| Takao
Okawara, fresh off his box office hit
Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), takes
his swing at a big screen adaptation of the
legendary “Birth of Japan” story,
already made famous to Toho enthusiasts for
Hiroshi Inagaki’s The
Three Treasures (1959). Unfortunately,
Okawara continues his unenthusiastic approach
to his work, as the audience is left here
with this uninspired mid-1990’s film.
In fact, Yamato Takeru is pretty
lackluster across the board, as its plagued
by a weak script and a hollow cast of characters,
as the bland acting, special effects and musical
score do little to help the movie.
In terms of the plot, the movie
starts out with the birth of twin princes. Their
father, the emperor of Yamato, feels a great loathing
for his one child Ousu. Being convinced that this
feeling is a premonition, the emperor orders the
shaman Tsukinowa to kill the boy, yet his efforts
are spoiled by Amano Shiratori, the White Bird
of the Heavens. The emperor’s sister, seeing
this as a clear sign of divine intervention, takes
it upon herself to raise the child. Years later,
when the boy has matured into a man, he is given
pardon by his father and allowed to return to
the castle. Unfortunately, not long after, his
mother falls ill and dies mysteriously. This sends
his brother into a rage and causing him to attack
Ousu, who defends himself and kills his sibling
in the process. His father, furious at these events,
orders his son to leave the castle and not return
until the barbarians living in the Kumaso domain
are dealt with. The prince makes haste to complete
this task, stopping off at a shrine on his way
where, after a quick battle, he befriends Oto
who joins him on his journey. They, along with
companies Genbu and Seriyu, raid the castle, killing
Kumaso Takeru and their god Kumasogami. Following
this feat, the prince changes his name to Yamato
Takeru, yet fails to win the acceptance of his
father. His aunt, though, warns him of a great
threat looming overheard, as the god Tsukuyomi
is posed to return, endangering the Earth, as
Yamato Takeru must prepare to halt this from occurring.
The movie’s story is a pretty
ho-hum retelling of its famous source material,
as is likely evident. In fact, the movie tends
to play out like a modern video game RPG, seen
at points where Oto rushes in and attacks the
group only to, after a short battle, join them
on their quest. The scene after Kumasogami is
defeated, and the mirror of the White Bird of
the Heaven drift down from the sky and softly
lands into Yamato Takeru’s hands, is just
too appropriate for this correlation as well,
to the point where you almost expect a message
to appear saying “You have collected the
Mirror of the White Bird” as a “level
up” screen follows. As I’m sure some
know, there actually was a RPG based on this movie
released simultaneously as the film; if the story
was actually crafted with the game in mind seems
doubtful, though.
This aspect of the storytelling
aside, the way the movie moves from one element
to the next is just awful, as the pacing is
amazingly poor. This doesn’t just give
the movie a rushed impression, though, but
is also fairly exasperating to watch on the
part of the viewer. For example, upon Yamato
Takeru being pardoned by his father and his
to return to the castle, you see his mother,
perfctly fine, being grateful for this. Yet,
it suddenly transitions to the prince walking
up to his bed-ridden mother who is deathly
ill. The whole thing is handled in such a
way, in fact, that you have half expect for
her mother to have walked into the next room
and nearly collapsed instead of the movie
giving a sense that a good deal of time had
transpired between the two events. The manner
in which characters in the movie are constantly
being revived is also problematic. Both Yamato
Takeru and Oto are resurrected during the
movie, and in the case of Oto it actually
happens twice. Although it’s never specifically
addressed, one can assume this was due to
divine intervention, yet it gives the whole
proceeding a lack of urgency. The story is
also a little too convenient at times, like
Tsukinowa admitting that he killed Yamato
Takeru’s mother and brother to the young
man, although the latter of which doesn’t
even make sense considering that we saw Takeru
kill him in self-defense.
As far as character development
is concerned, forget it. Wataru
Mimura’s script doesn’t even
make the slightest effort to try and explore
these characters. This creates for a few laughable
moments, such as Oto’s declaration on
the night after her and Yamato Takeru first
meet that she has a feeling they have known
each other for a long time and “will
die for him.” Now I realize the story
is going for this whole “destiny set
in stone” angle, but would it have hurt
to at least develop some sort of relationship
between the two before she has to utter that
absurd line? As it turns out, their relationship
never really evolves at all, leaving a distinctly
hollow feeling when Oto dies at the hands
of Kashin Muba. As for Yamato Takeru himself,
he is pretty much your generic adventurer,
one who lives with self-loathing due to his
“curse”, yet this never comes
out in any significant way beyond some brief
lines between himself and Oto. The movie also
establishes two companies for the young prince:
Genbu and Seriyu. Normally, these would be
good candidates to kind of develop as likelable
characters for the audience, maybe with some
humor or just a clash in personality between
the two. The film does nothing with them,
though, as they are as hollow as can be while
they tag along for a good portion of the adventure.
What little hint we do get as to what type
of characters they are is questionable, though.
