From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Samurai Reincarnation
Samurai Reincarnation
Samurai Reincarnation Plot
Following the massacre of many thousands of Christians
by soldiers of the Tokugawa Empire after the Shimabara
Rebellion, Shiro Amakusa renounces the God who he
feels abandoned them, and bargains his soul to the forces
of darkness for the power to take his revenge. He gains
the power to resurrect the dead, and begins with
Hosokawa, the wife of a samurai who mocked her for her
chastity and then left her to die during the invasion. Shi-
ro restores her beauty in exchange for her loyalty. Next,
they travel to the cave of legendary swordsman Miyamo-
to Musashi, who regrets that he neglected his lovely wife
to find more opponents to duel, and that his advanced
age prevents him from challenging the one rival he con-
sidered worthy to test his technique. He initially resists
the pair, but suffers a heart attack and agrees to join
them. During this exchange, his cave is visited by Yagyu
Jubei, son of a samurai master and a powerful swords-
man in his own right. Jubei rushes to Musashi’s aid on-
ly to find an empty suit of armor. The unholy trio then
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku encounter Inshun, a Buddhist monk who is plagued with
Written by Kinji Fukasaku terrible fantasies of sex and death. Hosokawa taunts him
Tatsuo Nogami with the failings of his monastic teachings, and he com-
Futaro Yamada (original novel) mits suicide in despair, becoming one of Shiro’s undead
Starring Sonny Chiba in the process.
Kenji Sawada At a local Iga ninja village, young Kirimaru is excited
to learn that Jubei is on his way. However, before he can
Music by Hōzan Yamamoto
Mitsuaki Kanno arrive, their Tokugawa controlled rivals the Koga ninja
ambush the village with flaming arrows, killing every-
Cinematography Kiyoshi Hasegawa one except Kirimaru. He fights his way through the forest
Distributed by Toei Company against a female ninja, and is mortally wounded, but the
female ninja is assaulted by Inshun. The rest of the Koga
Release date(s) June 6, 1981
attack, but are quickly dispatched by the undead warri-
Running time 122 min ors. A dying Kirimaru is tenderly offered resurrection by
Shiro, and he accepts. Jubei returns to the village to find
Country Japan
it in shambles, and goes looking for Kirimaru. He encoun-
Language Japanese ters the undead battalion, now on horseback, and they
taunt him before leaving, promising to meet again.
Samurai Reincarnation (魔界転生 Makai Tenshō) is a 1981 In a remote shrine, Shiro chants a ritual curse to
film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Sonny Chiba. wither Tokugawa’s crops. The curse succeeds, and a des-
The film was based on the novel Makai Tensho. perate mob petition the magistrate to lift their yearly tax
The film was nominated for three ’Awards of the Ja- in light of their situation, but his samurai attempt to dri-
panese Academy’ of which it won two. Hiroyuki Sanada ve the mob away. Kirimaru comes through the forest to
won best newcomer of the year and Tokumichi Igawa and find a young girl mourning the loss of her parents; her
Yoshikazu Sano took the award for best art direction. The father was killed by one of the magistrate’s men during
film was nominated for best sound, however did not win the protest. He offers her a flower for their grave, but is
the award. overcome by remorse as she sings for them. Meanwhile,
Jubei approaches the secluded mountain home of the leg-
endary sword maker Muramasa. He is shocked to learn
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Samurai Reincarnation
that his father, Yagyu Tajima, recently approached Mura- As the peasants march, Kirimaru attempts to escape
masa to commission a sword that would not only cut hu- with his girl, but is blocked by Shiro, who reveals Kiri-
man flesh, but demonic spirits as well. Jubei wishes a sim- maru’s demonic nature. He tries to battle Shiro using his
ilar sword as well, since Muramasa was exiled by his mas- ninja training, but Shiro overcomes him with a magical
ter Masamune due to his evil nature, and only a truly evil whip that transforms into a flock of birds that strangle
sword can defeat an evil demon. However, Muramasa’s him. Jubei prepares to place Muramasa’s body on a funer-
daughter Otsu claims that making the sword for Jubei’s al pyre, when the girl brings him Kirimaru’s body as well.
