Legend of Eight Samurai (1983) Satomi hakken-den (original title)

Director:

Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Kinji Fukasaku (writer)
Toshio Kamata (writer)

Release Date:

10 December 1983 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Plot:

Princess Shizu's family is wiped out by an family of undead seeking revenge. The eight samurai can save her, but who and where are they?

Plot Keywords:

Princess | Samurai | Blood | Snake | Castle

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Hiroko Yakushimaru	...	Princess Shizu
Hiroyuki Sanada	...	Inue Shinbei Masashi
Sonny Chiba	...	Inuyama Dosetsu Tadatomo
Etsuko Shihomi	...	Inusaka Keno Tanetomo
Yûki Meguro	...	Hikita Gonnokami Motofuji
Mari Natsuki	...	Tamazusa
Nana Okada	...	Hamaji
Masaki Kyômoto	...	Inuzuka Shino Moritaka
Kenji Ohba	...	Inukai Genpachi Nobufuchi
Nagare Hagiwara	...	Yonosuke
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tatsuo Endô
Takuya Fukuhara	...	Inukawa Sosuke Yoshito
Seizô Fukumoto
Akira Hamada	...	Akushiro
Shunsuke Kariya	...	Inuta Kobungo Yasuyori
Keiko Matsuzaka	...	Princess Fuse (voice)
Mikio Narita
Tadashi Naruse
Akira Shioji	...	Genjin
Harumi Sone
Ryôichi Takayanagi
Minori Terada	...	Inumura Daikaku Masanori
Taiji Tonoyama
Mamako Yoneyama	...	Funamushi

Directed by
Kinji Fukasaku

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kinji Fukasaku		writer
Toshio Kamata		writer

Produced by
Hiroshi Sugawara	....	producer

Original Music by
Joey Carbone
Richie Zito

Cinematography by
Seizô Sengen

Production Design by
Tsutomu Imamura

Art Direction by
Tsutomu Imamura		(as Chikara Imamura)

Visual Effects by
Tetuzo Osawa	....	visual effects designer: Marbling Fine Arts

Other crew
Hiroo Minami	....	horse team

Production Companies

• Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho
• Toei Company

Distributors

• Toei Company (1983) (Japan) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1984) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Starmaker Entertainment (2000) (USA) (video) (dubbed)
• Sinister Cinema (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Vídeo Room (2001) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Platinum Disc (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Leisure Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Sinister Cinema (2003) (USA) (video) (DVD-R)
• VCI Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (USA) (video)
• Brentwood Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Vintage Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2005) (USA) (TV)
• Reel Media International (2007) (USA) (all media)

Other Companies

• JAC Command  action setting

Also Known As:

"Satomi hakken-den" - Japan (original title)
"Legend of the Eight Samurai" - USA (dubbed version)

Runtime:

Brazil:133 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 | Australia:MA (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/12

Company:

Kadokawa Haruki Jimusho

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Shinbei goes "evil" and attacks the princess and her friends when he jumps off the back of the horse you can see the black wire that's attach to his back that's keeping him off the ground. Futhurmore if you check out the top corner of the screen you can see the winch that the other end of the wire is connected to swinging around.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Playlist: Instruments of Destruction (#1.1)" (2012)

Soundtrack:

Satomi Hakken-den

LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI - classic tale retold in jazzed-up version

LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI (1983) is a live-action Japanese costume fantasy retelling the oft-told tale of eight warriors identified by their receipt of magic crystal balls sent by a long-dead princess to insure protection of her descendants. Here, the eight warriors who receive the crystal balls come together to protect the fugitive Princess Shizu of the Satomi Clan, which has been all but wiped out by the supernatural descendants of the Hikita Clan. The action is larded with fantasy elements, including a couple of monsters (a giant centipede and giant snake) and the long-lived evil matriarch Tamazusa (Mari Natsuki) who stays alive a hundred years after her 'death' at the hands of the Satomi Clan by taking special baths in blood.

Despite the title, there's no mention of samurai in the film's English-dubbed dialogue. The characters refer to each other as ninjas, even though few ninja costumes or accessories are visible. It's an unwieldy film with over a dozen major characters, none of whom take center stage until well past the film's half-way mark. The main focus of the plot is the gathering of the eight warriors as they meet and realize their destiny to protect the princess and attack Tamazusa's castle to destroy the Eternal Spirit who keeps alive the evil remnants of the Hikita Clan. Too much of the film is spent on gathering the eight, a task which is not completed until 100 minutes into the 133-minute film. When things finally get going here, the main characters turn out to be Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and the reckless young Shinbei (Hiroyuki Sanada) who kidnaps Shizu at one point and travels quite a distance with her before they're reunited with the others. Both are too callow and unformed to be of much interest, while the more exciting characters, such as the loyal retainer Dosetsu (Sonny Chiba) and the female fighter Kano (Sue Shiomi), get far less screen time.

The climactic battle at Castle Tamazusa is rousing and full of action, but it proves too little too late to compensate for the two hours it took to get there. The earlier action scenes are all too short and choppy to generate much excitement. To make matters worse, the English dubbing is particularly horrendous and the tacked-on music score is all synthesizer-created with three incongruous American pop songs (sung by John O'Banion) thrown onto the soundtrack with utter disregard for the historical and cultural tone of the film.

The film is especially disappointing because it was directed by Kinji Fukasaku, a highly regarded director known for Yakuza (gangster) films and the recent box office hit BATTLE ROYALE (2000). His earlier space opera, MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978), was a variation of the same story told in LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI and featured some of the same cast members, Hiroyuki Sanada, Sonny Chiba and Sue Shiomi (who played the princess in that one). Fukasaku also gave us the U.S.-Japanese co-production, THE GREEN SLIME (1968).

On the plus side, LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI is quite colorful and beautifully appointed and the special effects are, for the most part, pretty impressive. (The giant centipede, flung about on wires, is the notable exception.) But the film lacks the formal beauty of traditional Japanese samurai films and seems pumped up in style, with the youthful romance played up, in order to suit the 1980s youth audience. For U.S. fans, the botched English soundtrack and over-length are quite fatal, along with the absence of any exceptional action scenes until the very end. The story comes from the 19th century Japanese novel 'Nanso Satomi Hakkenden,' by Bakin Takizawa, which was also the basis for the breathtaking 13-part animated series, THE HAKKENDEN (1990). Elements of the story also turn up in the original 'Dragon Ball' animated TV series.