Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon
1994 Japanese film directed by Takao Okawara
Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (Japanese: ヤマトタケル, Hepburn: Yamato Takeru) is a 1994 Japanese epic kaiju fantasy film directed by Takao Okawara and produced by Shogo Tomiyama, with a screenplay by Wataru Mimura. Distributed by Toho and produced under their subsidiary Toho Pictures, the film is based on Japanese mythology, specifically the birth of Shinto. It stars Masahiro Takashima, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Akaji Maro, Yūki Meguro and Saburo Shinoda.
The song "RAIN" by Glay, which was previously used as the ending theme of TBS anime series Yamato Takeru, serves as the ending theme song of the film.
Plot
In the ancient times, the moon god Tsukuyomi, who is jealous of his sister and sun goddess, Amaterasu, transforms into the eight-headed serpent named Orochi and intends to destroy the Earth. Fortunately, the sea god Susanoo defeats Tsukuyomi and seals his power inside the enchanted Sword of Dark Clouds. Tsukuyomi's father, Izanagi, fearful of his son causing chaos again, seals him inside a crystalline ice prison and sends it far away from the Earth.
Many years later, emperor Keiko of Yamato feels a great loathing for one of his twin sons, Ousu, after their births. Being convinced that this feeling is a premonition, Keiko orders the mysterious shaman Tsukinowa to kill Ousu, yet his efforts are spoiled by Amano Shiratori, the phoenix and the White Bird of the Heavens. Keiko's sister, seeing this as a clear sign of divine intervention, takes it upon herself to raise Ousu.
“Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon” enters the record as 1994 Japanese film directed by Takao Okawara. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Orochi, Eight-Headed and Dragon can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8047992. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.