father has considerably weakened the smith. Muramasa Before they can act, Musashi approaches and challenges
reveals that Otsu is actually the daughter of Musashi’s ne- Jubei to meet him on an island at sunrise for a duel. He
glected wife who he has adopted as his own. Jubei tells accepts, much to Otsu’s chagrin, and declares it to be "the
them that he wants the sword to fight against Musashi way of the sword". The following morning, he heads to
and the rest of the demons. Just then, the ground begins the beach to battle Musashi, who claims not to be swayed
to tremble as the undead Musashi approaches. Jubei bars a second time by Otsu’s flute. The two masters engage
the door, and Musashi begins to fight his way in until Ot- each other on the surf as Otsu plays a frenetic tune, until
su plays a haunting tune on her flute. Musashi recognizes Jubei finally splits Musashi’s scabbard and face in half be-
the tune and staggers off confused. fore impaling him through the heart. Musashi’s lifeless
Muramasa agrees to make the most evil blade ever to body drifts out in the tide.
help Jubei defeat the demons, and they begin construc- As the peasants’ furious uprising is advancing on the
tion. The villagers are approached by the Shogun’s men, capital, the Shogun’s advisors speculate on the future of
who read a proclamation that Tokugawa himself is com- the Empire. The dying Yagyu Tajima is approached by
ing for a lavish hunting party, and expects a high trib- Shiro about his son Jubei’s impending arrival and yields
ute in gold or servitude, nearly inciting a riot among the to Shiro’s dark influence. Revived from death by Shiro,
peasants. Shiro encounters a confused Kirimaru at the Tajima begins killing the members of the castle. Mean-
shrine, and encourages him to seduce the young girl he while, Hosokawa has called out the name of her husband
met, and to sacrifice her to their dark gods in order to in her sleep, prompting a fit of jealously from her new
shed his youthful turmoil. He attempts to force himself lover Tadoki. In the struggle, a lamp is knocked over and
on the girl by a river, but finds he cannot go through with sets the room on fire. She freaks out, drawing a weapon
it. After she runs off, Jubei appears and confronts Kiri- and running through the castle declaring that she will
maru, who begs Jubei to kill him and put him out of his not be abandoned again. She begins attacking retainers,
torment. Jubei draws his sword, however after hearing encountering Tajima who also attacks. With the building
Kirimaru singing the same song the girl did, he tells Kiri- ablaze, and Hosokawa and Tajima on a killing rampage,
maru that he is also a swordsman and thus his destiny is the whole castle is thrown into chaos. Tajima kills many
to fight. If he fights with all his ability and one day feels men and dares his son to come fight him before the
defeated by his own darkness, only then will Jubei release flames die down.
him. Jubei returns to Muramasa to continue work on his Upstairs, Hosokawa has Tadoki hostage in the fire,
sword. and Shiro reveals himself as the leader of the "Christian
During the Shogun’s hunt, a number of villagers run Believers". He condemns Tadoki to burn in agony as the
through the field to present him with a written com- Christians did. An insane Hosokawa promises to never
plaint about the taxes. Hosokawa uses her dark magic leave his side, clutching him as they both fall into the
to convince Tokugawa and the elder Yagyu that the vil- fire. As the castle collapses, Tajima is confronted by Jubei,
lagers are actually large deer, and they shoot the peas- who has covered his body with Buddhist prayer symbols
ants down with arrows. Later, the peasant bodies have and chastises his father for obsessing only on his sword-
been crucified on a hill for all the village to see, and play to the point of coming back from hell to fight his
the people begin praying loudly and clacking stones to- own son. The two begin to duel, during which Jubei loses
gether in mourning. Muramasa completes his greatest his eyepatch; although his sword is broken, he disarms
blade ever, and after telling Jubei "If you encounter God, his father and kills him. Shiro appears and offers to let
God will be cut" he collapses dead. As the villagers’ un- Jubei join him; Jubei declines and vows to set his father
easy vigil extends into the night, Shiro possesses a local and Kirimaru’s souls at peace. After a brief fight, Jubei de-
woman to tell the crowd that they can lift the curse by capitates Shiro; although this does not kill him, his body
burning Tokugawa’s men and spreading the ashes. He catches his head and promises to return as long as hu-
causes the bodies to glow, which finally incites the crowd mans have evil in their heart before melting into the
to riot, tearing down the fence and charging the samurai flames.
