Legend of the Eight Samurai – review

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Release date: 1983

Contains spoilers

My thanks to Ian, who contacted me suggesting that this Japanese film might be worthy of a ‘Vamp or Not?’ As you can see, I didn’t go down that line as this turned out to be a film with a definite vampire. It has moments that are very eighties (particularly in the soundtrack) but it was based loosely on the novel Shin Satomi Hakkenden by Toshio Kamata, itself based on the 19th Century serial by Kyokutei Bakin, Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. It also owes a debt to Star Wars, if I’m honest, despite being a period film.

at the foot of the castle

It starts with an army that has taken the castle of the Satomi clan. The leaders of the army are Tamazusa (Mari Natsuki) and her son Motofuji (Yūki Meguro) and they are presented with the heads of the Satomi family – one is missing, the head of Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru). The film follows the attempt to get her, whilst she (as the subject of a prophecy) searches for eight dog warriors destined to help her defeat Tamazuma and remove the curse on Shizu’s familial line.

Shizu escaoes

The ins and out of the plot are not as important, from a TMtV point of view, as the vampirism and this centres on Tamazusa and Motofuji. Tamazusa was Lady of the castle 100 years before but the Satomi looked to overthrow their tyranny and decadence, killed the Lord and set fire to the castle, which killed Tamazusa and Motofuji – they being undead now – and killed a baby son who did not survive. Burnt, Motofuji has been replacing his skin with the soft white skin of princesses – the final patch reserved for Shizu. Using skin in this way isn’t common but does occasionally appear as a trope, for instance in the film Replace.

blood bathing

As for Tamazusa, when we first see her she uses a chalice of blood to awaken a (demonic, presumably) statue, which is named Mitama and is the source of their power it seems. However, that Chalice then becomes centrepiece of a bath of blood. Part way through the film an attempt to take Shizu fails but Tamazusa is still close by when Shizu takes her four (at that point) companions’ glowing orbs. These are orbs, representing a virtue, that they have mostly had from birth and denotes them as dog warriors. The four orbs glow in her hand and the light spreads outwards damaging Tamazusa, causing her to age. The withered and bent queen returns to the castle and submerges herself in the blood bath, emerging young again. As well as bathing, she drinks some of the blood. It is very reminiscent of Erzsébet Báthory but it is not clear as to whether there was an influence on the filmmakers or if this is coincidental.

dying vampire

There is a strong hint of an incestual relationship between mother and son, and when she later finds the adult reincarnation of her baby, the first thing she seems to do is stuff his hand down her top – to feel her heartbeat! The last thing to mention is the way they die (not a spoiler, you must have known good would triumph over evil). This is via a magic, glowing bow; just being bashed with it for Motofuji, and being shot through the chest for Tamazusa, the arrow also hitting into Mitama (the sentient statue) also. In both cases they rapidly age to mummified husks, which is, of course, a primary genre trope. The destruction of Mitama causes the castle to fall, which is reminiscent of the rejected ending of Dracula.

Shizu with the magic bow

The film was really good fun, an epic in feudal Japan with a fully supernatural/fantasy aspect underpinning the setting. The effects were good and some of the epic shots, like the army at the castle at the head of the film, were magnificent. The whole blood bathing section was wonderfully photographed. If I have a major irk it was the soundtrack. There was a tendency to having synths on fantasy films in the 80s and it didn’t work for me at the time. I could have lived with it here, especially as there is some balance with strings. But the two John O'Banion (English language lyric) power ballads, oh my word they were poor. I am tempted to say that the track Satomi Hakken-Den, played over a love scene, was more misplaced than Strange Love in Lust for a Vampire - and that’s saying something. Nevertheless, still a great film despite this, 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK