Samurai Reincarnation (1981) [Film Review]

Samurai Reincarnation; or, Sonny Chiba vs. Evil Samurai Spirits from Hell!

      Master Jubei, if you encounter God, God will be cut. If you encounter an evil spirit then it will be cut. This... this is the greatest sword ever made by Muramasa.

When the leader of a group of slaughtered Japanese Catholics comes back to life as a demon and assembles the team of the most badass dead samurai in order to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate and plunge Japan into raging chaos, you know there is nobody else to call than Sonny Chiba himself.

Release Info

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku Starring: Sonny Chiba, Kenji Sawada, Tomisaburo Wakayama, Ken Ogata
Language: Japanese Original Title: 魔界転生 Runtime: 120 min

Synopsis

The movie starts with the crush of the real Shimabara Rebellion in the 17th century, during the Edo Period. Thirty-seven thousand peasant Catholics rebelled in the name of religious freedom but the Shogunate army quickly besieged and massacred them at Hara Caste. The Christian leader Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada) was beheaded and his severed head was put on public display outside the castle. However, due to evil forces, he comes back to life in order to avenge his people. He renounces God and embraces Satan as his true deity instead; which gives him supernatural powers. In this way, Shiro travels through Japan recruiting the most powerful samurai at their deathbeds, so they could help him kill the shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna (Noboru Matsuhashi). In order to stop the vicious demons, an honourable samurai with an eyepatch, Jubei Yagyu (Sonny Chiba) sets off on a journey to hunt them down and kill once and for all.

Resurrection from Hell

The movie is based on a novel by Futaro Yamada called Makai Tensho and the author devised probably one of the finest pieces of historical fiction. Yes, the story of samurai demons trying to take over Japan sounds interesting in itself (most especially for those who played the game Throne of Darkness fifteen years ago), but the real awesome thing in this movie is that there are only real historical figures in it. The Demonic team consists of: Amakusa Shiro (a Christian leader), Lady Hosokawa (a female samurai), Inshun Hozoin (a priest and a master of spearmanship), Musashi Miyamoto (obviously, the best samurai who ever lived), and Munenori Yagyu (a retainer of the Tokugawa house). Whereas “Team Salvation” includes Jubei Yagyu (son of Munenori and one of the most recognisable samurai in popular culture), Muramasa (a famous swordsmith who was allegedly able to make “wicked swords” that could defeat demons), and Otsu (daughter of Musashi’s wife).

Now that is a lot of characters for one story, but the movie tends to focus predominantly on the demons rather than on the good guys. The whole process of recruiting the fallen samurai and getting to know their back stories consumes the first half of the picture. The second half, on the other hand, centres on the demons' attempts to destroy the Shogunate and Jubei’s preparations to confront them. Nevertheless, it is still highly interesting to watch this film, mostly due to the fact that the only true villain in the story is Amakusa Shiro who deceived the restless souls of fellow samurai. Due to the leader’s sick manipulations we get to know that the rest of the baddies simply want to fulfill their hidden desires which they did not manage to do during their lifetimes.

Needless to say, all of the fights starting from Shiro’s slaughter of the troops and finishing on the final epic confrontation in the burning Edo Castle are awesome and Sonny Chiba definitely displays some kick-ass sword skills. The only disappointing thing may be the score. It is really bland and does not fit into the dark tone of the film. Apart from this issue, the ending seems a bit rushed, as if the makers for some reason decided to cut out the concluding scene. Nevertheless, these things do not really disrupt the reception of the movie.

Recommendations

If you want to enjoy this film, I suggest you watch it with zero expectations. Samurai Reincarnation may not be one of the chanbara classics with Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai, but it is certainly one of the highlights from the period in which this particular genre started losing popularity in Japanese cinema. Plus, if you like Sonny Chiba, the film is definitely worth watching.

Overall score: 7/10