on the hill. They cut down as many peasants as they can
but are overwhelmed and killed. Shiro rides up and gives
the crowd the magistrate’s head on a pole, and incite
Cast
them to ride to Edo and overthrow the Shogun. • Sonny Chiba as Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Samurai Reincarnation
• Kenji Sawada as Amakusa Shiro • Chu Takatsuki as Peasant
• Tomisaburo Wakayama as Yagyū Tajimanokami • Shigeki Nakajima as Peasant
Munenori • Akira Akabane as Peasant
• Ken Ogata as Miyamoto Musashi • Takaaki Yoshizawa as Peasant
• Akiko Kana as Hosokawa Gracia • Zhèng Pú-Líng as Peasant
• Hideo Murota as Priest Inshun Hozoin • Mineko Maruhira as Peasant
• Hiroyuki Sanada as Iga no Kirimaru • Aoi Nakajima as Peasant Girl
• Tetsuro Tamba as Muramasa • Carlotta Ikeda as Ghost
• Mikio Narita as Izumori Matsudaira Nobutsuna • Takeshige Hatanaka as Samurai
• Noboru Matsuhashi as Ietsuna Tokugawa, Hosokawa • Seizo Fukumoto as Koga Ninja
Tadaoki • Ken Mikata as Noh Shite
• Jun Ōba as Yagyu Samon Tomonori • Madoka Mikata as Noh Kokata
• Etsuo Shima as Yagyū Matajūrō Munefuyu • Sojiro Tanida as Noh Waki
• Masataka Naruse as Genjuro Koga • Akira Shigeyama as Noh Ai
• Asao Uchida as Sakai Utanokami Tadayo
• Haruki Kadokawa as Itakura Naizennokami
Shigemasa
Credits
• Gōzō Sōma as Abe Bungonokami Tadaaki • Produced by Haruki Kadokawa (executive producer)
• Sen Okamichi as Hotta Bichunokami Masamori • Original Music by: Hozan Yamamoto
• Masataka Kobayashi as Toda Ujikane • Cinematography by: Kiyoshi Hasegawa
• Saburo Hayashi as Mizuno Katsushige • Film Editing by: Isamu Ichida
• Hideo Nakae as Hosokawa Tadatoshi • Production Design by: Yoshikazu Sano
• Hideo Shimada as Tachibana Muneshige • Art Direction by: Tokumichi Igawa
• Shintarō Mibu as Nabeshima Katsushige • Sound Department: Shigeji Nakayama (sound
• Mizuho Suzuki as Ogasawara Hōmyō Hidekiyo recordist)
• Shigerō Shiroi as Sasaki Kojirō
• Naoko Kubo as Yajima no Tsubone
• Kinji Nakamura as Ishida Kazusanokami
Quotes
• Kenji Kawai as Kamio Bizennokami • "If you should encounter God, God will be cut."
• Kōjirō Kawanami as Matsudaira Hayatonoshō
• Yasuhiro Suzuki as Tomita Shuzen Trivia
• Masaharu Arikawa as Izaki Heinai
• Masataka Iwao as Yasui Tōbei • The showdown between Yagyu Jubei and Musashi
• Jun Hamamura as Shigesaemon Miyamoto occurs in a location used a year before in
• Ryuko Azuma as Shigesaemon’s wife the Fukasaku film Virus.
• Hiroshi Inuzuka as Sōgorō • Original American Release on home video deleted
• Katsutoshi Akiyama as Yohei much of the middle of the movie reducing the
• Takashi Noguchi as Hikosaku running time from 122 minutes to 88 minutes and
• Kōjirō Shirakawa as Yonejuro eliminating many important plot points such as the
• Noboru Umezawa as Iga Elder introduction of Jubei’s Father.
• Noboru Mitani as Traveling Monk
• Kayoko Shiraishi as (Voice) External links
• Ai Kanzaki as Otsū
• Yuko Kikuchi as Okō • Samurai Reincarnation at the Internet Movie Database
• Yuko Asuka as Koga Kunoichi • Samurai Reincarnation at Allrovi
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Reincarnation"
Categories: Japanese-language films, 1981 films, Japanese films, Films based on novels, Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku
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