Legend of the Eight Samurai

Legend of the Eight Samurai (里見八犬伝, Satomi Hakken-den) 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 (新・里見八犬伝), a loose reworking of the epic serial Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin.[1][2]

Legend of the Eight Samurai
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKinji Fukasaku
Produced byHaruki Kadokawa
Written byToshio Kamata
Kinji Fukasaku
StarringHiroko Yakushimaru
Hiroyuki Sanada
Sonny Chiba
Music byJohn O'Banion
  • I Don't Want This Night To End
  • Hakkenshi's Theme (White Light)
CinematographySeizō Sengen
Distributed byToei
Release date
December 10, 1983 (Japan)
Running time
136 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Synopsis

The story follows Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru), her family slain and on the run from her enemies. As she escapes she is found by the vagabond Shinbei (Hiroyuki Sanada), before being rescued from her pursuers by Dōsetsu (Sonny Chiba). 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 (Mari Natsuki) 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

Staff

Producers

Original Work, Written and Directed by

Haruki Kadokawa, Masao Sato, Hiroshi Sugawara, Izumi Toyoshima

Toshio Kamata, Kinji Fukasaku

Photography Seizo Sendamoto
Art Director

Lighting

Sound

Editor

Assistant Director

Kudo

Scripter

Riki Imamura

Mitsuo Watanabe

Teruhiko Arakawa

Isamu Ichida

Yoshinori Matsunaga

Toshio Sugawara

Misae Tanaka

Assistants to the Crew Ichiro Higa

Minoru Danjo

Kiyoshi Suzuki

Teruyuki Tamura

Katsumi Yanagishima

Akira Yamamoto

Yuji Tanaka

Kiyomi Yamagishi

Norihiko Kuroda

Motoichi Ichikawa

Takashi Yamazaki

Muteo Komine

Akira Ono

Hidemitsu Yamazaki

Kyoko Beya

Seiichi Yamazaki

Masayuki Tanaka

Masakazu Takami

Miho Tamura

Art

Sound Effects

Akira Takahashi

Minoru Nagata

Apparatus

Decoration

Backgrounds

Costume

Beauty

Haircut

Stills

Acting Affairs

Progress

Kimihisa Miura, Junkichi Wada, Eizo Kadokawa

Genzo Watanabe, Osamu Kubota, Nobumasa Ohba

Nishimura Saburo

Mamoru Mori, Ken Toyonaka, Takeshi Yamazaki

Seiichi Torii, Kiyokazu Nakamura

Riko Shiratori, Rumi Fukumoto

Issei Endo

Fumio Terauchi

Koji Takino

Dance choreography

Waraku

Whistle

Special Costumes Design

Special make

Illustration

Picture scroll making

Action setting

Propaganda

Production advertisement

Music Director

Music Producer

Original soundtrack planning and Production

Sale

Xie Sue

Toshio Nakamoto

Mikako Akao

Goda Takihide

Mayumi Nihei, Masahiro Yotsuka, Miyo Tsuda, Misato Takeuchi, Yu Ito

Nishiguchi Shiro

Makoto Nishida

JAC command, Ryo Nakamuta

Toei Western Movie Advertising Room

Kaoru Sugita

NOBODY, Masahide Sakuma, Hiroyuki Namba

Tadao Takakuwa and Hikaru Ishikawa

Kadokawa Records

Toshiba EMI

Vfx Team
Miniatures Staff Special 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 Crew Den Film Effects

Toho Visual & Art

Video Compositing Higashidori 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

Chief of Operations

Special Thanks

Film Processing

Made in Association with

Isao Nagaoka

Aso National Park Management Office, Kyoto Daikakuji

IMAGICA

Toei Kyoto Art Center

Technical Co-operation

Special Effects

Director

Filmed at

Produced by

Far East Continental Co., Ltd,

Nobuo Yajima

Kinji Fukasaku

Toei Kyoto Studio

Haruki Kadokawa Office

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 (White Light) (八剣士のテーマ), 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.[3]

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.

References

  1. "Doberman Deka". kotobank. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  2. "里見八犬伝". Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  3. "Kako haikyū shūnyū jōi sakuhin 1984-nen" (in Japanese). Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. Retrieved 4 February 2011.

Reviews


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.