Wrath of Daimajin (1966) is a Japanese samurai monster movie I recently watched on a random streaming service. The storyline follows a group of kids whose family is being used as slaves to work the sulfur mines. They set out on an adventure to find sacred religious grounds where it's rumored a monster resides that if freed can save their families.

This movie is directed by Kazuo Mori (Zatoichi at Large) and stars Junichiro Yamashita (Gamera: The Giant Monster),Tôru Abe (Tokyo Story),Tanie Kitabayashi (Rikyu) and Yûzô Hayakawa (Gamera vs Barugon).

The majority of this film is about the children on an adventure and trying to survive harsh conditions in the wilderness. It's 1 hour and 5 minutes into the movie before you see Daimajin. There are some cool bird attack scenes that are well done and the arrival of Daimajin was cool. His intro music was very much like Godzilla's. The town models were very cool as was the use of snow. Daimajin arriving and attacking the city was pretty fun as were some of the elements they created within the town (like the zip lines).

Overall this is a very average addition to the genre that was a huge step down from the first Daimajin film. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend skipping it.

Daiei Studios' Wrath of Daimajin is the second and final sequel to the movie featuring the giant stone god. In this plot, a Lord Arakawa kidnaps the men of villages in a mountainous region to use as labor to produce gunpowder. As a result, a group of young boys journeys through the mountains, including through the valley of Daimajin, to rescue their fathers.

The plot, I thought, was not as suspenseful and solid as the original movie, as it concentrated too much on the boys' adventures in the mountains, alternating between that and the fathers' mistreatment at the labor camp. But there is the satisfying fun of seeing Daimjain awaken to wreak havoc on those nasty doers.

The acting was pretty good, cinematography was brilliant, and special effects were neat. And once again, you are treated with another great Akira Ifukube score; however, some of the music soundtrack is reused or reworked from past film scores.

Overall, it's not too bad of a sci-flick, but is the weakest of the Daimajin Trilogy.

Grade C-

Daimajin is found at the top of a mountain, above a village where an evil lord has forced men into work camps. This sends their sons to rescue them, which takes them past the statue of Daimajin, which they take the time to pay proper respect to. However, the big bad has decided that he can openly disrespect the statue, which leads to the same thing that happens in all three of these films: Daimajin goes wild and ruins the evil empire.

Written by Tetsurô Yoshida, this movie was directed by Kazuo Mori (Forty-Eight Hours to Kill),this film focuses on four young boys who are trying to save their fathers and discover that they have a psychic link to Daimajin.

This is the only film in the trilogy that wasn't released in the U. S. during the 1960s and it didn't have an English dub until Mill Creek Entertainment released it on blu ray in 2012.

While these films were all shot together to save time and money, they're all interesting in their own ways. This one feels more of a children's story, except that our heroes face incredible danger throughout.