Adventure in Kigan Castle (Senkichi Taniguchi, 1966)

[AbelCesar]

Truly entertaining aventure/fantasy effort with the great Toshiro Mifune and a gang composed by Toho's finest trying to save a small town from its tyrant king, discovering an attempted conspiracy in the process. The script is somewhat hampered by an anti-climatic final confrontation that seems to be a requisite of the genre; but none the less this is one fine movie, with enough court intrigue, garish production design and the always effective Akira Ifukube score, to keep viewers interested.

[Terasawa]

I have a DVD copy from laserdisc that I've watched once (several years ago). Definitely due for a rewatch since all I remember about this is that it's effectively a second attempt at The Lost World of Sinbad and that Ifukube incorporated his 1964 Godzilla theme into a piece towards the end of the film.

[AbelCesar]

I have a DVD copy from laserdisc that I've watched once (several years ago). Definitely due for a rewatch since all I remember about this is that it's effectively a second attempt at The Lost World of Sinbad and that Ifukube incorporated his 1964 Godzilla theme into a piece towards the end of the film.

I have yet to see The Lost World of Sinbad. From what I've read, the Japanese cut is not a Sinbad film at all. It's interesting how dubbing and editing can turn an unrelated film into something audiences might recognize, if only by its title and seemingly related tropes. Now, if someone was to take Adventure in Kigan Castle, and call it "Sinbad and the Fantastic Conspiracy", audiences might be confused as to why Sinbad is never on the sea, and would feel like the movie has played a confidence trick on them. With enough imagination, though, it could pass as an Aladdin-type adventure.

And indeed, you can hear twice a variation of the "Terror of Godzilla" theme, as well as the Dogora march. I think it probably had something to do with Ifukube having a short deadline in which to compose his scores.

[MaxRebo320]

It's been a few years since I've seen this, but I generally preferred it to Samurai Pirate/Lost World of Sinbad. Some of the location shots are really nice.
My favorite scene is when Hideyo Amamoto's witch character (A role he's essentially reprising from Samurai Pirate) disguises himself as Yumi Shirikawa's character, only to get stuck midway through.