Kairyu Great Battle

Directed by
 Written by
 Budget

Kairyu Great Battle (also known as The Great Phantom dragon battle or 'The Magic Serpent') is a 1966 Tokusatsu kaiju film,Directed by Yamauchi Tetsuya.

## Plot

The Evil chief retainer of rebellion was destroyed by the collusion of Orochimaru was garbled in a large dragon lord Wakagimi-Kaminarimaru of from Toads road person who raised the art of invisibility learn. However, the Nimijin was also assassinated by his sibling, Orochimaru, and Raimaru was awarded the mystery that turned into a large lizard at this time. Raimaru changes his name to Raijin, and embarks on a journey to the robbed castle to defeat the enemy. Then, while traveling, he meets his fate with Tsunade, the daughter of Orochimaru.

## Cast

* Jiji Raijin (Ogata Raimaru): Hiroki Matsukata
* Tsunade: Tomoko Ogawa
* Orochimaru: Taro Otomo
* Masaki Yuuki: Satoshi Tianjin
* Namito: Nobuo Kaneko
* Spider: Izumi Hara
* Zenbei: Kensaku Hara
* Saki: Yumi Suzumura
* Koshirota: Takao Iwamura
* Hyakudezube Toba Chiba
* Kousai: Taizen Shishido
* Horizon: Kenji Kusumoto
* Idea: Kuniomi Kitani
* Houchi : Tomaro Odabe
* Onido: Masataka Iwao
* Sakata Ogata: Shinichiro Hayashi
* Kureha: Chiyo Okada
* Mumonbei: Akira Shioji
* Warrior Party: Mitsukazu Kawamura
* Samurai B: Katsuki Chikamatsu
* Ninja: Masatoshi Oya , Seizo Fukumoto

## Staff

* Director: Tetsuya Yamauchi
* Planning: Shigeru Okada , Takesuke Shinkai
* Screenplay: Masaru Inoue
* Photo: Motoya Ibi
* Art: Seiji Yada
* Edit: Tadao Kanda
* Music: Toshiaki Tsushima
* Monster Molding: Extract Production

## Titles

* Kairyu Great Battle (Original Japanese title)
* Kairyu daikessen (Original Worldwide release title)
* The Magic Serpent (Worldwide title)
* The Great Phantom dragon battle (Translated Japanese poster title)

## Production

### Planning

At the time the Kyoto studio Toei length, Shigeru Okada is " large Ninjutsu movie Watari second only to"  , special effects entertainment era drama second edition " adventure large fighting scene Golden thief next to"  , this work as the third installment Was planned  . The production was announced in the summer of 1966, with the production announcements of "Golden Thieves of the Great Adventure" and "Great Dragon Battle"  , and "Golden Thieves of the Great Adventure" with a temporary title of "Golden Island". Was announced as "Jairaiya"  . Okada explained the history of this film's story: "Jiraiya" was inspired by the fact that "Yoja no Majutsu" had a viewership rate of 20% or more in the work aired on TV. After all, I would like Toei to make an interesting work without reasoning about the reconstruction of the historical drama without being shy of the original family . " I don't know what "The Magic of You Snake" is. Director Tetsuya Yamauchi is, Okada layoffs for, veteran stars and director, let me quit the playwright, the guarantee of cheap young director by the appointment of policy director promoted the people  , Okada "each and every time, I I asked the masters to walk. That scary Mr. Hisa ( Hisatake Hisa) "There is no work in Toei anymore, so please quit. If you ask, "It's such a serious situation," you're a fool! If you think or angry I, "" I see, well then I am saying ginger not Do ", that was talking to as thankful for was"  . After this, Okada completely finished the historical drama production, but at that time there was a new tendency to make trial and error trying to connect the historical drama somehow  . The special effects of this period were mentioned in the plan as something that Toei would have to do.

### Casting & shooting

The production is performed at the Toei Kyoto Film Studio, and the casting is performed by the leading figures of the historical drama. The villain of the same year, "Taro Otomo" who played the villain in "Great Ninja Movie Watari" and Satoshi Tianjin, also plays the villain in this work. A full-scale miniature of Ogata Castle is prepared, and it is a realistic image that you can not notice at first glance. This film has no special effects director, and was filmed by the director Tetsuya Yamauchi and the cameraman through trial and error  . Yatsuhashi was used as part of the roof tiles of Ogata Castle  .

Large toad and Kairyu, the molding of large spider, independent in this year from Toho special art department Murase Tsugizo et al. Entrant extract production have been made by. Ozedo has removed horns and thorns, leaving ghosts and spiders intact, and appearing in the TV program " Masked Ninja Akakage " produced the same year in Toei Kyoto .

In the original text, Tsunade is transformed into a spider, but in this work Tomoko Ogawa , who was popular at the time, was changed to a spider as not suitable to play  . Ogawa was scouted by Toei on the promise of doing a "youth route"  , but he couldn't even make a single youth  . "I made them weird movies and the promises were different," he got angry  and left Toei  . Ogawa was invited to the " Weekly Post " series "Hiroki Matsukata's Assault Talk" in 1975 and had a conversation with Matsukata, who co-starred in this work. I must be thankful. I was about 17 years old, I was working with my older brother. I was just doing a strange period drama. During this time, I was doing a revival on TV." Matsukata "Did you see? Ogawa "I saw it, I saw it (laughs)" Matsukata "Stop it, I'm embarrassed, I don't like it." Ogawa "What? What's a ninja movie, it's like a monster" Sakata Matsukata is the was doing on TV. My mother is, "look, see, do I'll have" I Tteyuu. another Hazukashiku' in is the § "he said, such as.

## Release

*The Magic Serpent* was released in Japan in 1966. The film was never released theatrically in the United States, but released directly to television by American International Television in 1968 with an 86-minute running time.

### U.S. release

Magic Serpent was released directly to television in the United States by American International Television in 1970. Despite the existence of an English dub commissioned by Toei, AIP-TV had the film dubbed at Titan Productions, where voice actor Bret Morrison directed and gave voice to several supporting characters. AITV's version of the film is uncut, save for the opening credits: in Toei's version, the credits play over a montage of Jiraiya's training throughout his adolescence, while AITV editors Emil and Eli Haviv shortened the credits and used a montage of still shots of the Giant Dragon as a backdrop. The song "Forward, Jiraiya!" was also replaced by instrumental music from elsewhere in the film. Additionally, all of the monsters' roars were replaced with those of existing monsters: the Giant Toad uses Rodan's roar, the Giant Dragon uses Godzilla and Gaira's roars, the Giant Eagle uses Mothra's roar, and the Giant Spider uses Kiyla's roar.