Legend of the Eight Samurai


Legend of the Eight Samurai is a 1983 Japanese historical martial arts fantasy film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The script is adapted from Toshio Kamata's 1982 novel Shin Satomi Hakkenden, a loose reworking of the epic serial Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin.

Synopsis

The story follows Princess Shizu, her family slain and on the run from her enemies. As she escapes she is found by the vagabond Shinbei, before being rescued from her pursuers by Dōsetsu. He tells her the legend of a curse on her family, and of eight beads that identify eight dog-warriors who can lift it, of which he and his companion are two. To defeat the evil queen Tamazusa who killed her family, they must find all eight. But Shinbei hears of Princess Shizu's identity, and vows to collect the reward for capturing her.

Cast

Miniatures StaffSpecial Effects Research Laboratory
Practical Effects
Art
Photography
Production
Lighting
Assistant Director
Scripter Girl
Device
Gunpowder
Photography Assistant
Lighting Assistant		Subaru Suzuki, Eiji Shirakuma
Tetsuzo Osawa, Yuji Matsubara
Masachi Takahashi
Yutaka Suzuki
Yoji Okamoto
Yoshihiro Tomamechi
Yasuko Nakano
Nobuo Kajitani, Hatsuo Ozawa
Ohira Gunpowder
Masamichi Hori, Takeshi Kitamura, Junji Ama, Yosaku Shimizu
Shogo Senbon, Shoichi Mera, Isao Hayashi
VFX CrewDen Film Effects
Toho Visual & Art
Video CompositingHigashidori ECG System
Visual Effects
Optical Photography
Special Effects Supervisor		Minoru Nakano, Takeshi Miyanishi
Hiroshi Onodera, Akira Furuyama, Koichi Sugizawa
Kazuo Sagawa
System Manager
Technical Director
System Engineer
Camera
VTR		Hiroshi Yamamoto
Takao Shimazaki
Taichi Miyamoto
Hiroshi Kondo
Ryo Maeoka

Production

Adaptation

The film preserves little of the plot or characterization, and none of the feel of the Bakin original. Instead it builds on the basic template – collecting a band of warriors together to accomplish a task, better known from films such as Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. While some of the back story and key elements like the beads remain, even the eight dog brothers are substantially changed, to the extent of Keno's feminine disguise becoming actual womanhood.

Effects

Fantastical elements in the film are brought to life with a combination of props, wire work, and post-production special effects. While the best of these like the eight glowing beads work well, others such as the rubber giant flying snake have aged less gracefully. The film version maintains the ero-guro elements of Kamata's book, including a nude blood-bathing rejuvenation scene.

Score

The colorful film score features a mixture of synthesizers and "real" strings produced by Nobody, and a couple of power ballads performed by John O'Banion: Satomi Hakkenden, composed by Joey Carbone and written by Kathi Pinto, and Hakkenshi no Tēma , composed by Joey Carbone and Richie Zito, written by David Palmer. An LP of the music was released by Eastworld, product id WTP-90258.

Reception

Legend of the Eight Samurai was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1984, earning ¥2.3 billion in distribution income.

Versions

Various English releases have been sold since the 1980s under the title Legend of the Eight Samurai, or Legend of Eight Samurai. An English dubbed version was released with some script modifications; and in 2005 an uncut, English subtitled version of the film was released. In 2012 the film was released on Blu-ray in Japan as part of the "Kadokawa Blu-ray Collection". On May 5, 2005, Digiview Entertainment released the English dub version of the film on DVD. It was on sale for $1, in many places like Wal-Mart, Dollar Store, etc.

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