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Mayuko (Hiroko Tanaka) is a feng shui expert who, in a nearly absurd rush of exposition in the first scene of Dragon Blue, discovers that she is the blood heir of the Dragon Clan and a born demon hunter. It's a completely unmotivated but thoroughly spooky encounter between Mayuko and a demonic ghost, and she's saved by an ancient priest spirit who explains her legacy. "Why does this always happen to me?" she ponders before flying off to a remote island to investigate an ancient curse and battle a legendary Sea Demon. Mayuko befriends a burly, chivalrous detective (wrestling star Keiji Muto) and a little orphan boy nicknamed "the Devil's Child" who hides his own dark secret. Director Takuya Wada tosses in plenty of bloody bodies and gratuitous nudity (the monster has an unerring gift for finding topless women), but under the carnage is the gee-whiz innocence of early-'60s Japanese monster movies. The creature, a sort of demonic version of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, is a cool-looking rubber-suit creation from American special-effects wizard Steve Wang, who helped create the monsters of Predator and The Relic. --Sean Axmaker
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