Moon Over Tao: Makaraga (1997)
A retired warrior comes to see his former lord and learns that someone is making indestructible swords from some unknown metal. He is sent together with a swordsman to investigate the source. Along the way they meet a young girl working as a beekeeper. She is later witness to the appearance of three strange females from another dimension. They are searching for a lost weapon that has landed on earth and as one of them lay dying she enlists the girl to help them control the strange beast/weapon. Meanwhile the warrior and the swordsman learn that an old nemesis has created the swords from the shell that surrounded the alien weapon. Soon the alien beast/weapon is awakened and battle for control ensues.
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This is a simple, very simple, fantasy film.The central premise is OK, a buried evil being freed by a man seeking power.The acting is bad, the two leads are OK but the rest of the cast are completely unconvincing especially the bee-keeper girl.The fight scenes are very power rangers with lots of fake blood thrown in.The creature is weird but in an almost funny way, they use cheap CGI and it looks like those 1960s films when such things were new, Jason and the Argonauts style.The ending is predictable.It's not an awful film, I didn't feel the need to switch it off, but it's not good.
Few films try to jam as much into their plots as this one, and it pulls it off in the best tradition of zany, creative, mid-budget exploitation film.Samurai, aliens, magicians, and a demonic monster all converge to make this adventure complete, and its bloodthirsty finale will appease many people's need for gore. You'll wonder what arcane drugs writer/director Keita Amamiya took to come up with the loony and violent scenarios that populate this twisted fantasy/sci-fi hybrid.Amamiya has done many of the "Kamen Rider" pictures, which explains his need to have sexy, helmeted female UFO-nauts in this picture. Indeed, other than the extreme violence, the film feels like a 1960s-era movie, complete with a stop-motion beast straight out of a Ray Harryhausen film.Not to be missed for fans of bizarro midnight movies!
Moon Over Tao is at best a mediocre fantasy film. There are some interesting ideas present, but the film quickly tires with slow scenes that drag, and all-too-brief action scenes. It doesn't help that some of the acting (especially the lead girl) is terrible. Some of the effects are rather nice, and the music is pleasant, but it's not enough for this film.When I read the other user comments on this film, as well as having seen the preview trailer (which is far better than the film itself), I was expecting a fun, simple fantasy action movie. What I got instead was a fairly unexciting disappointment.
I finally got to see this,after waiting for 2 years or so to come out,and let me tell you,it was definetly worth the wait."Tao no Tsuki" (Moon of Tao) is one of the best films that distort Medival Japan.Forget "Ninja Scroll",Tao is the one,PLUS,there is a really big hard-to-destroy monster in there by the name of Makarage (is that how you spell it's name).But be warned,the ending is rather distressing.*No spoilers,SORRY!*