In 1994 with Toho's Heisei era of Godzilla films coming to an end, Toho released Orochi the Eight Headed Dragon. While it's supposedly based on the ancient legend of Yamato Takeru I'm assuming some liberties are taken. Still, much of the film felt rushed as if we, the viewers, are already supposed to know the basic plot. It's as if a director decided to turn a Biblical epic like The Ten Commandments into a 90 minute film. Sure we'd lose a lot of the substance but most everyone knows the basic story.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, it goes something like this. In the 4th century AD Yamato Takeru is born as the younger twin son of the Emperor. Although ordered to be killed at birth by his father Yamato is saved by a giant metallic phoenix. Yamato's aunt, a priestess, pleads with the Emperor to forgive Yamato for being born cursed. At first the Emperor refuses so Yamato is raised by his aunt.

After growing up it becomes clear that Yamato is no ordinary prince. He has a magic amulet that protects him and also causes him to turn into a sort of demon who can shoot lasers from his eyes and other such powers. He goes on a journey to defeat a neighboring warlord and meets the lovely priestess Oto. Thus begins the story of monster fighting, swordplay and dragons.

The film is more sword and samurai than it is kaiju. Orochi is a decent looking monster but he is appeared to be made from the same mold as King Ghidorah with five extra heads. The lesser gods and monsters are decent enough but they look more like Ultraman foes than anything else.

All I can say is that if this were true to Japanese mythology then it sure as heck would explain a lot. There's giant monsters, samurai, people shooting fire from their hands and even a mecha. It seems as though every cliche of Japanese movies is there. You half expected a busty teen aged girl in a sailor suit to show up.

Overall it was a fun movie to watch. Much of the film's special effects are about what you'd expect to see in a Godzilla film of this era. As I mentioned before Orochi looks a lot like the Heisei version of King Ghidorah so if you felt that the Godzilla films of the 90's were decent then you should enjoy this one.

Labels: 31 days of film, Japanese, Kaiju, sci-fi