| 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 it’s 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 here
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 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 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; furthermore, his “flashback”
attack sequence is incredibly inadequate, as the
creature is super-imposed on top of footage of
destruction in the background as that’s
the best they could have hoped for given the mostly
immobile prop. 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
here. In fact, the special effects work well 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 seen 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 on this production, 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 here 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)