Such as Seriyu submitting Oto up for sacrifice
to gain entry into Kumaso without telling
her, which leads to the awkward moment where
she cries “Seiryu!” as he laughs
it off. Oh Seriyu, offering your friends up
for sacrifice without telling them, you jester
you. What’s even more comical, though,
is the last scene of substance with the two
characters. This occurs right after Yamato
Takeru has apparently been killed by Tsukinowa,
at which point it flashes back to the shrine
with Seriyu, Genbu and the prince’s
aunt as the three start to say: “Has
something happened to the prince?” “I
am also worried about the prince…”
and then nothing happens as they all continue
to stand around and talk about Tsukuyomi as
the scene cuts out. Well great to know you
guys cared…
The last character worth mentioning,
although for all the wrong reasons, is the stubborn
Emperor. The first time we meet the character
he is already hating his son to the point where
he wants him dead, which are pretty strong feelings
considering the little tike just left his mother’s
womb not even 24 hours ago. What’s even
stranger, though, is what happens after his wife
and other son die, at which point you would figure
Yamato Takeru is as good as dead now that his
father actually has reasons to hate him. Yet instead
he decides to send the prince out of the castle
on a quest, telling him he can’t return
until it’s completed… did I miss something?
As for the acting in the movie,
it’s incredibly poor under the hand of director
Okawara. Nearly every performance in the movie
is abysmal, a clear sign that fault lies with
the director himself and his insufficient guidance
of his actors. It’s not uncommon, for example,
to have actors standing on screen stiffly as you
are unsure if they are simply waiting for the
director to yell “cut” or if they
are trying to portray some kind of emotion and
failing at it. Masahiro
Takashima, as the title character, seems particularly
dull here. Now Takashima was never a really great
actor, as he was often renowned more for his natural
good looks then his expertise at his craft; however,
his portrayal here almost makes it seem like his
uninteresting character in Gunhed
(1989) was bursting with emotion in contrast.
Yasuko Sawaguchi as Oto tends to fare better,
giving a superior performance than the audience
has seen from her in past movies like The
Return of Godzilla (1984). Unfortunately,
there is still nothing remarkable about her delivery
here, and had the rest of the cast been more up
to the task she likely wouldn’t have been
worth mentioning at all. On the other hand, Hiroshi
Abe as the main protagonist Tsukuyomi gives
easily the most satisfying performance in the
movie. His character isn’t given much to
do, as he shows up during the final act and disappears
for the climax, yet he does well with what he
was given, as he stares down the audience and
anyone else in his scenes while adding a nice
sense of menace to his line readings. This production
was fairly early in Abe’s career, yet already
he shows immense promise as something more than
just a flash in the pan model-turn-actor.
In terms of the special effects,
they are fairly lackluster here under Koichi
Kawakita’s guidance; however, his
crew certainly did manage to cram a wide variety
of beasts into the film, ranging from the
lava god Kumasogami to the eight-headed Orochi.
The suits themselves for the monsters are
fairly well done in terms of details, yet,
like a lot of Kawakita’s work at this
time, are far less impressive once they are
seen in motion. The almost slug like Orochi
is the best example of this, as the creature
has trouble slithering around the screen with
much credibility. Kumasogami is created here
with much better results, particularly the
sequences where he is seen towering over Yamato
Takeru and his band. His shape shifting hands,
a very interesting concept into their own,
are also executed well. Sadly, the suit tends
to also wobble about a little unconvincingly,
although its role in general is very minor.
Utsuno Ikusagami, who appears during the climax,
is handled fairly well. His design seems kind
of out of place, as it’s distinctly
more modern then one would expect, yet Kawakita
packs the character with so many bells and
whistles, like the great effects of the creature’s
birth and his reflective barrier, that it
works. In fact, the special effects manage
to make the climax actually interesting to
watch, despite how incredibly one-sided the
conflict is.
The rest of the creatures,
save the incredibly stiff Amano Shiratori
that makes Fire Rodan from Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) look
like a crowning achievement, fare pretty well.
The SFX director also pulls off some sequences
here with good results, like the entire creation
of the universe segment at the start of the
movie. Sadly, there is a lot of stuff that
goes amiss here as well. The green screen
work, for example, being one of the more apparent
as it still needs a lot of work to look more
credible, and it’s not used sparingly
here either. Kawakita’s trademark sparks
are also in full force, and are seen when
the swords strike pretty much anything. In
the special effects director’s defense,
in terms of the production as a whole, he
was severally overworked here as Toho had
him creating both this and Godzilla
vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) in that
same year, although the latter of which probably
suffered more on account of it.
In regards to the movie’s
musical score, Kiyoko
Ogino has composed a body of work that
sounds like it would have been more appropriate
for a television show as it features repetitive
melodies and a good deal of reused themes;
the size of the orchestra utilized sounds
incredibly meager as well. Surprisingly, the
soundtrack seems to work on some level, although
perhaps because the feature itself seems like
it would have been more suitable as an OV
(Original Video). A couple of the cues, like
the battle music or Oto’s theme, are
also fairly pleasant even in spite of their
repetitiveness while the score also manages
some nice low key cues as well.
In closing, Yamato Takeru
is yet another forgettable 1990’s special
effect driven picture from Toho, as the decade
as a whole was an off year for the company in
terms of these types of productions, even though
box office receipts for them were booming. This,
however, was not one of the more successful endeavors
from the decade, as the movie’s failure
sealed the fate of more planned films in a “Yamato
Takeru series.” Something that, given the
quality of this one, was likely for the best,
especially since it would have caused more strain
on Toho’s special effects house as they
would have had to continue to produce two of these
types of productions a year.
|
(1.5/5)