others that were scoring global success. Spurred on by this success, rival Daiei studios attempted their own kaiju cash-cow in Gamera: The Giant Monster which would soon become its own franchise after the studio attempted this new effort headed by veteran director Kimiyoshi Yasuda. Mixing together the kaiju scale of destruction with a jidaigeki story framework and setup, the first of the Daimajin trilogy is available in a spectacular boxset from Arrow Video

A samurai lord of a once peaceful village was murdered by one of his own men. The traitor Samonosuke (Ryutaro Gomi) then claims the throne, forcing servant Kogenta (Jun Fujimaki) to take the lord’s two small children Tadafumi (Yoshihiko Aoyama...

“Daimajin” by Kimiyoshi Yasuda stretches the genre borders and creates a well-aged drama about a big boy.

Being the first installment of a trilogy of which all movies have been shot at the same time, but were released a year apart, “Daimajin” resembles the trend of telling a Kaiju story in an Edo setting. The Japanese production company Diaei combines classic elements of the chanbara genre with the equally popular monster category.

Getting into the first 60 minutes of the plot, the movie goes into a totally different direction and does not feel like a monster movie at all. We are introduced to a political drama about a royal family that is torn apart by a coup. The heirs and their guardian have to flee to the mountains, where they hide for 10 years before they return to their home to free the people from a barbaric tyrant. That’s it for the sword fighting aspect.