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| Images courtesy of Eureka Entertainment |
Just a year after winning the Japan Academy Prize for Best
Picture for his 1982 comedy epic Fall Guy, Kinji Fukusaku who had
dispensed with the yakuza subgenre altogether and began moving away from scope
2.35:1 widescreen photography for a more economic 1.85:1 frame set his sights
on Toshio Kamata’s 1982 novel Shin Satomi Hakkenden itself a reworking
of the mammoth literary epic Nanso Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin. A work of Japanese historical fiction
published over the course of twenty-eight years and set in the Muromachi
period, it told the story of eight fictional warriors born across the Kanto
region with spiritual powers as children of a Satomi princess and they unite to
defend herself and her clan at all costs.
A story which Kinji Fukusaku tried his hand at before with the Star
Wars rip-off Message from Space, the director sought to make a more
faithful adaptation while also continuing onward with his interest in the hook
of fantastical science-fiction.
The Satomi Clan is at war with the Hikita Clan comprised of
members of the undead and the last surviving Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru
of Sailor Suit and Machine Gun) goes into hiding after her family is
massacred. Soon her escape plan crosses
paths with a farmer named Shinbei (a young Hiroyuki Sanada) and eventually with
two warrior monks including Dosetsu (Sonny Chiba) who fills her in on the
legend regarding a curse put on her family by the evil Queen Tamazusa (Mari
Natsuki) and how they must identify ‘Dog Warriors’ who can lift the curse who
harbor eight magic beads with metaphysical powers. Banding together they set out on a quest to
retrieve the remaining Dog Warriors and fight the curse, but not before Shinbei
gets wind of the reward for Princess Shizu’s capture. Complicating matters further, the remaining
Dog Warriors fight off a number of monsters including a giant centipede and at
another point a giant snake.
Effects heavy with oversized set pieces by art and
production designer Tsutomu Imamura lensed gloriously by Yokohama BJ Blues cinematographer
Seizo Sengen, featuring an electric plainly Giorgio Moroder influenced and
sounding score by six composers including Yukio Aizawa, Hiroyuki Namba and Joey
Carbone with some English lyrics on the soundtrack, Legend of the Eight Samurai
is a summer blockbuster popcorn flick based on a legendary literary
text. Best remembered for tapping into
the fantasy/sci-fi subgenre popularized by the space opera boom, channeling The
Neverending Story aesthetics visually and sonically from Japan and
featuring a stellar cast of character actors some at their prime while others
were just starting out, Fukusaku’s adaptation is enjoyably silly and goofy
without veering all the way into overt camp.
Somewhere between Return of the Jedi and Akira
Kurosawa’s own Seven Samurai and even further years later Raya and
the Last Dragon involving gathering together disparate heroes against a
singular fantastical enemy, Legend of the Eight Samurai produced by
Kadokawa Pictures who also financed Fukusaku’s ill-fated Virus became
something of a box office sensation.
Number one on the Japanese film market in 1984, earning well into ¥2.3
billion, the film won the Silver Prize at the 2nd Golden Gross
Awards and was nominated for three Japanese Academy Awards in 1985 including
Best Director, Best Actor Hiroyuki Sanada and Best Actress Mari Natsuki. Seen now, the film is something of a
companion piece to Kinji Fukusaku’s aforementioned Message from Space for
being based on the same source and for channeling the Star Wars phenomenon
through Japanese poetic folklore. Not
one of Fukusaku’s best but one of his most entertaining and enjoyably 1980s
aesthetically infused and Eureka Entertainment’s 4K restored blu-ray premiere
is fabulous!
--Andrew Kotwicki
