Samurai Reincarnation
The year 1638 time of bloody upheaval, the Shimabar Rebellion has been put down, Amakusa Shirō and his Christian followers whom he led against the Tokugawa Shogunate defeated and executed with around 37,000 dead. His decapitated head a warning to those who would defy the established rulers of Japan, from his battlefield grave Shirō rises and denounces God, calling on demons to raise others who would stand with him in his rage.
Gathering a following of those wronged, betrayed and unfulfilled in life, Hosokawa Gracia whose cruel and taunting husband left her to die, undefeated but resentful swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, the Buddhist monk Hōzōin Inshun who spent his life hiding his murderous desires and Kirimaru who died defending his village against a Kōga ninja clan, against them stands Yagyū Jūbei, the son of the man with whom Musashi hoped to fight and best.
A tangled tale based on the 1967 fantasy novel of the same name by Yamada Fūtarō inspired by the historical events of that turbulent time, Samurai Reincarnation (魔界転生, Makai Tenshō, more literally translated as Hell Reincarnation) was directed by Kinji Fukasaku and originally released in 1981, now released on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements which showcases the costumes, locations and dramatically lit sets as part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema range.
Opening with a panorama of the aftermath of the massacre with heads propped in the branches of dead trees against a purple sunset as Shirō rises, Kenji Sawada’s consciously exaggerated performance emphasises the theatrical aspects of his resurrection and his leadership, a demon-possessed mystic intent on revenge and destruction who can only be defeated by a sword forged to kill demons by the expert smith Muramasa.
With The Bullet Train’s Sonny Chiba as the one-eyed warrior Jūbei and Mishima‘s Ken Ogata as Musashi, Samurai Resurrection suffers from a determination that each of Shirō’s disciples should have their backstory and recruitment detailed in separate chapters, establishing them as individuals but slowing the film with a repetitious structure which drags before moving in a haphazard fashion towards the final spectacular confrontation set in a burning pagoda.
Heavily cut for international distribution on its original release, Eureka’s new edition of Samurai Reincarnation reinstates the missing footage to bring the film to its full running time of over two hours and carries both the original Japanese dialogue and an English dubbed version, the feature supported by a newly recorded commentary by Tom Mes, a new interview with filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku and the original trailer.
Samurai Reincarnation will be available on Blu-ray from Eureka from Monday 19th June
