An intelligent and elegant Japanese adventure film which has an epic feel and is full of watchable action and intrigue, this is a follow-up to SAMURAI PIRATES. The film boasts both strong characterisations and an excellent setting, with grand, impressive sets and interesting location work in the desert. Along with an appropriate score and some strong acting on the part of Japanese legend Toshiro Mifune, these factors help to combine to make THE ADVENTURES OF TAKLA MAKAN a highly enjoyable movie.Once again the format of the film is of an epic journey with many dangerous and bizarre situations along the way. Our two friends - the monk and the warrior - find themselves caught up in some hard-edged battle scenes with black-clad warriors and befriend a wizard who is able to levitate at will and pops up to offer support and advice. Their bizarrest adversary is a swamp-dwelling witch, who can change form at will and whose head is cut off only to re-attach itself again! After these fairly innocuous incidents, the film becomes much more serious in the final third when the monk and the warrior are captured and imprisoned in the castle. The king demands a sacrifice and the warrior, nicknamed Osumi (or "I see" in English due to his favourite expression) has three days to deliver the ashes of Buddha to the correct people and return, or his monk friend will be burnt alive in the town square. Cue a surprising tear-jerking ending which reveals much about Osumi's character and friendship, plus a fair amount of suspense and a crowd-pleasing finale.Toshiro Mifune shines as the mysterious loner hero, giving his role an extra depth that an otherwise less experienced actor would have failed to bring to the part. The rest of the cast are also very good, especially the secondary character of the monk and the guy playing the king. Some of the characters and special effects - especially those involving the witch - seem cheesy in today's light and are played for laughs but these don't spoil the mood of the film too much. And, as I said, in the final third it suddenly all becomes very sombre and epic in feel, not to mention gripping. This is a fine old-fashioned adventure yarn set against intriguing foreign backdrops in which characterisation and human drama come before action and effects, much to the film's strength.

A Japanese student in Tung Huan, China (star Toshiro Mifune, who's production company made this) is rescued from slavery by a Japanese Buddhist monk (Tadao Nakamura), and accompanies him on a journey along the Silk Road (the locations were actually shot in Isfahan, Iran) to fetch some Buddhist relics to take to Japan and build a temple there. In a small town they encounter an oppressive King (Tatsuya Mihashi), and Mifune is sentenced to die for his impudence. Nakamura replaces him at the stake, to be pardoned if Mifune can get the relics to his younger brother (Toshio Kurosawa) and return in the space of three days (this part of the story is based on Osamu Dazai's famous and quite excellent short story Run, Melos!, a variation of the Roman DAMON AND PYTHIAS legend). The locations obviously made an impression, as this historical adventure seems to have a very Arabaian Nights-flavour (Mifune and Taniguchi had previously collaborated on THE LOST WORLD OF SINBAD). The SFX include a tornado, and some nice miniature work. Ichiro Arashima as a kindly wizard (who sleeps underwater) and Hideo Amamoto as his old hag nemesis with control over a "Hell Pond" made of oil provide the fantasy elements. Makoto Soto (of DESPERADO OUTPOST fame) hams it up as the real villain of the piece. Mie Hama, Akiko Wakabayashi (both soon to be eye-candy in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) and Yumi Shirakawa provide the feminine glamour. With Minoru Takada, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki, Sachi Sakai, Susumu Kurobe, Ren Yamamoto, Ikio Sawamura, Naoya Kusakawa and a score from Akira Ifukube. It's the kind of all-star, gimmicky big release of it's day that's forgotten and mostly ho-hum entertainment today. Taniguchi is most well-known now for providing one of the source movies (KEY OF KEYS) that WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? spoofed.Movie reviews @ spinegrinderweb.com

This film stars actor Toshiro Mifune as a sword-wielding Japanese student named Osami. Here, a monk journeys down the Silk Road to find the relics of Buddha, where he meets Osami. The two travelers stumbled upon a conspiracy to overthrow the King in the Castle of Kigan. From there, it is an epic battle between Mifune & the local citizens against the evil rebels.This movie is very colorful. The King's castle is full of beautiful designs, serene-looking scenery nice furniture and a vibrant atmosphere. The characters' costumes were gorgeous. The special effects were a little campy, but good all together. Godzilla producer Tomoyuki Tanaka returns to helm this film, as well as composer Akira Ifukube, who provided another haunting score. We get to hear strands of music reworked or reused by Ifukube from past monster movies in this film. The story is refreshing and the characters gave solid performances. The plot of how Mifune's character would go to any lengths and heights to help the monk demonstrates true human nature of goodness. This film also arouses the sympathy of the King, who has lost his trust on mankind, and suppresses his own Queen and the local villagers. Therefore, we get to see if the student and the monk can turn the King around with their acts of commitment and friendship. This film also echos elements from an earlier Toho film, "The Lost World of Sinbad," which also stars Mifune. Both movies consist of a daring rescue-the-castle mission, and both movies portray a woman-loving wizard and an evil witch played by actors Ichiro Arishima and Eisei Amamoto. The two add magic and intriguing fun in this film, delivering an epic scene of good vs. evil. And, this movie features an all-star cast. In addition to Mifune, Arishima and Amamoto, it also stars Tadao Nakamaru, Akihiko Hirata, Tatsuya Mihasi, Makato Sato, Jun Tazaki, Yumi Shirakawa, Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi.The only problems I have with this movie are that the wizard and witch did not use their magic on screen enough, and the villagers and female leads were not emphasized enough. Other than that, this film is a good mixture of drama and comedy: the breathtaking journey of the monk trying to find Buddha's relics while avoiding rebel attacks, the daring rescue-the-castle mission, the wizardry magic and the action-packed climax all blend in to provide us a very entertaining feature.Grade A-