G.I. Samurai

1979 [JAPANESE]

Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50%
IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 1280 1.3K

japan samurai helicopter time warp time travel tank

Plot summary

A squadron of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers find themselves transported through time to their country's warring states era, when rival samurai clans were battling to become the supreme Shogun.

Director

Kôsei Saitô Photo
Kôsei Saitô

Top cast

Hiroyuki Sanada Photo
Hiroyuki Sanada as Takeda Katsuyori
Yoichi Miura Photo
Yoichi Miura as Manabu Nonaka
Hiroshi Katsuno Photo
Hiroshi Katsuno as Track Coach
Moeko Ezawa Photo
Moeko Ezawa as Widow Yui
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.24 GB
1280*692
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
2 hr 18 min
Seeds 1
2.55 GB
1920*1038
Japanese 5.1
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
2 hr 18 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Jeremy_Urquhart 7 / 10

Ridiculous and mostly fun.

High concept movies don't get much higher in concept than G. I. Samurai, which is about a group of military personnel and their equipment getting transported back in time 100s of years, to samurai times. Once there, they get involved in a great many battles and ridiculous action ensues, especially for what feels like most of the second half.At 140 minutes, I feel like it's way too long. There are also some uncomfortable/awkward moments here and there that soured things a little. But at the same time, I enjoyed quite a lot of it, and I liked how gonzo it was. It found a good deal of things to do with the wild premise at hand, and in that way, it definitely didn't feel like a waste or a missed opportunity.
Reviewed by arminhage 6 / 10

Awesome movie partially ruined with cheesy screenplay

The battle sequence which comprises almost half of the movie is breathtaking, it can't be better than that, no one in Hollywood can claim that he or she can create something better however the movie suffered from some facts.1. A battle group travels in time for unknown reason. I can buy that. You can give the audience every possible "Make sense" fact for the time travel but at the end, time travel is still considered a myth and no one knows if it's even possible, some argue it's not as we had no visitors from the future in the known well documented history so not giving the audience any fact for time travel is not really a problem. It just happened. It's OK.2.Iba suppressed the mutiny and regained control of the patrol boat. Then he made the most ridiculous and insane move. He blew the boat. Even if he had no use for the boat, he had to keep so he can use the diesel in the tank and tucks, yet he blew the boat with all the fuel and I assume with everything inside it including the ammo.3. It is a known fact that tanks are short range vehicles. You can't just marsh half of the country with a tank in single tank of fuel. It is just impossible. In the beginning we see that they just march with the tank back and forth (wasting the fuel) and then marching with the tank to the battle. Even by 1940s standard, that was just ridiculous.4. Same thing goes with the helicopter. Helicopters do not fly on nuclear fuel, they run on gas and they are not a regional passenger jet. Again we see that he flies the copter just to show off like there is no future.5. They waste ammo just to show off!6. Iba marches with the entire battle group without protecting his rear. Japan is not a big country. He had to save the patrol boat for escape and if he wanted march, he had to do it along the coast line so at least he had protected back. Coming from the future, he had the precise map of Japan's coast line so he could find a strategic peninsula, secured from 3 sides with water and gun boat and entrench on the land connection, try to lure the enemy to his position. Of course if they wanted to play it right, they had to re wright the whole screenplay but considering the insane effort they put into creating such awesome battle sequence, it was worth it. This movie had the potential of being a cinematic epic/classic.7. So he marches inland with his battle group which in reality suffered from shortage of ammo an fuel with absolutely no supply line. They got encircled and... It was very well made. They lost everything. Historically such thing happened in WWII when Germans sneaked into soviet line to Stalingrad and everyone knows the outcome. No army commander sneaks into enemy line without having a solid and well protected supply line unless he is on suicide mission! So, aside from some entertainment factor, the movie was a total disaster.Soundtrack was good except for the fact that the Japanese singer was singing the mix of English and Japanese... Whenever I heard a song, I wanted to hit my head to the wall.Overall the concept was good, we saw the concept in several western movies like the "Timeline" and I bet we will continue to see more movies based on similar concept in the future. I would say 6/10. The production was so good that I can not downgrade the movie as much as I like.
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