HI
I have this movie on video (the original) except the
title is Time warp.
If they have remade it then I look forward to see it.
The original was a blast
Paul
--- Kitsuno <
samurai-listowner@...>
wrote:
---------------------------------
Samurai Commando Mission 1549
(Sengoku Jieitai 1549)
Mark Schilling in Tokyo 06 July 2005
Dir: Masaaki Tezuka. Japan. 2005. 119mins.
A remake of Kosei Saito's 1979 film about a military
Self Defence
Forces (SDF) unit that time travels back to the days
of the samurai,
Samurai Commando: Mission 1549 has already attracted a
flood of
foreign rights offers for producer Kadokawa Pictures.
Concluded
deals totalled 31 at last count - a new record for a
live-action
Japanese film.
What director Masaaki Tezuka (Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.)
delivers on
the screen is not the camp-fest implied in the title,
but a Japanese
equivalent of Independence Day: full-bore,
straight-ahead SF action
with a nationalistic slant. Also, much of the $15m
budget has gone
to effects that may be more 1996 than 2005 but are
still of-the-line
for a Japanese release.
Samurai Commando has become a solid hit in Japan
following its June
1 release, and internationally looks likely to draw
the same teenage
males who thrilled to The Last Samurai (if not the
women who
thrilled to Tom Cruise). Success, though, will depend
on how much
the international version also commissioned by
Kadokawa, with its
pumped-up effects and soundtrack, can reduce the
original film's
cheese factor.
The action starts with a top-secret test of a new
magnetic shield -
and a blunder by the second lieutenant in charge, one
Rei Kanzaki
(Kyoka Suzuki) that sends an SDF unit reeling back in
time.
The SDF brass covers up the incident, but two years
later the space-
time continuum begins to warp - and they decide to
dispatch a squad,
coded named Romeo, into the year 1549. Their mission:
rescue the
missing soldiers - and save Japan (not to mention the
Solar System)
from being sucked into the void.
Squad leader Kashima (Yosuke Eguchi) is a reluctant
warrior, as is
his second in command, the stern-visaged Kanzaki. But
when they
finally travel back to 1549 they discover that the
unit leader,
Colonel Matoba (Takeshi Kaga), has assumed the
identity of a famous
warlord - and is planning to fast-forward Japan to
world power
status with the aid of a city-obliterating secret
weapon.
Made with the co-operation of the SDF, Samurai
Commando offers all
the money shots of helicopters, tanks, and other
hardware that
military buffs, not to mention SDF recruiters, could
desire.
It also skips boring exposition, plunging immediately
into the
action. Wave after wave of samurai are blasted to
writhing
smithereens by modern firepower - but the survivors
charge on
regardless. Meanwhile, the SDF troops take their share
of deadly,
realistically rendered CG arrows.
There are other neat effects, such as the SDF unit and
all its
hardware being whirled into the past like Dorothy's
house in The
Wizard Of Oz. But they cannot disguise Tezuka's
pedestrian direction
and the lack of emotional range, beyond grim
determination.
Instead of expressing awe and astonishment at the
sudden appearance
of 21st century technology in their midst, Tezuka's
samurai
immediately and mindlessly go on the attack, like bad
guys in a
computer game.
Meanwhile, the SDF heroes barely notice their
feudal-era
surroundings; they are like Japanese salarymen sent on
business to a
dangerous Third World country, whose only thought is
to make it back
to the airport intact and on time.
Among the standouts in the main cast is Kazuki
Kitamura, playing a
samurai who time travels in the opposite direction and
becomes a
Romeo ally. After a long slog through the
straight-to-video
underworld, Kitamura finally has a mainstream platform
for his
Brando-ish looks, presence and acting chops. And his
sword-fighting
skills are superb. Watch your back Ken Watanabe - you
may not be the
last samurai after all.
Production companies
Kadokawa Pictures
NTV
Nihon Eiga Fund
International sales
Kadokawa Pictures
Japanese distribution
Toho
Executive producer
Kazuo Kuroi
Associate producers
Naoki Sato
Chiharu Akiba
Ikio Nabeshima
Cinematography
Shun Fujiishi
Screenplay
Kiyohito Takeuchi
Yasushi Matsuura
Editor
Shinichi Katajima
Production design
Takeshi Shimizu
Special effects supervisor
Katsuhiro Inoue
Music
shezoo
Main cast
Yosuke Eguchi
Kyoka Suzuki
Takeshi Kaga
Kazuki Kitamura
Haruka Ayase
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