Chiba Check-Up Vol. 1: G.I. Samurai (1979)

Starring: Chiba Sonny, Natsuyagi Isao, Kadokawa Haruki, Yakushimaru Hiroko (as the young samurai), Sanada Hiroyuki, and Ono Miyuki. Director: Saito Kosei. Writer: Kamata Toshio (film), Hanmura Ryo (novel).

Loyal readers, I have some bad news for you. I claim to be an a fan of Japanese Cult, nay, Japanese Cinema but my history with Mr. Sonny Chiba is severely lacking. I'm a fraud, liar, and most importantly missing out on some real gems. So, to correct my blunder, I'm dedicating the next series of reviews to fix my Chiba deficiencies with a #ChibaCheckUp. The first (that means, yes, there will be more down the road) will be 4 randomly selected Chiba titles. By random, I mean, a 4 pack DVD I own with the following films: G.I. Samurai, Resurrection of Golden Wolf, Ninja Wars, and Legend of the Eight Samurai. Just like with my podcast (High and Low: A Kurosawa Podcast), I start with the longest film, G.I. Samurai. If this is any forerunner of the series, I am in for a real motherfuckin' treat this summer.

Sonny Chiba should be familiar to anyone reading this, if not, here's a quick refresher. He is Japan's Bruce Lee in the simplest terms. A master martial artist with actual acting ability and a down-to-earth charisma that really made him not just a box office sensation but an icon of Japanese Cinema. Albeit, the more commercial and populous side of it. He is no Tatsuya Nakadai or Yoshio Harada but he still is an integral part of Japanese Cinema to understand, appreciate, and explore. The philosophical flair and meditative qualities of Bruce Lee are not present in Chiba as an actor. He is closer to a feral animal than a Buddhist monk. He took roles that were rougher, meaner, and outright more violent anything you'd have seen prior. This was no 'just another' martial artist turned actor though, he had the chops (pun intended) to actually lift a film from smutty trash of the week into 'this is a real movie'. The action/martial arts genre was a new animal to be tamed and conquered, Sonny Chiba was the first and only one who could take things up to the next level.

I'm starting out #ChibaCheckUp Vol. 1 on a strange note. As mentioned above, G.I. Samurai aka Time Slip aka Sengoku Jieitai is an outlier. This is not a mere action flick, it's a time travel movie. It's not just a time travel movie though, it's an epic action film where you see Sonny Chiba be a master of modern weapons, old school weapons, and hand to hand combat. He's a Gary Sue but that isn't the point and more importantly, who cares.

Starting in modern (1970s) Japan, a collection of Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops ranging from a armed jeeps, a tank, helicopter, and boat along with 21 men meetup on a beach and something strange happens. They go back to the warring states period...400 Years Ago! The exact reason is never explained but they're stuck for the time being. Before they can even comprehend the where and why, a squadron of archers attacks. It's cut short after using their modern guns. The Daimyo Kagetora Nagao of the Uesugi Clan investigates. He falls in love with the destructive steel weapons, the possibilites of warfare, and the commander himself Iba Yoshiaki (played by Chiba). Iba initially, dismayed by the bloodlust in Kagetora, plays along. Kagetora learns how to fire a mounted machine gun. The passion and fury in his cackles are both childlike and scary. He leaves with his men but as soon they do his rival clan, Shingen, attacks with aquatic archers that were seemingly holding their breath for hours or even days. A few SDF men die before Iba manages to kill the archers with a single grenade.

The Shingen assault continues, but Kagetora swoops in and unleashes his fury. The SDF watch in terror and awe as Kagetora beheads a rival Daimyo. He offers Iba a spot as co-leader if they can kill Shingen. He is uneasy and declines for now. The SDF guys each deal with this in various ways. Some are still in denial and others just assume that they will never see their families again. There's the bad boy Kano Koji (played by Kawarazaki Kenzo), he just wants to kill, fuck, and conquer. He takes a small faction of like-minded men, weapons, and the boat. They go off and raid local villages, taking food and women. Iba finds him eventually and has him picked off with their best sniper. A few men run off to figure out a way back home. One dies. Another soldier runs off with a local woman and helps her family. Kagetora and Iba start to flirt via training together, riding horses shirtless, hanging out on the beach, etc. Iba eventually agrees to help his new lover.

The SDF agrees to tackle the most difficult part of Kagetora's plan against Shingen, a frontal castle assault. A nearly endless wave of Shingen troops are ready for the vehicles and tanks and helicopter. In an exhaustively long sequence we see Iba and his men just barely survive, concluding with Iba beheading Shingen. All the vehicles are destroyed and he's down over half his men from the start. Kagetora no longer needs Iba to be co-leader with him so the other Daimyos want him dead. Kagetora agrees to kill his lover. In a last stand, the remaining soldiers don't like what's happened to Iba but it's too late. They are shot up with arrows except the loner who left and joined that small family.

