Samurai Reincarnation

Resurrection Shuffle

Samurai Reincarnation
Japan 1981
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Toei/Eureka Masters Of Cinema
Blu Ray Zone B

Samurai Reincarnation is a movie directed by Kinji Fukasaku (of Battle Royale and The Green Slime fame), although it was original supposed to have been directed by the great Hideo Gosha... but he was arrested on firearms charges and so that fell through for him, allowing Fukasaku to replace him.

It tells the story, set in Edo period Japan, of a reincarnated Christian leader called Shiro (played by Kenji Sawada). After a whole bunch of his Christians have been slaughtered by the shogunate, including himself who joins some of the many heads being displayed, he manages to reincarnate himself when his head flies through the air (wait, is this an Indonesian film... that’s the kind of stuff I expect from their film culture?) and takes over the body of an actor playing him on a stage. He then goes around resurrecting (which often includes killing them before resurrecting them) various people, including real life, non-fictional characters like Musashi Miyamoto, who was played by Toshiro Mifune in the original Samurai Trilogy (which I will be revisiting at some point in the near future for this blog) but who is here played by Ken Ogata (four years before he played Mishima in Paul Schrader’s Mishima - A Life In Four Chapters). This film takes its basis on one of the novels covering the real Musashi Miyamoto’s life, in fact (although I’m guessing half zombified hell spawn returning to fulfil a thirst for vengeance from a former severed head is not actually plucked from moments from Miyamoto’s actual, true existence).

Denouncing God, Shiro uses his weird, Christian magic to pull souls back from hell to reanimate for his cause, which is to rid the kingdom of the shogun and burn Edo to the ground. Opposing him is Jubei Yagyu, played by the legendary Sonny Chiba, presumably as a member of the Yagyu Clan (I’m assuming this is the same bunch who were the bad guys in the Lone Wolf And Cub manga and movies). His father, who is also killed and resurrected to Shiro’s cause, is played by none other than the great Tomisaburô Wakayama, who of course played Ogami Itto in the famous six film series of adaptations of that manga, Lone Wolf And Cub.

The film is split into five chapters under the title Hell, the first four of which are around ten to fifteen minutes long (where Shiro returns and then starts recruiting) and the last of which takes up the huge remainder of the film. And it all looks fantastic, it has to be said. The studio bound ‘external locations’ of the opening gives a vision of Hell in the many Christian bodies piled up and their separate heads displayed while the sky is rendered in the studio in purples and pinks, like some kind of chaotic hellscape painted by Hieronymus Bosch.

And, it has to be said that, despite all that gravitas with the blood and honour in which the Japanese seem nobly steeped, the film moves along at a fair pace and is nicely shot, with lots of colours used to brighten up the compositions such as, for instance, when an actor is shot through a series of multicoloured glass panes of a window. Just as a scene gets just a little too talky and threatens to drag, things are switched out and some kind of conflict comes to the fore, which means the film never really has time to get dull or even allow you to question the silliness of some of it. And with skilled actors like these, the film has a certain weight to it which, bearing in mind the subject matter and the 1980s cheesiness which the film almost crosses over into, is actually pretty impressive.

And I think that’s me done with this one for a while. I was quite impressed at the number of heavy hitters that are part of the cast of this one and I found the whole experience somewhat entertaining, it has to be said. The only thing which bothered me was in one scene where Sonny Chiba gets his sword out and then re-sheathes it before any blood has been spilled by his blade... surely this was against the Samurai code? Regardless of this though, I had a pretty good time with it. Samurai Reincarnation is not a film I would jump into if you’re not used to watching samurai movies but it’s well acted and has bright colours... so if you are a fan of the genre, then you might want ot take a look at this one.

Message From Space

Prince Hans, No Solo

Message From Space
aka Uchu kara no messeji
Japan 1978 Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Toei/Eureka Masters Of Cinema
Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: Small spoilers about the final outcome of the movie... as if there was any doubt.

I’d not seen Message From Space before but I believe I do have a bootleg of this tucked away somewhere with the title Japanese Star Wars and, to be fair, that’s actually a more accurate title, in some ways, than its real one and, again in some ways, that does also sum up the movie too. And I don’t mean that to detract from what is, in actual fact, a quite entertaining and historically contextually impressive film.

Kinji Fukasaku, who some of my readers may remember from classic films like Battle Royale and the, perhaps, not quite so classic The Green Slime, directed this for release in 1978. It was a year after George Lucas’ magnum opus first hit cinemas in the US (and eventually, right at the end of the same year, in the UK) and the eyes of the world were eyeing up that box office take. Just as in America, many countries rushed to release their own, half rip off Star Wars* bandwagon films... some of which hadn’t been able to get a green light until the Lucas film had every producer on the planet scrambling to develop whatever science fiction properties they could get their hands on. And Japan was no exception although, while I’m sure many studio heads and film industry people had been able to see Star Wars in 1977, it actually didn’t get a release in Japan until a couple of months after this movie was already in cinemas (there’s a certain irony there, I guess).

