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Kyoruu: Kaicho no Densetsu
The Legend of the Dinosaurs
Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds / Giganten der Vorzeit
Japan 1977
produced by Keiichi Hashimoto for Toei
directed by Junji Kurata
starring Tsunehiko Watase, Nobiko Sawa, Shotaro Hayashi, Tomoko Kiyoshima, Fuyukichi Maki, David Freedman, Maureen Peacock, Catherine Laub, Hiroshi Nawa, Ginji Nakamura, Masataka Iwao, Goro Oki, Yuskuke Tsukasa, Yukio Miyagi, Akira Moroguchi, Mineko Maruhira, Satoru Nabe, Tetsuo Fujisawa, Takashi Noguchi, Toshio Tomogane, Yoshiaki Yamashita
written by Masaru Igami, Takeshi Matsumoto, Ichiro Otsu, music by Masao Yagi
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In a cave near Mt Fuji, a woman finds a giant egg ... and goes half
crazy, while everybody else doesn't give too much of a heed about her
discovery, believing all she has seen was a petrified egg - all but lone
wolf scientist Ashizawa who believes there are actually dinosaurs living
at the foot of Mt Fuji, a theory his father was ridiculed for long ago.
Soon, people start seeing dragons (or more precisely, dinosaurs,
too, but since it's the dragon festival and the local tourism board
actually stages some (fake) dragon sightings, nobody gives too much of a
heed once again - but then the dinosaurs (the real ones) start killing
people, among them a friend of Ashizawa's diver girlfriend Akiko, and
people start to listen ... and of course, the army decides to simply bomb
the lake the dinosaurs are supposed to be living in - unfotunately exactly
when Ashizawa decides to go diving to investigate.
Of course, the bombing of the lake has little success, and onlookers
and the army are soon attacked by a pterodactylus, while Ashizawa was
knocked out by the blast and is only saved from a premature death
underwater in the last minute by Akiko. Unfortunately, Ashizawa's and
Akiko's escape route leads through a cave inhabited by a plesiosaurus that
simply likes to attack and kill people. Good thing only that the
pterodactylus has picked exactly that moment to stop by and engage in
mortal combat with the plesiosaurus, and then Mt Fuji breaks out too, and
Ashizawa and Akiko only narrowly escape death in hot molten lava.
I have to admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for Japanese monster movies, the
cornier the better (at least to a point). This one however is a big
disappointment: Taking most of its cues from the in itself disappointing
animal horror trasher Jaws, this movie keeps its monsters hidden
for most of the time while focussing on its clichéd characters and their
equally clichéd interactions, postponing the finale including the
monsters almost indefinitely. And when the dinosaurs finally show
themselves, they are rather disappointing, almost immobile plastic
creatures not able to participate in too much action. On the plus side,
there are some really ugly gore scenes, but not nearly enough to save the
film ...
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