[YouTube] "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds": 70s "Box Office Flop" and Post-War Thought
[Overview]
A 1977 film currently available for free for a limited two-week period on YouTube's "Toei Theater Online" channel.
[Streaming Period] 1/26/2024 (Fri) 21:00 - 2/9/2024 (Fri) 21:00
"Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds"
Release Date: April 29, 1977 Runtime: 92 minutes Color: Color
[Synopsis] Plesiosaurus vs. Rhamphorhynchus! A prehistoric mystery lurking in the mystical Fuji Five Lakes! Summer 1977. An incident occurs in the Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji, shrouded in a veil of mystery. Soon, a series of strange phenomena begin to unfold... What exactly did fossil collector Setsu Ashizawa (Tsunehiko Watase) see? A mysterious adventure set against the backdrop of the majestic Mt. Fuji.
[Story] Summer 1977. A young woman is discovered in the Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji. She dies after leaving behind a mysterious final utterance: "Big wings..." Ashizawa, an employee of Universal Stone Co. who saw the news on television, heads to Mt. Fuji. Following the research of his late father, a paleontologist, Ashizawa begins to suspect that dinosaurs might actually exist. Meanwhile, Ashizawa's girlfriend, underwater photographer Osano, has come to film in the caves of Lake Saiko, accompanied by a college student named Sonoda. The scene at Lake Saiko appears peaceful at first, but no one notices a large wave suddenly rising on the lake's surface, caused by a mysterious black entity. August 2nd, the day of the Dragon God Festival. Ignoring Ashizawa's warnings, Osano and Sonoda dive underwater to take final photos. A horrific tragedy occurs when Sonoda's lower body is bitten off, leading Ashizawa and Osano to resolve to investigate the dinosaurs. They head into the water.
[Cast & Staff] Cast: Tsunehiko Watase, Hiko Sawano, Tomoko Kiyoshima, Shotaro Hayashi, Fuyukichi Maki, David Friedman Director: Junji Kurata / Screenplay: Masaru Igami, Isao Matsumoto, Ichiro Otsu
(From the official website)
[Evaluation]
A film of the "Season of Relativism"
Toei President Shigeru Okada, having hit a dead end with yakuza and pornographic films, issued a major directive:
"Jaws is popular right now, so go make something like that!"
This legendary box office flop was the result of that order.
Since almost no one went to see it, few people know what it's actually about.
I watched it for the first time myself.
It was actually quite interesting.
It's an old movie, but the visuals are clean.
The setting of the Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji has a pretty good vibe. You can tell from the movie that it was already a 'suicide spot' back then.
Including the subject of a Mt. Fuji eruption, it was ahead of its time and not bad.
Right after starting it, you can tell it's influenced by "Jaws" (1975). (The opening actually reminds me more of "Alien," but since "Alien" was 1979, this one came first.)
Besides that, it's packed like a hodgepodge with various things that were popular in the 70s, such as disaster movies, horror movies, environmental issues, and the Loch Ness Monster.
The concept of utilizing the know-how of Japanese monster movies within the format of a horror movie isn't bad.
You can also feel Toei's tradition as a long-established entertainment film studio in the fast-paced development.
But gradually, the movie starts to spin its wheels.
It becomes unclear what the characters want to do or what they want to say.
Ah, this is the late 70s, I think.
I think it captures that feeling of the late 70s, when I spent my teenage years, quite well.
"There was no time when the future was less foreseeable than the end of the 70s."
So writes journalist Christian Caryl (in "Everything Started in 1979").
The bombing incidents caused by Satoshi Kirishima and others, who are currently in the news, were in 1974 and 1975.
The four or five years that followed were a period when not just Japan, but the whole world, had lost its sense of direction.
The post-war order was shaken by the two Nixon shocks.
The setbacks of the leftist movement, the spread of terrorism, and environmental issues were forcing a shift in the ideologies held until then.
In 1977, the year this film was released, the philosopher Natsuhiko Yoshida published a book titled "The Season of Relativism."
He philosophically analyzes the social climate, noting that while people acted with conviction in the 1960s, that had recently disappeared.
The feeling of an era where people didn't know what they wanted to say or what they wanted to do—that "relativism"—is well-represented in this film.
It was around this time that people began to doubt material wealth and started seeking "spiritual richness." (In a national survey, the number of people seeking "spirit" surpassed those seeking "things.")
This provided the foundation for the occult boom, leading to the launch of "Monthly Mu" in 1979.
Therefore, the fact that this film's story is completely broken and lacks a sense of direction is a fault of the era.
It becomes so incomprehensible that one actually becomes curious about how it will end, and ends up watching it to the very end.
Well, it is safe to say that it has an unprecedented and irresponsible ending.
However, that point also reflects the atmosphere of the times, and I found it deeply moving and a little sad.
(Incidentally, the "monsters" themselves could perhaps be evaluated as a precursor to "Jurassic Park." But the way they move—perhaps because Toei lacked a tradition of monster movies—is like something from the ancient Ray Harryhausen films, which is a bit embarrassing for a Japanese movie.)
This film reminded me of Kadokawa's "Proof of the Man," also released in 1977.
That one was a big hit, but looking back now, I think it was also very characteristic of the late 70s.
"Proof of the Man" is famous for Joe Yamanaka's theme song, while here in "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds," it is sung by Eiichi Miyanaga of the Okinawan band "Murasaki." There is a similarity in the sense behind that casting.
Both songs have lyrics that are somewhat decadent, or perhaps "maternal-regressive," like "I failed at life and I'm dejected. I want to return to my mother's womb."
Two years after the film's release, in 1979, the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan occurred, and the world entered a new phase.
The era of the 60s left-wing finally ended, and the world moved into the 80s of Reagan-Thatcher neoconservatism.
Leftists who are still alive today, including Satoshi Kirishima, are still dragging around memories of the period up to the 1970s (wishing that the subsequent world history had never happened). That is what I felt after observing the left wing within the mass media.
The figure of Tsunehiko Watase in this film, taking incoherent actions while dressed in a fashion reminiscent of '60s dropouts,' overlaps with them.
For them, it must be a nostalgic film, like looking at their ideological homeland.
As I pointed out in another article, it would have been the same for Shoko Asahara, who was of the same generation as Kirishima. Asahara can no longer watch movies, but I would like to show this film to Kirishima in his final days.
As for me, I considered overcoming 'relativism' an ideological challenge during my youth and have lived for nearly 50 years since then, but I have not been able to overcome it... and I will likely die as I am.
In that sense, it was a film that reminded me of homework I had managed to avoid for many years.
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