Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
紅顔の密使 (Kōgan no misshi / Handsome Messenger)
AKA: Mission to Hell (export title); Genghis Khan and His Mongols (not sure of the origin of this one)
"King of the Mongols," the English version of a 1959 Toei Kyoto film, is certainly one of the most obscure Japanese films released in the United States by American International. I have not seen the original Japanese version, but it appears to be a quasi-historical melodrama telling the tale of a secret Imperial envoy (Hashizo Okawa) sent to refortify a castle against an army of rebels. In the English version (produced in Rome by Robert Spafford), the leader of the rebel army has been rechristened as Kublai Khan (!), thus transplanting the action from the 8th century to the 13th century.
Like most of the Japanese films acquired by AIP, "King of the Mongols" went straight to TV (at first in AITV's "Epicolor '64" package). Although this TV trailer is printed in black and white, the film was shot in Eastmancolor. Fortunately for Japanese genre film enthusiasts, AITV's version has previously been available on video from Something Weird Video.
Trailer voiceover: Anthony La Penna
紅顔の密使 (Kōgan no misshi / Handsome Messenger)
AKA: Mission to Hell (export title); Genghis Khan and His Mongols (not sure of the origin of this one)
"King of the Mongols," the English version of a 1959 Toei Kyoto film, is certainly one of the most obscure Japanese films released in the United States by American International. I have not seen the original Japanese version, but it appears to be a quasi-historical melodrama telling the tale of a secret Imperial envoy (Hashizo Okawa) sent to refortify a castle against an army of rebels. In the English version (produced in Rome by Robert Spafford), the leader of the rebel army has been rechristened as Kublai Khan (!), thus transplanting the action from the 8th century to the 13th century.
Like most of the Japanese films acquired by AIP, "King of the Mongols" went straight to TV (at first in AITV's "Epicolor '64" package). Although this TV trailer is printed in black and white, the film was shot in Eastmancolor. Fortunately for Japanese genre film enthusiasts, AITV's version has previously been available on video from Something Weird Video.
Trailer voiceover: Anthony La Penna
