The Magic Serpent

Infobox Film
name = The Magic Serpent


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director = Tetsuya Yamauchi
producer =
writer = Masaru Igami
Mokuami Kawatake
narrator =
starring = Hiroki Matsukata
Tomoko Ogawa
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Toei Company
released = March 5, 1966
runtime = 94 min
country = Japan
language = Japanese
budget =
preceded_by =
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imdb_id = 0060579nihongo|"The Magic Serpent"|怪竜大決戦|Kairyū Daikessen|The Mystic Dragons' Decisive Battle is a 1966 tokusatsu kaiju/ninja fantasy film produced by Toei Company Ltd. This film is a loose retelling of the famous Japanese folktale, "Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari" ("The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), using daikaiju, which the hero Jiraiya and villain Orochimaru turn into dragons using ninja magic (this film was made during the first "Kaiju Boom").

tory

The Oumi Kingdom, ruled peacefully by Lord Ogata (Shinichiro Hayashi), was raided by his corrupt general Daijo Yuki (Bin Amatsu), who is assisted by an evil ninja named Orochimaru (Ryutaro Otomo), who slays the lord and his wife, who in turn trust their young son Ikazuchi-Maru to their soldiers, who escape the kingdom in a small boat. Orochimaru goes after them, transforming into a giant serpent. He sinks the boat and almost succeeds in killing Ikazuchi-Maru, until a giant eagle flies along, injures Orochimaru, and saves the young boy.

Years later, Ikazuchi-Maru (Matsukata Hiroki), now a young man, has mastered the art of ninjutsu and toad magic, thanks to an old hermit named Dojin Hiki (Nobuo Kaneko). When a band of ninja sent by Daijo Yuki try to attack Ikazuchi-Maru, the young ninja puts his skills to the test. Along the way, he meets a beautiful young girl named Tsunade (Tomoko Ogawa), whom he becomes friends with. Meanwhile, Hiki is confronted by Orochimaru, who turns out to be an old apprentice of his! Hiki also turned out to be the giant eagle that saved the young Ikazuchi-Maru and gave his former pupil a scar on his head (when he was in serpent form). Orochimaru then attacks the old master with ninja magic and poisons him. Ikazuchi-Maru and Tsunade return almost too late, as the dying Hiki tells him all he needs to know about Orochimaru, telling his pupil to avenge his death. And just before he dies, he reacts to Tsunade in shock, as though he realized something about her. Before setting out on his mission to avenge his master, Ikazuchi-Maru says farewell to Tsunade, who is taken care of by an old "spider" woman (Sen Hara), who tells her to follow the young man. She gives the young woman a spider hairpin, with which she can summon a giant spider, but she can do so only once, lest the giant spider will turn on her if used more than once.

The course of Ikazuchi-Maru's journey has him befriending a girl named Saki (Yumi Suzumura) and her little brother Shirota (Takao Iwamura), whose village was oppressed by Daijo Yuki's men. Yuki himself tries to execute Saki and Shirota for treason, only to be attacked by Ikazuchi-Maru, who proclaims himself to be the invincible ninja "Jiraiya"! Demanding revenge against Yuki for the murder of his parents and the overthrow of his kingdom, Jiraiya is then confronted by Orochimaru, whom he duels with spectacular ninja magic. We also learn of a shocking secret about Tsunade; She is the daughter of Orochimaru! Her father urges her to kill Jiraiya with poison (after a hired assassin failed to kill him also). After these failed attempts on his life, Jiraiya sets out to rescue Saki and Shirota from Yuki (who was in the midst of celebrating with his kingdom). He transforms into a giant toad, rampaging Yuki's stronghold. Orochimaru confronts Jiraiya in his powerful giant serpent form, and a spectacular showdown between two giant magical forces ensues . . .

Overview

Despite the many differences between this film and its source material, this has remained an entertaining cult classic. Just like Toei's many superhero shows, this film is just as action-packed and colorful. And to entertain younger audiences, the hero Jiraiya and villain Orochimaru use ninja magic to transform into daikaiju to battle each other (this was also done in the original story, even though the animals were not necessarily gigantic).

Some have speculated that this was one of the inspirations for George Lucas' "Star Wars" saga, which has a similar story element to this film (the relationship between Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader is similar to the relationship between Dojin Hiki and Orochimaru).

Versions

In the Japanese version, the opening credits and the ending are associated with two songs, "Kairyû Daikessen" ("The Mystic Dragons' Decisive Battle") and "Susume! Jiraiya" ("Forward, Jiraiya!"), respectively. The US version edits out the songs, replacing them with background music from elsewhere in the film.

Also in the US version, all of the giant monsters' original roars were replaced with those of familiar Toho monsters. Jiraiya (in toad form) sounds like Rodan, Orochimaru (in serpent form) sounds like Godzilla and Gaira, Dojin Hiki (in eagle form) sounds like Mothra, and Tsunade's giant spider made a creaky noise somewhat similar to Ebirah (and also used for some monsters from an Ultra Series).

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060579/ "Kairyū Daikessen"] at the Internet Movie Database
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