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Released by: Optimum
Released on: September 19, 2005
Director: Mitusmeaa Saito
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Haruki Kadokawa, Hiroshi Kamayatsu, Jun Eto, Toshitaka Ito
Year: 1979
The Movie:
War movies, samurai movies and time travel movies have all long been genre staples but to the best of my knowledge, 1979's G. I. Samurai (a.k.a. Time Slip) is the only film to combine all three of those elements into one single film.
Directed by Mitsumasa Saito (who also directed Chiba in Black Magic Wars), the film follows Yoshiaki Iba (Sonny Chiba) and his modern day battalion of Japanese soldiers, complete with jeeps, tanks, and modern weaponry, who travel back through time to feudal times where they come up against an army of samurai.
Iba is forced to keep a cool head and retain control of his soldiers, but a sneaky samurai named Kagatore (Isao Natsuki) sees these modern day warriors as his chance at the big time and he conspires to team up with them so that he can use their weapons against the current reigning shogun.
Though Kagatore seems to be on the up and up about all of this, and promises to help the men find their way back to their proper place in the time slip, there's something about him that Iba can't quite put his finger on - something suspicious.
Released in North American in a version forty minutes shorter than it's Japanese counterpart, G. I. Samurai has always had a reputation as a fairly goofy film in genre circles. Seeing it in its native language and in its original aspect ratio and at its full length makes all the difference in the world for this film though, and the battle scenes in particular really shine through on this DVD. Yeah, it's true that the story is pretty far fetched and maybe a few of the actors overdo it in a scene or two, but hey, war is Hell, right? When Iba and his men are forced to stand against an entire army of samurai you know it's going to hit the fan and when it does, boy howdy, it's a doozy.
Cinematography, sets and costumes are all handled well, and seeing the samurai alongside the modern day soldiers makes for an interesting visual contrast. Chiba does a solid job in the lead, as does Natsuki.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Optimum Release looks miles above the fullframe Visual Entertainment VHS release from the mid 90s, Adness' full-length version of G. I. Samurai is presented in its original 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. The colors look a little brighter than the domestic release which is a bonus. The source material used for this transfer looks to have been in very nice shape as there isn't any major print damage worth complaining about and while there is a bit of grain, it's very natural looking. Mpeg compression artifacts are not a problem and edge enhancement is kept to a minimum. Seeing the film in its proper aspect ratio really brings the battle scenes to life and gives the movie a much more epic scope.
The Japanese language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is fine and free of any major problems. There's some shrillness in the high end in a couple of spots and one or two scenes that are a little on the flat side but I'm really nit picking on this one. For the most part, the disc sounds just fine and while the mix isn't going to blow anyone's ass out the backdoor of your home theater, it'll do the trick. Sadly, the English language dub that was on the US VHS home video release has not been included, but the Japanese dub is far superior (it'd have been nice to have it for the sake of completion).
Aside from a pretty decent Sonny Chiba biography, there are trailers for The Street Fighter, Return Of The Street Fighter, Street Fighter's Last Revenge, The Killing Machine, Yakuza Deka, Yakuza Deka: The Assassin, The Bullet Train, Golgo 13: Assignment Kowlooon, and G.I. Samurai (aka Time Slip). There's also a small gallery of Japanese poster art for most of the aforementioned films as well. It's regrettable that Optimum either chose not to or was unable to provide both versions of the film. While the longer Japanese cut of the movie is far superior, die hard fans will want to hold on to both versions because we're anal and strange like that.
The Final Word:
Would I have liked to have seen both cuts of the film on this DVD for the sake of posterity? You betcha. But Optimum have supplied the superior full length Japanese cut and if you've got to chose one, this is the one to go with. The audio and video on G. I. Samurai are both very nice and despite the repetition of the extra features, this is one to look out for if you're a Chiba fan in R2 land.