Kiganjô no bôken

At the Chinese end of the Silk Road, Buddhist priest Tadao Nakamaru buys and frees enslaved Toshiro Mifune. Nakamaru is searching for Buddist relics, so Mifune decides to help him. After they locate some inthe middle of the desert, they wind up at Kigan, where the king is thoroughly paranoid, and sentences Mifune to be burnt at the stake. He asks for three days to deliver the relics to his brother, which the King grants; if however, he is not back within that period, Nakamaru will be burnt.

It's a thoroughly kiddified version of a fairy tale, with some of the exteriors shot in Iran, and the rest on Toho sets. There are witches and magical hermits, and a beautiful queen (Yumi Shirakawa) under a death sentence, as well as an evil chamberlain. When Mifune remarked that of all the movies he made, he was only proud of the ones he had done with Kurosawa, he had films like this in mind. Nevertheless, if you go inexpecting a movie for children, it's easy on the eyes.