https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL5SuwL2t_I
My friend Carol was the only other person I knew who watched “Majin, Monster of Terror” on Creature Features. We were both dedicated fans of Creature Features, a late-night weekend show hosted by Bob Wilkins. As Wilkins would smoke a cigar and sit back in a high-back chair, he would stare into the TV audience through horn-rimmed glasses and give us a summary of upcoming films. “Majin” was debuting this particular weekend, and he described the film as if we were going to watch the Citizen Kane of monster movies.
“Majin” takes place in the Feudal Era, where a crazed overlord steals into the night with his band of men, killing a more attractive overlord and his wife. The children escape and are cared for in the hills of Little Village, Japan by a creepy white haired woman who keeps staring towards the mountain in the direction of the benevolent stone figure when she is not speaking in a monotone or doing shamanistic rituals. Once the children grow, they also stare towards the mountain towards the figure and do their praying, although eldest son has bigger ambitions of retaking the old castle.
Elder son teams up with another to steal into Little Village, only to be caught and sent to execution on the cross. Younger sister panics when elder son does not return from his fact finding expedition, then goes to the benevolent stone statue where she spills her princess crocodile tears. The transformation of the still, placid statue begins with the stiff wave of the stone hand, transforming the peaceful figure into a scowling steel creature that enters Little Village to bring the film to an end.
Wilkins was right in praising “Majin”. For a true monster fan, “Majin” is the emotional, thinking monster that combines the strength of Godzilla with the sensitivity of Gamera. There is also plenty of costume drama, evil characters with bushy eyebrows, a pretty princess and squishing of scattering samurai. This is what the recent “47 Ronin” should have been, complete with lower cost and better acting by the main giant monster of a character.
A accessible film via Amazon or DVD worth viewing, although whomever transferred the original film over to a viewable medium interrupts the movie by inserting an odd studio photo of someone’s mother. This makes “Majin” a keeper.
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