Garo Special: Byakuya no Maju
2006 / 105m - Japan
Fantasy
1.5*/5.0*
Garo Special: Beast of the Demon Night poster

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May 14, 2021

1.5*/5.0*

A disappointing Amemiya film. He's a director known for handling silly kitsch rather well, but this feature-length TV special is really too cheap to do the material any justice. Unless you're really invested in the Garo franchise, I can't see any reason why anyone would want to see this film.

Kouga teams up with Rin, a young priestess, to save Jabi. Meanwhile, Legules (a dark lord) is resurrected and is planning to destroy the world. I'm sure I missed quite a few intricacies in the plot, but all things said and done, it's a pretty basic "good guys vs bad guys" affair that shouldn't be too hard to follow, even if you've never seen the series.

Performances are weak, the effect are dirt cheap and the look of the film comes off quite lazy. 105 minutes is also way too long for this type of cheese. Amemiya shows a lot of ambition making this film, but when means are limited it's often better to tone things down a bit. It's an interesting train wreck, but a train wreck nonetheless.