Hello, kaiju lovers!
The unintentional “epic films month” continues with 1959’s The Three Treasures (aka The Birth of Japan), but thankfully this episode doesn’t cross the “Kurosawa threshold.” This is a religious epic in the vein of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments except it’s about Shinto. It tells the tale of Prince Yamato Takeru (played by the always awesome Toshiro Mifune), the legendary 13th emperor of Japan (who’s being covered in our 13th episode…oh boy…). Interspersed throughout the film are vignettes depicting stories from Japanese mythology that parallel the prince’s life. Nathan zeroes in on several of the film’s story elements, including the Japanese creation myth, the Imperial Regalia of Japan, and Yamata no Orochi the eight-headed dragon. There’s so much that could be said about this film, Nathan may have to do a follow-up with Rev. Mifune (no relation to Toshiro Mifune) or the guys at The Kaiju Apostle.
Nathan then reads yet more feedback clarifying the Batman Meets Godzilla story treatment—or rather, the Twitter war that almost broke out over it.
Speaking of which, Batman Meets Godzilla, one of the craziest yet most intriguing lost projects made famous by John LeMay’s book, The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films (which now has a new “mutated” edition), is being adapted into a fan-made comic book miniseries!
T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY: Everyone who shares the Facebook and/or Twitter posts for this episode (or tags the show when they share it themselves) will be entered for a drawing for a Batman Meets Godzilla T-shirt. (One entry per person per social media). Entries will be taken from March 25 to March 31 at 11:59pm (EST). The winner must then send Nathan his/her shirt size, shirt color, and mailing address to be forwarded to the team at Batman Meets Godzilla. Here’s a link to the Tee Public site with this epic shirt.
Here’s the KVR episode: Episode 41: The Three Treasures a.k.a. Nippon tanjo (The Birth of Japan) (1959) (Shinto)
This episode featured the songs “‘BATMAN’ [OG Theme Song Remix!]” by Remix Maniacs & “ULTRAMAN” by Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi.
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© 2020 Nathan Marchand & Moonlighting Ninjas Media
Bibliography/Further Reading:
- “Imperial Regalia of Japan” (Wikipedia)
- “Japanese Creation Myth” (Wikipedia)
- “Kamiumi” (Wikipedia)
- “Kuniumi” (Wikipedia)
- “Kojiki” (Wikipedia)
- “The Legend of Yamata no Orochi” (Shimane)
- “Nihon Shoki” (Wikipedia)
- “Susanoo-no-Mikoto” (Wikipedia)
- “The Three Treasures (1959) Epic Film Review” (AN Production/Adam Noyes)
- “The Three Treasures (1959) | Movie Review” (TitanGoji!)
- “Yamata no Orochi” (Wikipedia)
- “Yamato Takeru” (rodsshinto.com)
- “Yamato Takeru” (Wikipedia)
- “Yamato Takeru: The Hero who Pacified the East with the Sword Kusanagi” by Prof. Kikuko Hirafuji
- Wiki Articles on The Three Treasures