The Magic Serpent (1966)

Starring: Bin Amatsu, Seizo Fukumoto, Nobuo Kaneko, Hiroki Matsukata, Tomoko Ogawa
Director: Tetsuya Yamauchi

“Science fiction” is an incredibly broad word used to describe a broad genre of cinema. In reality, it’s probably more of an umbrella term than it is an actual genre classification. Science fiction films are made up of various genres. There’s your Alien-type film genre. There’s your “alien invasion” genre. A “killer robot” genre exists. One of the most well-loved and longest running genres in science fiction/fantasy filmmaking is the giant monster genre.

Now the giant monster genre can be divided into various sub-genres. For example, the “giant, mutated insect” film, the “large and irate ape” movie, and others can be called sub-genres. Arguably, the most popular sub-genre of the giant monster film is the kaiju eiga, that is the Japanese giant monster movie (and for our purposes, Korean movies shall be included). Not surprisingly, we can divide up the kaiju movie into other groups:

1)Godzilla movies
2)Gamera movies
3)Godzilla rip-offs
4)Toho monster films NOT featuring Godzilla
5)Period pieces

Now tonight’s film falls into the fifth category. On the whole, the films that make up the fifth category are pretty much unknown to most people that aren’t kaiju otaku(i.e. fans of the genre). I’m not quite sure why this is the case. Most people know about Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera (or maybe at least “that flying turtle monster), and some of Toho’s other creations. The kaiju period piece, on the other hand, seem to live in the shadow of both the aforementioned monsters and their American counterparts: the Ray Harryhausen adventures. This is a somewhat sad situation, since most of these movies are excellent examples of the genre and tend to be on par with many of the films from the other four categories.

With that said, let’s begin our review. The Magic Serpent begins with a rebellion. The Lord of the region is betrayed by a close friend, Yuki Daijo, within the court, who has teamed up with the ninja/magician Orakomaru and his ninja demolition squad. Yuki Daijo and Orakomaru take over the castle, but not before the Lord’s son, Ikazuki-Maru, is taken away from the castle by some of the good Lord’s loyal retainers.

The escape seems to be going well until the boat is attacked by a huge dragon. The dragon capsizes the boat and is about to kill the boy when a giant hawk comes to the rescue. The hawk scratches the dragon’s head, causing it to spray blood all over the place in a typical samurai movie fashion (I suspect this is the first kaiju movie to have such graphic violence inflicted on its monsters). The hawk then saves the boy who brings him into the protective custody of a wizard living on a mountain top. The wizard begins to teach the boy martial arts and magic, and soon (after the opening credits) our boy has grown up into a martial arts master.

So one day our hero is sent into the woods to gather herbs for his master. Soon after leaving, the Master hits a rock with his staff. The rock breaks open to reveal a dead ninja. I admit that this detail doesn’t necessarily need to be in the review, but it’s still pretty fun to mention anyway. Later that evening, the old master is visited by a poisonous snake, who turns out to be Orako-maru in disguise. Orako-maru, the master’s first student, is chastised for being evil but returns a scroll he had stolen as a peace offering. Unfortunately, Orako-maru, the trickster he is, pulls the old poisonous-serpent-disguised-as-a-scroll gag and our master is left for dead.

While all of this is going on, our hero is attacked in the woods by a bunch of ninja. He dispatches them all in a scene that I believe inspired Ching Siu-Tung’s Duel to the Death. At one point, one of the ninja decapitates our hero, whose head keeps on talking and taunting him afterward. I think any normal, mainstream movie watcher would’ve dismissed this film as dreck by this point. The fools.

After dealing out the only justice that only a katana is capable of dealing, our hero (I think I’ll call him that from this point on to avoid having to write his name so much) notices that there’s a girl watching all this. He finds her and discovers that she’s Sonate, a young lady looking for her father. Ikazuki (oh well, so I lied) takes her to see his master, supposing that he’ll know who the man is, but upon arrival, discover that the master is about to go that giant Shinto arch in the sky (my gosh, I wrote that?). With his dying breath, he informs our hero that he’s of royal lineage and gives him a magic scroll to help him on the quest that’s before him.

Ikazuki and Sonate part ways, one to seek revenge, the other to seek family, little knowing that their paths will soon cross again (oh like you didn’t see that one coming). Sonate, visits her grandmother who warns her not to look for her father but gives her a hairpin of the spider spirit as protection. Ikazuki, on his way to town, befriends an old man and his two children: a pretty young girl and a little boy. The man, recognizing that Ikazuki is the prince, helps him get past the checkpoints set up Yuki Daijo (who is now out for Ikazuki’s head). At one point, the man passes Ikazuki off for a son-in-law and starts beating him in public, calling him a bad husband.

Unfortunately, Yuki Daijo arrives in the village at about the same time and kills the old man. He proclaims Ikazuki an enemy of the state and is about to kill the old man’s children when the screen goes black and white and the ghosts of the Ikazuki’s parents appear. In true Shakespeare fashion, Yuki Daijo is condemned for his violent ways and his death is prophesied. Ikazuki returns and does battle with the king and his guards using magic and explosives and gets into it with Orako-maru. Our hero escapes with the girl and boy but the girl falls behind and is captured.