Okay, so yes, despite the staunch defence of the movie against comparisons in the booklet included in the Eureka Blu Ray, this film certainly does have a lot of Star Wars injected straight into its DNA. I mean, if you want ot watch it on a surface level, you can’t help but laugh and be entertained by some of the ‘bend over backwards’ attempts to shoe horn as many resemblances as possible into the story and a fair few other production elements, it has to be said. However, there’s also a lot of other impressive stuff here which, perhaps, went on to inspire some of those Hollywood bandwagon movies in much the same way... I suspect.

A brief rundown of the plot set up is that Princess Emeralida, played by Etsuko Shihomi of the Sister Streetfighter films (reviews coming as soon as I get around to watching them) is charged with a mission by her father, the elder of the rag tag band of space hippies who are the lone survivors of the planet Jillucia. The war shredded planet has been occupied by the inhabitants of the evil, silver skinned Gavanas Empire, who have set up their main fortress there. So the tribal elder sends the eight magic Liaba seeds (snicker... Liaba minora perhaps... but they look just like Walnut shells to me) out into space to seek the eight brave warriors who are prophesised to save them. Emeralida and her humble bodyguard must follow them and find the eight worthy warriors, scattered in various places in the galaxy... and raise them to come to their aid. These include General Garuda played by Vic Morrow, his R2D2/C3PO half bleeping/half talking, dome headed android Beba Two, Kamikazi Mei (played wonderfully by a severely underused actress called Peggy Lee Brennan) and even the legendry Sonny Chiba as Prince Hans. They and some of the other ‘heroes’ are all pretty good in this and help carry what is a far more entertaining film than we should expect of the story. There’s even an appearance by the president of Earth, played by Tetsurô Tanba, who played in stuff like Three Outlaw Samurai (review will eventually be coming) and You Only Live Twice (reviewed by me here).

Okay, enough of the plot. The film has lots of key notes from Star Wars that it hits. The space ship flying overhead shot mimicking the Star Destroyer at the start of the Lucas film, the laser beams shot from pistols and dogfighting space ships (often making sounds more reminiscent of automatic pistols) plus many other familiar elements, such as the final attack run on the Gavanas fortress which looks suspiciously like the final attack on the Death Star, except in this case, instead of trying to hit a thermal exhaust port 3 metres in diameter, our brave and fearless heroes are trying to hit a reactor core 10 metres in diameter. Of course, in order to save the people of the planet, they also have to end up destroying said planet but, hey, at least they won, right? Right?

Certainly, one of the biggest influences felt from Star Wars here is the ‘golden age Hollywood score’ by composer Ken'ichirô Morioka. It’s like he studied John Williams seminal score to the ‘n’th detail and there are many call backs to some of the musical passages in the American film. Not least of which is the theme in the leitmotif for the Liaba seeds, which bears a striking resemblance (perhaps a couple of notes changed or missing) to the Obi Wan/Force theme from Williams’ Star Wars scores.

All this aside though, there are also some elements which Hollywood movies, including future Star Wars movies, might also have been taking notice of in this one. The lightning style forks of laser power emitted by the spaceships of the bad guys foreshadows the similar VGer effects used in Star Trek The Motion Picture of the following year (and I’m pretty sure one of the Gamera movies used it even before this... you’ll find it mentioned, I’m sure, in one of my Gamera reviews)... although, I guess it’s kind of an expansion of the same kind of visual effect used when R2D2 gets zapped by the Jawas, in some measure. Also, the interior sets of the Gavanas fortress, while tipping the head to the interiors of the Death Star in some ways, also has windows and decor which wasn’t seen in the Star Wars franchise until the second film, The Empire Strikes Back, was released in cinemas two years later than this. So, yeah, a kind of post modern Ouroboros kind of cannibalism between this and the Star Wars films, perhaps.

Ultimately, no matter how much of it is pure rip off (and there is a lot of that in this) and how much of it is original to this film (but probably also eclectically borrowed, perhaps), glowing space whips aside, Message From Space is a very entertaining piece of cinema starring some Japanese screen legends and I’m really glad that Eureka have decided to put out a fantastic looking Blu Ray disc of it. A definite recommendation from me, for sure. Maybe they’ll issue the TV series continuation next?

* And don’t forget, the Star Wars films themselves ransacked many different story elements from various sources (some, of course, from Japanese cinema) and so one can understand a lack of reluctance to copy the film by other people... it’s all fair game and Star Wars certainly wears its influences on its sleeve.

The Green Slime

Ooze Next?

The Green Slime USA/Japan/Australia 1968

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Warner Archives Region 1

I have mixed feelings when it comes to these new “on-demand” DVD labels like Warner Archives.

On the one hand, since I can assume they're fairly small runs by definition and bare bones releases with presumably less chasing around to do, then these things should be fairly cheap and quick to produce... and that saving should surely be passed along to the poor, long suffering customer? But no, DVDs from these kinds of labels are costing us several dollars more than a standard DVD! Note to companies who are releasing these things... “You’re not the Criterion Collection” (and with Criterion, you more than get back what you payed for). So that’s a big minus for these releases.