You might be thinking this sounds like a lesser Seven Samurai (with a little bit of Yojimbo, Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, and Sanjuro) and in broad strokes it is. Seven Samurai is a perfect film with pitch perfect action set pieces, perfect pacing, perfect etc, etc. That's the biggest downfall of G.I. Samurai. Whether or not, if it was intentionally pitched as Seven Samurai  but with time travel and machine guns. There is no escaping the shadow one of the greatest films by one of the greatest directors.

It's based on a novel by the beloved Japanese Speculative author, Hanmura Ryo. He had a flair for the grand and epic which this adaptation truly delivers on. Each action piece has a gigantic feel - you can see the full range of battlefield, the geography makes sense, you fully understand the capabilities of the warriors, you know the limits of what can and cannot happen. Saito took the correct lessons from Kurosawa when crafting  every battle. Every soldier has a set of specific skills much like a certain Neeson. They each get a chance to shine and blast some hordes of samurai. Saito makes it a point to show how the things work - before we get the aquatic archer sequence, Kagetora learns how to use a machine gun which then gets used the archer assault. Instead of just using this machine gun and solely that, there's a twist. Things get amped up, there are too many and Iba (Chiba) uses a single grenade to take them out. This motif gets reused throughout and Saito figures out a way always make it fresher and more chaotic every time.

Chiba's charismatic charm elevates every moment he's on screen. Even in the bloody maelstrom, when you see an endless horde of samurai attempt to kill Iba and his men, that charisma gives you the slightest sense of hope. In the beginning, Iba is trying to be moral and upright. His goal is simple, keeping his men sane and safe. All that changes once a certain man enters his life...Kagetora. He takes the traditional female role of the new temptress. Kagetora's lust for power is only equaled by his lust for Iba. They have an elongated montage set to extremely romantic music. If Kagetora was a woman, they'd fuck in that scenario. They trade clothes, ride horses, and there's a lot of shots of wild waves crashing onto the beach. This is Roman Porno levels of fucking hidden in this montage. Their sexual tension is dense, thicc and thristy. It's shocking how homoerotic their relationship turns in the middle act. I never thought I'd see a Japanese movie of this era that can almost match the homo-eroticism of Funeral Parade of Roses. This only makes me wonder, how aware were Chiba and Natsuyagi. Both are very striking men with good looks to boot. This coupling in the film turns dark by the end. Lust for power is stronger than regular ol' lust. Natsuyagi and Chiba's charisma combined is nearly as powerful as a single Nakadai or Mifune, but not quite.

On the outset, it appears as just another war movie for dudes and dads but it isn't that entirely. Much like a lot of action cinema, G.I. is critical of masculinity and violence while fully embracing masculinity and violence. It's messy. Time travel is an excuse to force protagonists into an inescapable situation. In this case, sending soldiers back in time that presumably have not had any real combat experience. The SDF is just that a self-defense force. Thus, they can only actually fight and kill if invaded and last I checked Japan was not invaded in the 60s or 70s. So these greens are forced into a situation where they have to fight to survive in one of Japan's most unstable times, the Warring States period. You had no allies unless some future men with future weapons show up.

Each modern soldier handles actual combat drastically differently. It ranges from extremely uneasy after killing someone (who could easily be an ancestor) to being deadened and detached. The group that goes rogue plan on living the rest of their days as pirates raping and pillaging. They are so enthralled after killing that it unlocks something primal. They can do whatever they want to whoever they want. In their wake, you see some very Vietnam-inspired destruction leading to them. This is no accidental nod. War is awful. Violence is worse. This is the only violence we don't see. The annihilation of defenseless people. However, that whole segment feels out of place. With the anachronistic jidaigeki and chanbara action sandwich, the despair in it just confuses the message. If violence is so terrible, then how you celebrate it at the same time. In the climatic battle that lasts 30 minutes, you see the complete mental breakdown of the modern men as they slowly lose their advantage. They underestimated their enemy. Those men live war. Technology is only as useful as the user has access to it. Foolishly, they assumed that a tank and helicopter would scare them away. If you're fighting for survival, that means you figure that shit out to live another day. Much like the Battles Without Honor And Humanity series, this film examines the extreme end of masculinity. The cycle of violence continues because of insecure men trying to prove themselves. The outcome is never positive, even for the winner. We like to think it isn't the case but large scale and organized violence is rooted in this.

The Kurosawa send-ups are very clear if you're familiar with the Master's filmography. I won't point them out, if you want to know seek out Kurosawa's work. Or just watch Kurosawa because it's Kurosawa. It should be noted that there are a few different adaptations that followed this one - Sengoku Jietai - 1549 (2005) and Sengoku Jietai: Sekigahara no Tatakai (2006, 4-episode mini series). I have not seen either but they may make appearances later.

This is not a perfect film by any stretch but it is well worth seeing for Chiba and Natsuyagi onscreen chemistry, epic action, and just a good "dad" war movie. It tries to say something about violence while being delightfully violent. Don't expect the time travel to matter that much, it never does. It is on DVD, no Blu-Ray yet (Arrow, this perfect for you and Chiba is still alive).