Finally (somewhat) caught up!
#3,4,and 5: the Daimajin Trilogy
The Daiei series of special effects films really set themselves apart from the work produced contemporaneously by Toho. While Toho focused on modern-day science fiction stories, Daiei focused specifically on Japanese period films, focusing on ghosts and monsters from Japanese folklore. The fact that the studio was based in Kyoto probably had a lot to do with the production choices made.
The trilogy of Daimajin films have similar plot structures involving villages being overthrown by warlords, leading to the villagers attempting to reach out to Daimajin, the great demon god, to save them. Daimajin's appearance is based on ancient Japanese "Haniwa" figures that were made for ritual use and buried with the dead as funerary objects. When life enters the stone figure, his appearance changes to a powerful "majin" (or "Djinn" as in "Genie") as it becomes personified wrath.
The origins of the story and archetype of Daimajin come not from Japan, but Medieval Europe. Daimajin by-design is a Japanese take on the Jewish Golem: A clay figure given life by a Rabbi dabbling in Kabbalah to protect the Jewish ghetto of Prague. Like the Daimajin, The Golem is helpful, but it's wrath and power are too great once it's task is completed.
I've seen some critiques talking about the build-up takes too long with the antagonists being awful to the villagers, and not enough monster action. This is kind of a trope in Japanese films and media, you can see the same thing in something like 'Fist of the North Star', where the runtime really takes it's time to setup how horrible the antagonists are, only for their violent comeuppance to be all the more cathartic when it arrives, and Daimajin does that in spades. Seeing the giant Majin pick up the evil lord like a doll and deliver (un)holy justice is one of the appeals of these films.
The second Daimajin movie is probably my least favorite of the trilogy, but is still a satisfying entry all-around. The structure of the story is a little TOO close to the first film, and the final confrontation Daimajin has with he evil lord is a little less personal and less cathartic than the first one. The Akira Ifukube (the composer for almost all the original Godzilla films) score still slaps, and the special effects in these films keep getting better and better, and if I'm being honest by this one or the third film, Daiei just might be better at this than Toho.
The third and final of the original Daimajin trilogy in my opinion the best. The film opens with some abstractly-shot Daimajin action that does an excellent job selling it as a powerful, elemental god, and allows us to get in some "Daikaiju" action before the lull up to the grand finale.
The film makes an interesting choice to center the plot around a group of young boys who venture to Majin's mountain to pray for help against the evil lord and his clan that have abducted the men from their village to use as slave labor, and centering the drama around children does up the stakes and drama.
The last 15-20 minutes once Daimajin makes his grand appearance might be the best of the series, and the special effects are nearly seamless for the era except for an unfortunate stuffed hawk that doesn't move it's wings. Otherwise when Daimajin tears into the evil lord's minions and himself, it's some of the most cathartic action of the whole series. Highly recommended.
#6 Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters
The first of their 'Yokai' movies lays the groundwork for the rest of the films to come, introducing the culture of Edo-period Japan and the "A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales" that really caused the tales of Yokai and ghosts to explode in popularity. After one such gathering at a corrupt landowner and magistrates home, the master insists upon a cleansing ritual / exorcism to remove any evil spirits that may be lingering during the story-telling, but the landowner declines, leading to the rest of the film focusing on the haunting that occurs around his premises and his goons.
The film moves at a leisurely pace at first and quickly starts ramping up the spooky happenings as it continues, leading to some fun scenes like a "Kasa-obake" / umbrella ghost befriending the son of the landlord. By the end of the film, a full haunting is on display, as the legendary "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons" is performed on film, featuring a cavalcade of demons and yokai parading around the haunted estate.
#7 Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare is the second film in Daiei's 'Yokai' trilogy, and is even better than the first one. An ancient Babylonian vampire-demon called 'Daemon' is unintentionally unleashed from his tomb by grave robbers in the 1600's, he then hitches a ride on a European sailing ship to Japan and posseses the body of a kindly lord. A Kappa (the turtle-like water imp) who lives in the pond of the lord's house can see that the lord is actually Daemon, and rounds up his other yokai friends to help him stop this evil monster from possessing all the humans and potentially taking over Japan.
The film makes the correct choice in focusing primarily on the yokai as our protagonists instead of the humans as they battle Daemon and his demonic doubles, the special effects are just as fun as the first film, with a tangible quality to them, the puppets and makeup work reminded me a lot of Jim Henson's 80's films like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. the dark, spooky swamps and forests are the perfect atmospheric location for this film, and while it's a children's film, there's still enough real drama and a surprising amount of blood to keep the adults focused on the action.
#8 Black Magic (1975)
'Black Magic' never gets as outrageous or extreme as it's pedigree would suggest, it may be wild to an average moviegoer, but it never gets as weird or gross as later films like 'Seeding of a Ghost' or the mondo-Shaw film to end all mondo-Shaw films, 'The Boxer's Omen'. There's too much focus on the love triangle for most of it's run-time.
The final battle between sorcerers seems like it's going to be awesome with lots of lightning and laser effects drawn right onto the film, but then shortly fizzles out and ends anti-climatically. Needed the evil sorcerer to explode or something to really seal the deal.