“The money you can make is in the proportion to the danger.”
In the Sea of Trees region of the Aokigahara Juki forest a young woman is walking around barefoot. This area is known as the suicide forest. The young woman falls through the forest floor and into a cavern. She is knocked unconscious. When she awakens she sees around her an ice cavern and a bunch of huge eggs. When one of the eggs begins to hatch the woman panics and claws her way out of the cavern. She goes screaming through the forest and is found by a construction crew. She begins babbling about what she saw. News of the woman and her rantings is spread all over the news.
In an airport waiting for his flight to New Mexico is Takashi Ashizawa. He is a geologist who is fascinated about the report of a fossilized egg. Takashi heads for the Saiko Lake area of Mt. Fuji to find it. He begins his decent into a crevice when an earthquake knocks him unconscious. He wakes in a cabin near the lake. His rescuer is Shohei Muku. He was an old friend of Takashi’s father. Once Takashi is feeling better he heads back to the Juki area looking for the fossilized egg. On the way he sees his former girlfriend Akiko. She is there with her friend Junko. Akiko is a diver and has been investigating the lake.
Strange things begin to happen around Saiko Lake. A couple disappears, a diver is injured. Takashi believes there is a Plesiosaur living in the lake. His theory is finally proved when the Plesiosaur makes an appearance and begins eating people.
Takashi goes diving in the lake to find the Plesiosaur. When Akiko hears that the local military is going to set off depth charges in the lake she goes into the lake after Takashi. They end up in the ice cavern. Earthquakes in the area have unearthed the creature from the egg. A flying reptile called a Rhamphorhynchus joins the Plesiosaur in eating people and trying to kill each other. Takashi and Akiko are in the middle of the battle zone, the earthquakes, and a volcano eruption.
“Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds” was released in 1977 and was directed by Junji Kurata. The film was made on location at Mt. Fuji. Produced by Toei the film is a little slow in spots, but also a little strange. If you want to get technical the creatures in the movie are not actually dinosaurs. The Plesiosaur is classified as a marine reptile, while the Rhamphorhynchus is classified as a flying reptile. And of course there is only one of each.
Although the monsters don’t show up as much as I would have liked, when they do they are decent enough. I’ve seen worse. The music is a little strange, but a lot of Japanese movies have strange music. Despite the uneven pacing the movie was interesting . Perhaps a little bloody in spots. Not like a slasher movie but with much more blood than your normal Kaiju movie.
Aokigahara is also known as the Sea of Trees. It is a forested area on the northwestern flank of Japan's Mount Fuji. On the western edge of Aokigahara are several caves that fill with ice in winter. Parts of Aokigahara are very dense. The porous lava absorbs sound thereby giving people a sense of solitude.
In Japanese folklore it is believed that the forest is home to yūrei or ghosts of the dead. In recent years, Aokigahara has become known as "The Suicide Forest". There have been more suicides here than anywhere in the world. It is where people specifically go to commit suicide. There are signs at the head of some trails urging suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.