I was never as versed in Sonny Chiba as I am in the Hong Kong martial artists. I watched the Street Fighter movies after True Romance, and I’ve since caught up on Karate Bullfighter and some of the other collections boutique labels have released, but he was more prolific than I’ve been. G.I. Samurai isn’t a karate movie but it’s a fun one.
Chiba plays the lieutenant of a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force whose squad gets transported back in time to the samurai days. It’s a more even match than you think. The bow and arrow is surprisingly effective against a tank when they can take out any gunner that goes for the turret. These battles are all crowds of stuntmen getting bazooka’ed off their horses.
Arrow’s 4K, from a 2022 restoration, shows the beautiful Fukushima, Miyagi and Fukui locations in 4K clarity. There is a beach and forest, with some flashbacks to the characters’ modern day lives they left behind. Green is the primary color in the forest scenes, and campfires light up deep, pure night skies.
You can choose between original mono, 4.1 or 5.1 and the latter has birds flapping, arrows whizzing and explosions echoing in the rear. Helicopters fly over too. The disc also offers an English dub of the uncut film, but the voices are very American so the incongruity is jarring.
In their new commentary, Samm Deighan and Tom Mes relate the history of Japan and the JGSFD to how transporting them to the past unlocks suppressed violence.
Three critical appreciations cover Chiba doing a non martial arts movie, Japan’s perspective on war and even the influence of American Graffiti
A lot of the cast were interviewed for the 2005 DVD and that’s the real behind-the-scenes feature. They all have vivid emotional memories and the spirit of a happy reunion. Even the ones who recorded separately send messages to each other via the DVD extras. Chiba demonstrates with a sword before his interview. They also found the tank in ’05. Wonder if that owner still has it.