On the other hand... because of these releases I now have a version of Doc Savage (aka one of the greatest movies ever made) in its original widescreen format like it was when I saw it in the cinema back in ‘75. So that’s pretty cool. That’s a big plus for these archive editions right there. Have no fear, the Man of Bronze is here... right here... on my DVD shelf!

Back on the one hand, however... Damn! Now I’ll never get a boxed 10 disc edition of Doc Savage with 100 hours of extra bonus materials, isolated score, posters, souvenir booklets and lobby card facsimiles. Why the hell not? It is one of the greatest movies ever made, after all! That’s another big minus just there.

When all is said and done, however, Warner Archives and other labels of that nature have us, the paying customer, over a barrel because this is the only way to get some of the films we want right now... which sucks because even though I already had two bootlegs of Doc Savage of varying quality (and it has to be said, better extras and better designed menus than the official Warners Archive version) the Warner’s one is the only way you can get that in its original aspect ratio.

But this post is not about Doc Savage... surprisingly... if you’ve made it this far in. This is about another movie I’ve wanted to see for a long time and haven’t been able to acquire until Warners released the longer, American cut of this movie (as opposed to the shorter Japanese cut... which is an unusual twist in itself)... The Green Slime.

I love dodgy science fiction and this movie is as old as I am (I was literally born the same year this movie was released in Japan). I’ve been after this for a while... mainly for two reasons. Reason number one is that it’s directed by Kinji Fukasaku (who went on in later life to direct the fantastic Battle Royale) and reason number two is because I expected it to be a wacky, neon-toned Toho-style kaiju eiga like Invasion of the Astro Monsters or Matango! Attack of the Mushroom People or Frankenstein Conquers the World.

Well, in the first instance at least, I was right, although I didn’t realise it was made in conjunction with the USA/Australia with a cast of Americans/Australians and, therefore, I’d really be surprised if there wasn’t some hefty intervention somewhere along the line when it came to the look and feel of production... although the countries who had stakes in this would presumably be going to Japan because they liked the product which was coming out of there at the time.

Secondly, the monsters in this movie (which seem to be predominantly red once they’ve spawned from the green slime and not green like you see on the posters) are about the only thing that’s actually fun about this movie. This is not a movie I’d necessarily put on to have a good time. In fact, it’s not a movie I’d possibly put on to watch ever again to be honest... but let me not get ahead of myself here.

The Green Slime teams up two space jockeys who formerly fell out over a woman, who is played by the attractively gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi (one of the stunning Bond girls of Thunderball) in a wasted opportunity to sex up the film. She is engaged to marry one of them in a few days but first she must assist them in her capacity as doctor of the Gamma Space Station while they attempt, with their crew, to blow up an asteroid which is heading for a collision course with earth. There’s definitely a love triangle here and also some kind of male-bonding - "I’ll lay down my life for you but don’t tell me what to do or I’ll fight you to the death" - thing going on here too. Both elements are unnecessary and badly handled by all involved in a pedestrian acting job which might well be a direct result of attempting to perform with a ham-fisted script.

Mission is accomplished during a fairly lumbering first half an hour but, unbeknown to the spaced-up crew, a splash of living space slime has been brought back to the space station by accident and it doesn’t take long for it to spawn a red child-or-small-person-in-suit creature with a single eyeball and a couple of tentacles which make it look a little like a... well... a Cthulhu plushie I guess. It’s kinda cute but it does have a tendency to electrocute people while feeding off of the power in the space station in order to spawn more green slime and, soon after, more red pseudo-Cthulhu playmates. The film then becomes an exercise in warding off said monsters and trying to lead them collectively into various traps... peppered with male posturing and lots of shouting between our two lead, male protagonists... not as great as it sounds in the case of this movie I’m afraid.

The film has a few good things such as some okay miniatures and the aforementioned monsters and their squeaky-dog-toy style vocalisations... and speaking of vocalisations, the opening title song, The Green Slime is an outrageous pleasure too. All in all though, out of all the kaiju eiga I’ve seen over the years, this is probably the worst I’ve seen. I’m glad I’ve seen it but I can’t say I’m really any better off for having done so... other than having that particular itch scratched.

I think in summing up, I’d have to use a bit of marketing cleverness from a new release movie called Rubber (which I reviewed here) which has the tagline... “The best killer tyre movie you’ll ever see”, just to hammer home the point of that movie having a particularly unique plot line. Well if I was asked to apply similar logic to The Green Slime then I’d have to go on record as pointing out the this was not the best killer green slime movie I’ve ever seen... that little nugget would have to go out with another, much more impressive Japanese monster movie I saw a year or so ago, The H-Man. Check that one out (it "out blobs" The Blob) and leave this one alone. There’s plenty of good slime to go around.