Wrath Of Daimajin (1966)/Majin Strikes Again

Wrath of Daimajin (大魔神 逆襲 Daimashin Gyakushû, lit. Daimajin's Counterattack) is a 1966 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Daiei Film Co. Ltd. It is the third and last film in the Daimajin trilogy.

Plot
In the third and final film, the same statue from the first two movies is on top of a mountain rather than on the side. The fathers of some of the local children have been captured by an evil warlord and forced to work in their labor camps. When the four sons decide to go out and save their fathers, they have to cross Daimajin Mountain, where the stone god lays sleeping, a notoriously dangerous area full of treacherous terrain, evil samurai, and the angry Daimajin. The four boys are smart enough to pay their respects to the statue when they pass it so that they do not incur the monster's wrath.
Eventually, the warlord's men anger the statue, who once again comes to life and destroys all those who have not been paying respect to him. The children and their fathers are spared while the work camp is destroyed.

This film is different, politically, from the first two in that Daimajin is awakened by the pleas of a poor, rural boy rather than by someone of rank, and fights to rescue and avenge common people. None of the heroes in this film are of noble rank, unlike the first two, in which the main protagonists were members of deposed noble families.

This proves that Daimajin only takes side with commoners and is made clear when he kills castle retainers who, though unaffiliated with the villains, are indifferent to the commoners' peril.

Also noteworthy is that this final film in the trilogy very much parallels the Gamera series (also by Daiei) in which the titular monster forms a bond with young children.

Cast

• Kôjirô Hongô as Lord Juro
  
• Shiho Fujimura as Lady Sayuri
  
• Taro Marui as Dodohei
  
• Takashi Kanda as Lord Danjô Mikoshiba
  
• Kôji Fujiyama as Ikkaku Arai
  
• Yûji Hamada as Farmer 2
  
• Chikara Hashimoto as Shunpei Ikenaga and Daimajin
  
• Sei Hiraizumi as Hayato Tabe
  
• Jutarô Hojo as Genba Onikojima
  
• Yoshitaka Ito as Farmer 3
  
• Kiyokazu Kagatsume as Ryûta
  
• Hyôsuke Kanbe as Mohachi
  
• Keiko Koyanagi as Shige
  
• Hideo Kuroki as Tasuke
  
• Tsuyotake Matsuda as Farmer 1
  
• Kayo Mikimoto as Toyo
  
• Koichi Mizuhara as Kamon Doi
  
• Kimiko Tachibana as Kume
  
• Gen Takasugi as Saburôta Atô
  
• Yûsaku Terajima as Kanetsuki-wasuke
  
• Asao Uchida as Heibei Nakoshi
  
• Koichi Uenoyama as Katsushige Nakoshi
  

Production
Original release date: 10 December 1966. Directed by Kazuo Mori.
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Music by Akira Ifukube
Special Effects by Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Also known as Return of Daimajin (A.D. Vision (again, this was a mistake; they placed the second film's title on the third film)), Majin's Counterattack (literal English title), The Revenge of Majin (international English title), and Majin Strikes Again (informal English title that probably would have been used if American International Television had released it in the U.S.(which was never done)).