Also known by the name Yamato Takeru - the central character, Prince Yamato. While there are plenty of giant hero versus kaiju sci-fi movies out there, a fantasy approach is used less often. This one didn't do so well at the box office at a time when Godzilla was enjoying his second wind, so perhaps that's the reason. That being said while this is full of nods to Japanese mythology and includes names like Amaterasu and Susano, it still ends with a huge monster fighting a huge robot. I suppose technically it's a giant holy warrior, but for all intents and purposes that's the kind of grand finale this offers. The blend of creature effects and sword and sorcery adventure should be a resounding success, but the reality is less effective.
After an evil court advisor tells the emperor that one of his newly born twin sons is evil, poor child Yamato is thrown off a cliff for the good of the kingdom. Luckily the gods catch him, but he is still banished from the land until adulthood. Nobody bothers to question the guy who said this was necessary and he keeps his job despite the obvious divine intervention casting his advice in a rather poor light. For all his obvious villainy this creep sticks around for the whole movie to cause several deaths and summon a few monsters along the way. I guess the scary cloak he wears and the evil shrine in his bedroom are just considered eccentricities.
Several years later adult Yamato (Masahiro Takashima) has become a young man troubled by the sense of his own destiny. Despite the grumblings of his guardians he's drawn to a sacred cave where the statue of an underworld spirit gives him a magic gemstone. Here he's also told that one day he will wield two other objects that will transform him into a divine warrior for the forces of good. However things don't go as planned, and after Yamato is welcomed back to his parents home the gem seems to cause two deaths. Again nobody bothers to consider that this is still the obvious work of an evil magician, and the prince is sent away on a quest so that no further incidents will occur in the palace.
This second act adventure plot highlights one of the main issues with the story, in that it feels like there are too many threads which start to drag the pacing. Yamato meets warrior priestess Oto (Yasuko Sawguchi) and fights both an evil king and a volcano demon, but the story feels meandering and lacking dramatic stakes. On top of this the characters are pretty bland and it lacks any sort of swashbuckling charm. They simply go from point A to point B as a lot of dialogue about destiny is reeled off. Characterisation and personal growth is mostly absent which is problematic in a tale of uncertain heroes finding their places in a world full of mystical energy and holy spirits.
That isn't to say the story lacks entertainment value sprinkled throughout as the heroes travel the country. It would just be nice if the journey had some sense of progression as they come up against enemy guards and giant monsters. The latter in particular is a sequence that lacks any consequence when the whole sea serpent scheme fails and other simpler (and more effective) measures are taken, making it feel excessive and unnecessary. Even some of the character deaths are reversed minutes later before they go and face a new and more important threat without any real impediment. This is a film where magic wielding characters fight each one another in an evil castle on the moon, but I'd prefer if their travels were on a more gradual incline.
In terms of the spectacle however it does deliver a lot of interesting set pieces as magic ropes and fireballs are deployed. Earlier scenes in which human sized combatants take on larger foes are kind of clumsy, but as things go on there are more effective bouts. The big bad, Orochi, is a grander version of the kind of puppet used for King Ghidorah (which was inspired by this legend) and the effects work combines various models to give a good sense of scale. Yamoto and Oto riding a giant spirit bird in particular lends it a sense of absurd grandeur, which sums up a lot of the third act. Characters are merged together and reincarnated, lightsaber style swords stab into giant dragon heads, and magic mirrors shoot divine energy beams.
It's an uneven but often large than life story that features plenty of interesting locations and matte paintings to create a varied fantasy world. There are some stretches that could have been trimmed down to make it feel more brisk, and the main protagonists could all do with a generous charisma injection. But as a big budget Toho effort outside the usual Godzilla universe it's still fairly watchable and offers plenty of destructive eye candy. The human element is often a weak point in monster centric releases like this, but in an adventure tale or a heroes journey it all needs to be a lot more focused. Fans of this kind of thing will be happy with the results, but for some it will be a little patience testing in the lulls between the action.
3/5
