Daimajin (1966)

             Just look at that poster and tell me you’re not intrigued? Not doing it for you? Okay let’s look at an actual screen cap. 

Holy Shit

Daimajin is giant-monster movie that takes place in feudal Japan. Daimajin is a deity called forth to aid the villagers who have been oppressed by local feudal bosses. Daimajin emerges to kick ass. Now if that's not for you, let me know and I'll take you off my Christmas card list. There's not a lot to explicate by way of plot....well there kind of is but all anybody is going to walk away with is 'oh shit this movie has a giant monster". That being said the movie spends a decent amount of time establishing the world, its victims and its oppressors occupy, maybe  a little too much time. The screenwriting book Save the Cat refers to this process as 'laying pipe' the amount of time you spend establishing the stuff that no one cares about but has to be in place for the movie to work. The flip side of that though, is that it is really cool seeing a giant monster movie that really has a grip on the human element of the story. The monster's actions here really have stake in the outcome for the humans. The original Godzilla certainly had that, where the film meditated on how many had been killed during Godzilla's attack. That of course was lost in the squeals where Godzilla will destroy a building and film does nothing to acknowledge that there were probably people in those buildings. You actually see Daimajin stomp on people, pick the up and toss them and whenever he topples a building you can bet there's somebody under it. Maybe because the move takes place before the advent of tanks, you even get a sense of the human struggle when the warlord clowns try fighting him off. One of the coolest sequences involves the guys trying to restrict Daimajin's movements with chains only for him to pull them and the buildings there attached to apart.

Something else I admire here and a trend I like to see in horror films is where the victims kind of deserve what's happening to them because they did something awful. In some films you start to feel sorry for the victim despite their and that doesn't quite happen here because the film really lays on how awful these guys are but what it does do is showcase backlash on the protagonist's end when up a vengeful God when turns out to be the kind of power lowly peasants aren't suited for. For a film that uses practical effects, the sense of dread is really menacing and I honestly I feel like that's something lots of recent monster movies are missing. Before I wrap this up, that's something I want to address. One of my favorite things Roger Ebert, God rest his soul, ever wrote was a piece on special effects. He talks about how he's not opposed to CGI but how its often taken for granted and filmmakers lose sight of what the scene is really about...well he can say it better than me.

The thing about the film is, we logically know the effects are effects, but they have aspects of startling reality. We know that horses can't gallop through the air, and carpets can't fly. But, hey, that's the real Sultan on a real horse, and that's the real Sabu on a real carpet. Today it might be done with CGI. We would get quick cuts of the horse heaving and tossing its mane, and the Sultan clinging for dear life, and eagles circling, and the overhead shot to the ground below, and the movie would be so busy it would forget the real point of the shot: The horse is flying! That's what happens when a shot is about effects, instead of about what they portray.

The film he is referencing is the Thief of Baghdad (1940). I'm usually more moved by the monsters in any of the Harryhausen (oh shit he just died too) films or Daimajin or the original Godzilla because when you're actually dealing with something physical like a model or a guy in a suit the use is usually more precise than in bullshit like this-

Where the monsters are so busy fucking skyscrapers we loose all sense of wonder. In any case Daimajin is a stunning example of this effect Ebert talks about and it'd be cool if that was something filmmakers would keep in mind. Luckily all the famous directors who read my blog will take that into account.

But I wouldn't say all hope is lost. I was with a lady recently and while watching Life Aquatic she told me "I don't like that kind of animation". Dealbreaker.