Well, come to find out, Orako-maru has his own agenda and begins to stir up the villagers against their tyrant oppressor. When Sonate, still searching for her father, happens to be sleeping near the rendevous point of Orako-maru’s goons, they find her and decide to kill her. However, the group leader (one of those bandit-types with a heart of gold) intervenes and saves her.

Ikazuki-maru and the young boy continue on their journey and make it to a temple outside of the castle. While staying in the temple, Orako-maru’s goons try to kill our hero by dizzying him with spinning, gravity-defying door panels. This fails to produce a dead hero.

Sonate makes it to the castle and discovers that her father is Orako-maru. Orako-maru, being the unscrupulous ninja sorceror that he is, orders his daughter to kill Ikazuki-maru, whom she has fallen for. He gives her some poison and sends the leader of the goons to help her pull it off. However, love conquers all and she refuses to kill the man she loves. The bandit leader, touched by all this, helps her and Ikazuki come up with a plan to get Yuki Daijo out of Orako-maru’s protective presence.

With Orako-maru out of the way, our hero storms Yuki Daijo’s castle in the form of a giant fire breathing frog (I bet you didn’t see that one coming), thus interrupting the medieval J-pop dancers who are performing for the villain and his retainers. Ikazuki-maru eventually challenges Yuki Daijo to combat with swords. Well, our hero wins and peace is restored and all the surviving characters have some really uplifting epiphanies…yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. Nope, Orako-maru returns to take on his rival in the first feudal Japanese kaiju battle to be committed to celluoid (actually, the only other one I can think of off-hand is the battle between the Yamato cyborg and Orochi in Yamato Takeru).

Yeah, that sums up all of the events of this little gem. The movie itself is pretty rare; it occasionally pops up in ebay and an unsubtitled version sells at some places. Like its cousins the Daimajin films, the storyline has something to do with oppressive lords and them recieving retribution at the hands of a giant monster. The whole “oppressive tyrant” plot seems to be a favorite, as it was used not only in this film and the Daimajin films, but in the Korean-made Pulgasary three decades later. I think Yamato Takeru and The Three Treasures were the films that focused more on actual mythology as a plotline.

However, some people will cite this film as one of the inspirations for George Lucas’ Star Wars. While it is generally accepted that Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress is the official film that inspired the ever popular science fiction series, this film also bears some similarities. Compare the characters of Ikazuki-maru, Sonate, Orako-maru, and Ikazuki-maru’s master to those of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker), and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Like Anakin and Luke, Ikazuki and Orako were both pupils of the same master. Both Sonate and Princess Leia shared the same relationship to the villains. The ninja magic that the characters perform is somewhat similar to the force that is used in Star Wars.

I have mentioned before that I feel strongly that this film influenced not only Star Wars, but Hong Kong cinema, most notably the films of Ching Siu-Tung as well. While the style of swordplay is strictly Japanese (very quick and deliberate instead of long and intricate), some of the other aspects of the action give it away. There’s a lot of flying in the movie, some it done by matte work, some done by wires. The talking head scene was redone at the end of Duel to the Death. When Ikazuki-maru takes on Orako-maru for the first time, some the magic that they perform is remiscinent of the some of the stuff that the characters do in the Swordsman films that Ching Siu-Tung did. If you watch this film closely, the influences are quite apparent.

One of the treats is that the movie gives the viewer the benefit of seeing the monster action portrayed in a different context. Instead of modern cities, these monsters fight around and destroy a Japanese castle. While the scope of the monster scenes isn’t as great as that in the Daimajin movies, it’s still a nice change of pace. You also get to see the benefit of seeing four monsters, even if two of them only have brief appearances. While the title monster is a somewhat common mythical beast, the fire-breathing toad is something a little less run-of-the-mill.

While the quality of the special FX aren’t up to the standards of the film’s contemporaries, they’re always fun. It seems a bit obvious that the film’s budget wasn’t anything really great, so the filmmakers seemed to do their best anyways. The monsters are portrayed by suitmation (on par with Yongary, Monster from the Deep) and the other effects are done with matte work and animation drawn directly on the film. Regular watchers of kaiju eiga will note that the serpent’s roar is in fact a combination of Godzilla’s and Gaira’s (from War of the Gargantuas) roars. The toad’s roar had once belonged to Rodan and the hawk’s call at the beginning is distinctly Mothra’s. I understand that the roars were switched by the film’s American distributors and not by the actual FX crew. While this film doesn’t match up to the efforts of Tsuburaya and Harryhausen, it certainly beats Gamera vs. Zigra, my webpage’s whipping boy.

All in all, I find it very impressive that this quaint little fantasy/samurai/monster movie seems to have had a lot of impact on both Hong Kong and American cinema.  This movie does deserve more recognition, although like most other films of that era, the quality of the FX will garner more giggles and insults rather than compliments from the CGI-fed populace. It’s unfortunately, since mainstream filmgoers don’t seem to give credit where credit is due.

From a personal standpoint, I enjoyed this movie, although not necessarily as much as some other people I know. It may be that I watched it too late in life; I was already spoiled by the Godzilla Heisei series and Hong Kong cinema to appreciate the film to its fullest (Actually, I was hoping that there’d be more city destruction and swordfighting in it). Nonetheless, there are enough merits to the film for me to recommend it to anyone humble enough to step off of their CGI high horse and give it a look.

Score: 3.5 out of 5 animals