G.I. Samurai

Infobox Film
name = G.I. Samurai


caption =
director = Kōsei Saitō
producer = Haruki Kadokawa, Takeshi Motomura
writer = Ryo Hanmura (novel), Toshio Kamata
starring = Sonny Chiba, Jun Eto, Toshitaka Ito, Haruki Kadokawa
music = Kentaro Haneda
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Toho
released = 1979
runtime = 139 min.
country = Japan
language = Japanese
budget = $9,000,000
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0083050

nihongo|"G.I. Samurai"|戦国自衛隊|Sengoku jieitai (Time Slip) and Sengoku Self Defense Force is a 1979 Japanese feature length film focusing on the adventures of a modern day Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) element that accidentally manages to travel to the nihongo|Warring States period|戦国時代|Sengoku jidai of Japanese history. The film stars Japanese cult actor Sonny Chiba and was based on a novel by Ryo Hanmura, a well-known writer of historical novels and science fiction.

Plot

On their way to a maneuver, a wildly mixed group of Japanese soldiers with a tank, an APC, a patrol boat and a helicopter suddenly find themselves stranded 400 years in the past and under attack by samurai forces. Their designated leader, Lieutenant Yoshiaki Iba (Sonny Chiba), befriends and joins forces with Nagao Kagetora, the war leader of lord Koizumi. Seeing the stranded soldiers' war machinery in action, Kagetora persuades Iba to aid him in his struggle for supremacy in Japan.

In the meantime, however, Iba finds himself facing the desperation of his men who want to return to their own time. Some make contact with the locals - one of the soldiers, Mimura, even finds himself a consort who keeps following him - whilst others freak out, running away in a desperate attempt to return home, or rebelling against rules and restrictions and try to live a pirate's life. Finally, his force shrunk from 21 men to 11, Iba manages to calm his troops by telling them that by fighting history and thus creating a time paradox they might be able to return home. Iba joins Kagetora and fights by his side.

Finally, Iba and the soldiers face Takeda Shingen's forces in battle. But their trust in their advanced weaponry costs them dearly: Shingen's forces outmaneouver them at every turn, the soldiers lose all their vehicles and major weapons, and five of them die on the battlefield. In a desperate attempt, Iba forces his way to Shingen's command post and kills him in a sword duel.

As Iba and his remaining men go to join Kagetora in Kyoto, the latter is put under pressure by his family and the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to get rid of Iba. Reluctantly conceding, Kagetora intercepts Iba's group at an old temple. But as Iba prepares to kill Kagetora for his betrayal, he is killed an M1 Carbine used by his foe. The other soldiers are killed by Kagetora's archers, and Mimura's consort delivers the coup-de-grace to her lover. Kagetora shows remorse by burying Iba and his men with all due honors. In the end, only one of the soldiers survives, who had left the group to help a boy and his family, whose father had been killed.

Cast

Shōwa period characters

* Sonny Chiba: Second Lieutenant Yoshiaki Iba
* Mancho Tsuji: Ensign Shōichirō Ono
* Raita Ryu: Haruhisa Kimura
* Shinichiro Mikami: Goichi Shimada
* Tadashi Kato: Sergeant First Class Hideo Shimizu
* Tsunehiko Watase: Hayato Yano
* Hiroshi Kamayatsu: Mokichi Nemoto
* Jinya Sato: Osamu Seki
* Kokontei Shinkoma: Kenji Hori
* Jun Eto: Ken Nobuhiko
* Yoichi Miura: Manabu Nonaka
* Akira Nishikino: Koji Kikuchi
* Hiromitsu Suzuki: Gō Nishizawa
* Koji Naka: Taisuke Mimura
* Ryo Hayami: Kazumichi Morishita
* Takuzo Kadono: Seaman 1st Class Toshishige Suga
* Isao Kuraishi: Masao Maruoka
* Kenzo Kawarazaki: Koji Kano
* Ken Takahashi: Masayoshi Hirai
* Akihiro Shimizu: Satoshi Ōnishi
* Toshitaka Ito: Seaman 1st Class Harumi Takashima
* Nana Okada: Kazuko Arai
* Hiroshi Katsuno: Track Coach

Sengoku period characters

* Isao Natsuyagi: Nagao Kagetora
* Haruki Kadokawa: Sanada Masayuki
* Hitoshi Omae: Kuribayashi Magoichi
* Kentaro Kudo: Ishiba Takehide
* Katsumasa Uchida: Asaba Yorichika
* Goro Kataoka: Tategawa Katsuzō
* Asao Koike: Koizumi Yukinaga
* Shin Kishida: Naoe Bungo
* Hirohisa Nakata: Kuroda Naoharu
* Hiroshi Tanaka: Takeda Shingen
* Hiroyuki Sanada: Takeda Katsuyori
* Hiroko Yakushimaru: Young Takeda Samurai
* Gajiro Sato: Foot Soldier
* Mikio Narita: Kōsa
* Mizuho Suzuki: Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki
* Masashi Ishibashi: Hosokawa Fujitaka
* Miyuki Ono: Miwa
* Masao Kusakari: Masakichi
* Ryudo Uzaki: Ochimusha
* Ayako Honma: Old Woman
* Koji Iizuka: Shokichi
* Maiko Ōtsuka: Mai
* Kaori Taniguchi: Shokichi & Mai's Mother
* Noboru Nakaya: Yoshitaka Kujo
* Moeko Ezawa: Widow Yui

Trivia

*Initially, the producers approached the JGSDF for props and vehicles, but they cut their support after reading that soldiers go AWOL in the script. For that reason, old and sometimes out-dated equipment (like M3 submachine guns) had to be used. The tank featured in the movie was even built entirely from scratch.
*The vehicles, including a tank and a helicopter, continue to run despite there being no replenishing fuel supply in the 16th century - a logical problem which was resolved in the remake.
*Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada has a minor role as Shingen's samurai son who boards the helicopter and kills its crew.
*Hiroko Yakushimaru, Japanese actor and singer, has a minor character appearance as a young Samurai who is killed by JGSDF member Seki with a handgun during the great battlefield scene.

Adaptations

*A film remake in 2005 was titled "Sengoku Jieitai 1549".
*A 4-episode series called was aired in 2006 by NTV.

Name of the movie in other languages

*Spanish: "En Eclipse El Tiempo"
*Croatian: "Vrijeme je stalo u 5 i 18"
*Norwegian: "Tidsstorm"

External links

*imdb title|id=0083050|title=Sengoku Jieitai

References

* [http://jssdf518.hp.infoseek.co.jp/index.html 戦国自衛隊・非公式サイト]