Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Screenplay by: Kinji Fukasaku and Tatsuo Nogami
Based on a Novel by: Futaro Yamada
Starring: Sonny Chiba, Kenji Sawada, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ken Ogata and Tomisaburo Wakayama
Country: Japan
Running Time: 122 min
Year: 1981
Samurai Reincarnation is a deeply bizarre film, which has an utterly insane premise that immediately intrigued me. After Christians crucify Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada), he returns from the grave as a demon who has the power to bring the dead back to life. It’s so bonkers that I had to check it out. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, director of Battle Royale, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Tora, Tora, Tora! and Graveyard of Honor just to name a few of his films, Samurai Reincarnation is a fun, albeit messy film.
While I absolutely loved a lot of what was on display, the fantastic set-design, the stacked cast, the funky score and some really gorgeous visuals, I found Samurai Reincarnation to be extremely inconsistent structurally. The film’s first 40 minutes follow a multiple-act structure, until it’s abandoned in favour of a slower pace involving characters I didn’t find the most compelling. While I was never bored, the middle chunk of the film definitely didn’t give the same thrills as that opening act. Fukasaku’s direction is really fun, allowing everybody on set to deliver their lines in a highly over-the-top and campy fashion, with certain line-deliveries bringing a big smile to my face.
To say the cast in this film is stacked would be an understatement. Martial arts legend Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter, The Executioner, Kill Bill, Wolf Guy, The Bullet Train) plays the eye-patch wearing Yagyu Jubei, Ken Ogata (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Vengeance Is Mine) is Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary swordsman. Tomisaburo Wakayama (Lone Wolf and Cub franchise) plays Yagyu Munenori and Hiroyuki Sanada (Ring, Royal Warriors, The Last Samurai, John Wick: Chapter 4, Mortal Kombat) is Iga no Kirimaru. It’s a stellar cast and as previously mentioned, they all deliver performances that are just right for this kind of material.
The third act picks back up after the slow-paced middle chunk and delivers some solid action sequences, with the one taking place on a beach being the highlight for me. All of the action is filmed and performed excellently, and although it’s not a film that’s packed to the brim with them, those sequences are great. I left Samurai Reincarnation hoping for more of the campy feeling moments in the first act, but still satisfied with a decent horror-fantasy flick directed by a Japanese legend. There’s no doubt that this film was influential to both Japanese and Western cinema, with Quentin Tarantino recreating a sequence in this film with Sonny Chiba himself in Kill Bill: Volume 1. It’s a little too long for my tastes, and I think there’s a great 100 minute film here but for fans of Japanese cinema with elements of horror, fantasy, action and some camp, you’ll have a decent time with this.
Film:
Samurai Reincarnation is being released by Eureka in their Masters of Cinema Series on 19th June. The disc contains a brand-new 2K restoration which looks absolutely fantastic. If you told me this was a 4K scan, I’d probably believe you as the detail here is incredible. The disc gives the feature enough room to breathe and deliver another great visual presentation from Eureka. There’s natural film-grain present and I can imagine this being a huge upgrade from old DVDs in the past. There’s two audio options, Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono and English LPCM 2.0 Mono. The Japanese is the original, uncompressed audio and sounds solid, with the English audio track being a dub which has a bit more of a “fuzz” to it. I went with the Japanese track, but tested out the English and both sound really good.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited Edition slipcase featuring artwork by Takato Yamamato [2000 copies]
- 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements
- Uncompressed original Japanese mono audio
- Alternate English dubbed audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Tom Mes
- Brand new interview with filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku
- Original Japanese trailer
- A collectors booklet featuring new writing on the film
While it’s not absolutely packed with on-disc extras, there’s a decent amount of content here.
Samurai Fictions is a brand-new interview with Kenta Fukasaku, son of director Kinji Fukasaku and runs around 28 minutes. He talks about Kinji’s experiences working with Toei, how Samurai Reincarnation came to fruition and the differences between the novel and film. It’s an enthusiastic and informative piece that’s definitely worth watching.
Tom Mes’ audio commentary is another informative piece, providing context for the novel that Samurai Reincarnation is adapting, speaking about how the film may have influenced David Bowie’s look in Labyrinth and the history of Christianity in Japan. It’s a worthwhile listen.
The collectors booklet included is 11 pages long and contains information about the cast and crew and an essay by Jonathan Clements that’s a fun read. It details how the film was released at 6pm on June 6th, a ‘666 Omen’ as well as some of the production incidents, which included people spraining their ankles and getting food poisoning. Finishing off the booklet are Eureka’s viewing notes, which is an inclusion I’ve always enjoyed from their releases.
Overall, Eureka’s release of Samurai Reincarnation is one that fans of the film will more than likely be pleased with. A great restoration, beautiful packaging, an in-depth interview with Kenta Fukasaku and an audio commentary by Japanese film encyclopaedia Tom Mes all service the film well. It’s a worth addition to their Masters of Cinema Series.
Disc/Packaging:
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