Masahiro Takashima is a prince expelled by his father but chosen by the gods to defend earth against
evil, helped by a giant white bird & his girl, sorceress Yasuko
Sawaguchi. Evil of course comes in many forms, one being a martial
artist (Hiroshi Abe) coming from space (in a very camp looking plastic
spaceship), another an eight-headed giant dragon. Thank god Takashima is
turning into a giant medieval battle-robot just in time to fight &
beat the dragon !
A fantasy movie with martial arts, a plastic spaceship & Godzilla
style monsters (the 8-headed Dragon actually looks like King Ghidorah
with a few extra heads tacked on), all set in medieval Japan ... this
movie just can't be all bad - but unfortunately this is also as good as
it gets ! The story, though very simplistic, is told in an overly
complex way & does rather get in the way of the effects, the martial
arts are okay but nothing to rave about & all characterizations do
fall curiously flat, having the audience care little about who actually
wins the final battle.
Parallels with Godzilla
movies don't end with the similarity of the
dragon to King Ghidorah, Yamato Takeru's production company Toho
actually made all Japanese Godzilla, with director Ogawara handling (to
the date of this writing) 4 of them (Godzilla vs Mothra, Godzilla
vs Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs Destoroyah & Godzilla Millenium),
actually making this one right between Mechagodzilla & Destoroyah. |