Daimajin Strikes Again

Daimajin Strikes Again 大魔神逆襲 (Daimajin Gyakushū) is a 1966 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Daiei Kyoto Studio. It is the third and last film in the Daimajin trilogy, released in Japanese theaters on December 10, 1966.

Plot
During the winter months, a village flees the wrath of the angry god Majin, who eventually settles down. Later on, a woodcutter named Sampei stumbles home after escaping enslavement in Hell's Valley with the rest of the men from his village, and tells the remaining villagers of his escape through Majin's Mountain. Desperate to get their fathers and brothers back, three boys from the village, Tsuruchiki, Kinta, and Daisaku mount an expedition through Majin's Mountain to Hell's Valley to rescue them. At the entrance to the road through Majin's Mountain, they are turned away by an old woman who lives in the area who tells them they will be punished by the vengeful god on the mountain for going through. They wait for her to leave, but discover that they were followed by Tsuruchiki's younger brother Sugitatsu. They begrudgingly decide that its too far to send him back alone, and allow him to join their journey. In Hell's Valley, on discovering that a worker had escaped through Majin's Mountain, Daizen Matsunaga sends three warriors into the mountain to find him. When his lord Arakawa returns, he informs him that his plan to build a base in Hell's Valley and make gunpowder from the sulfur springs would take two more days to finish construction, making the workers nervous about their fates. After tumbling down a sheer mountain wall in a rock slide, the boys discover a hawk in a tree, which the woman had told them were messengers of Daimajin. The Boys then opt to take the mountain path rather than attempt to climb again, and come to the statue of the vengeful god. Tsuruchiki begins to pray to it, as do the others, and they continue down the road until they encounter Samurai sent by Lord Arakawa. They narrowly escape, and Daisaku's brother Shohachi, one of the slave workers in Hell's Valley resolves to go to their Lord for help. On his way out he is captured and thrown into the sulfur pits as punishment. The boys then encounter the Samurai again, and Sugitatsu steals their food. Elsewhere, one of the boys' mothers and her group of villagers are approached by a group of men from their Lord's castle to search for the missing men on her journey to Hell's valley after Sampei died. The boys then attempt to raft down the river to Hell's Valley, but their raft breaks and Kinta is swept away. The remaining boys then spend the night in a rotting tree, and in the night a snowstorm hits. After a sleepless night and a day of walking they collapse from exhaustion, and are found by the samurai, who attack them and are in turn attacked by a hawk. The villagers then come to the statue of the Daimajin, who begins to awaken after one of the samurai shot one of his hawks during their battle. The Daimajin then begins to bleed, and changes form as Tsuruchiki begs him to pardon Daisaku and Kinta, who had frozen to death, and offers his life in exchange. Daimajin then teleports to where Tsuruchiki had fallen in and lays him on a rock where the reawakened Kinta and Daisaku were waiting. The hawk is also restored. Just as Lord Arakawa prepares to dump his slave laborers into the sulfur pit, Daimajin breaks through the valley walls and begins his march to Arakawa. Arakawa sends his men to attack, and tries to immobilize Daimajin by dumping logs on him, but he begins to throw the logs at the soldiers. Daimajin then destroys the gunpowder factory and overturns the vats of sulfur, which ignite. Daimajin chases Arakawa and stabs him with his sword. After reuniting with the woodsmen, all the villagers kneel and pray to Daimajin. He then turns back into a snow covered statue and dissipates into a flurry.

Monsters

 * Daimajin

Alternate titles

 * Daimajin's Counterattack (literal Japanese title)
 * Majin Strikes Again (original international title)
 * Return of Daimajin (initial United States video title)
 * Wrath of Daimajin (United States DVD title)

Video releases
ADV DVD (2002) [The Complete Daimajin Trilogy] Mill Creek Blu-ray (2012) [Daimajin Triple Feature]
 * Region: 1
 * Discs: 3
 * Audio: Japanese (2.0 Mono)
 * Special features: Trailers
 * Notes: Out of print. Packaged with Daimajin and Return of Daimajin. Reissued as a single disc in 2005.
 * Region: N/A
 * Discs: 2
 * Audio: Japanese (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0), English (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0)
 * Special features: Trailers for all three Daimajin films, interviews with cinematographer Fujio Morita on the making of each film (28, 31, and 28 minutes).
 * Notes: Out of print. Packaged with Daimajin and Return of Daimajin.

Arrow Video Blu-ray (2021) [The Daimajin Trilogy]
 * Region: A or B
 * Discs: 3
 * Audio: Japanese and English (Mono)
 * Subtitles: English
 * Special features: 100-page book with essays by Jonathan Clements, Keith Aiken, Ed Godziszewski, Raffael Coronelli, Erik Homenick, Robin Gatto, and Kevin Derendorf; audio commentaries by Stuart Galbraith IV (Daimajin), Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp (Return of Daimajin), and Jonathan Clements (Daimajin Strikes Again); Daimajin introduction by Kim Newman; "Bringing the Avenging God to Life" video essay about the trilogy's special effects by Ed Godziszewski; AI-TV opening credits for Majin, the Monster of Terror and Return of Giant Majin; "My Summer Holidays with Daimajin" interview with Professor Yoneo Ota about the trilogy's production; "From Storyboard to Screen: Bringing Return of Daimajin to Life" comparison of storyboards and scenes from the finished film; interview with cinematographer Fujio Mori; Japanese and American trailers for all three films (with the exception of an American trailer for Daimajin Strikes Again); image galleries; postcards
 * Notes: To be released on July 26.

Trivia

 * Daimajin Strikes Again was not dubbed into English until 2012, forty-six years after its original release.
 * ADV's 1998 VHS and 2002 DVD releases swapped the titles of Return of Daimajin and Daimajin Strikes Again (which they called Wrath of Daimajin). This was corrected in their 2005 reissues of the DVDs.