(tech stuff first) For a mid-eighties kung fu flick, this movie's not bad. The special effects and costume designs appear to have had a decent budget, which really helped to create a fantasy atmosphere. The special effect resmbled Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain. The DVD quality is decent too, for an economy DVD company. The language version choices only include english dubbed. No subtitles.
(plot)This film is based on a Japanese story about the dog warriors. It's about a princess who is killed by her lover, when she is forced to marry her dog. She marries her dog because her father promises that the dog can have his daughter's hand in marriage if he brings back the head of his enemy.(wierd!)
Later 8 warriors are reborn with magic balls in their hands and join a new princess in her fight against a witch and her army of ghost warriors. This is where the movie essentially picks up the original stroy. The princess, and her eight samurai meet while on their quest to kill the witch queen and her dominions.(a little strange since the witch queen is alot cuter than the princess)
The plot is of epic proportions, but the character development was too shallow, and seemed rushed. The fight scenes could have been better too. THe 8 samurai seemed too skilled against their opponents most of the time.
The character development, and action sequences are what made me give this flim only three stars.
However, there is a anime seris called Hakkeden Legend of the Dog Warriors, which recently came out on DVD. I would strongly suggest you buy that series and watch it first. Legend of the Eight Samurai will make a lot more sense to you after viewing the anime version. I enjoyed Legend of the Eight Samurai after seeing the anime stroy. The characters backgrounds made more sense to me.
If you're going to buy this DVD, consider getting THe anime seires as well. It is also sold at Amazon.com. (After seeing both I would almost give Legend of the Eight Samurai 4 stars.)
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Legend Of The Eight Samurai
Sonny Chiba
(Actor),
Hiroku Yokoshimaru
(Actor),
Kinji Fukasaku
(Director),
Haruki Kadokawa
(Director)
&
1
more Rated: Format: DVD
Unrated
IMDb6.4/10.0
$35.46$35.46
$21.95$21.95
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| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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DVD
March 4, 2014 "Please retry" | 1st | 1 | $29.95 | — |
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DVD
January 30, 2001 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $16.39 | $3.00 |
|
DVD
March 9, 2004 "Please retry" | — | — |
—
| — | $7.98 |
|
DVD
July 29, 2003 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
—
| — | $63.47 |
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| Format | Multiple Formats, Color, Dubbed, Widescreen, NTSC |
| Contributor | Hiroku Yokoshimaru, Haruki Kadokawa, Kinji Fukasaku, Sonny Chiba, Hiroyuki Sanada |
| Language | Japanese |
| Runtime | 2 hours and 16 minutes |
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Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- MPAA rating : Unrated (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.75 inches; 2.93 Ounces
- Director : Kinji Fukasaku, Haruki Kadokawa
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Color, Dubbed, Widescreen, NTSC
- Run time : 2 hours and 16 minutes
- Release date : February 8, 2005
- Actors : Sonny Chiba, Hiroku Yokoshimaru, Hiroyuki Sanada
- Dubbed: : English
- Subtitles: : English
- Language : Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
- Studio : Adness
- ASIN : B0006IINIC
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #182,884 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #3,909 in Foreign Films (Movies & TV)
- #19,119 in Action & Adventure DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
70 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2001
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2020
Kinji Fukusaku was one of Japan’s great directors in the 1970s featuring a slew of movies about gangsters and criminals that exposed the dark side of Japanese society. By the 1980s however, he’d fallen in with the greater trends in the country and was making movies like this Legend of the Eight Samurai, a fantasy period piece that exposed all the problems with the country’s cinema during this period.
The style of The Legend Of Eight Samurai is shown in the opening scene where the villains Lady Tamazusa (Mari Natsuki) and her son Lord Motofuji (Yuki Meguro) from the Hikita Clan promise to wipe out the Satomi Clan who wrong them. All the outfits are overblown and there’s heavy use of make-up. Instead of being a samurai film they look like they walked out of an anime or the Power Rangers.
If you take this as a fantasy film there are actually some okay scenes such as when Princess Shizu is attacked by a witch that turns into a giant insect. On the other hand, the Hikitas are so over the top you can’t take them seriously. This was where Japanese cinema had come to in the 1980s. Few people were in the theaters and they turned to anime as an inspiration with some pretty poor results.
C
The style of The Legend Of Eight Samurai is shown in the opening scene where the villains Lady Tamazusa (Mari Natsuki) and her son Lord Motofuji (Yuki Meguro) from the Hikita Clan promise to wipe out the Satomi Clan who wrong them. All the outfits are overblown and there’s heavy use of make-up. Instead of being a samurai film they look like they walked out of an anime or the Power Rangers.
If you take this as a fantasy film there are actually some okay scenes such as when Princess Shizu is attacked by a witch that turns into a giant insect. On the other hand, the Hikitas are so over the top you can’t take them seriously. This was where Japanese cinema had come to in the 1980s. Few people were in the theaters and they turned to anime as an inspiration with some pretty poor results.
C
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021
Grew up with the original 1982 version. Got this one just to see what it is like with English dubbing. It is what it is. Hiroyuki Sanada was probably one of my first celebrity crushes. Love that he's aged so well and is such a talented actor. All of the actors did a great job, imo.
The snake demon scene is still pretty funny since it's clear that the actors are just rolling around in it. I was so into the story that I just didn't care back in the second grade. Still memorable make-up artistry for that time.
The snake demon scene is still pretty funny since it's clear that the actors are just rolling around in it. I was so into the story that I just didn't care back in the second grade. Still memorable make-up artistry for that time.
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2020
First off My DVD Cover was different then one pictured above. I'm sure my copy is a Public Domain Copy. That being said this is very early Sonny Chiba, remember 1983, the video quality is fair, looks like a copy from film 2nd generation. The story stars off slow, but after first 30 minutes it captures you if your into Asian Fantasy. It was enjoyable for me, but for someone under 30 I don't think it would hold there attention. Eight Samurai come together with magic crystals to rescue a princess from evil forces who want her beautiful skin.
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2019
This is like a Japanese version of Lord of the Rings and I really liked it when I was younger. It is also known as Satomi Hakkenden from direct Japanese translation. The current version here is an English dubbed version with "VCD-like" video quality. (worse than SD) However the streaming quality is really terrible. The streaming version is suffering from decoloration, bad sound quality (very obvious during the segment where the famous OST by the late John O'Banion is played), and overall fuzzy/blurry video segments. I had the laserdisc version of this back in the 90s and it had better quality. I also saw on the internet video clips from a real-HD version of this movie in Japanese language....I hope Amazon can replace this with a true HD version. If so it can be a solid 4 out of 5.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2010
The title The Eight Samuri is a subtle mislead. These are "Special" Samuri who fight with the very dead to protect a princess. In true Oriential form it is full of mystical happenings, but it is also a great action film. There are twists and turns in the plot. But at the very end you learn that no matter how "bad" you have been you can make a choice and do good and become a hero! For a Chineese Movie Junkie, as I am, this should be a definate must see/ have. I love it!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2013
Remembered watching very bad pan-scan once when younger and so was delighted with the widescreen and cleaner picture. Character development is a typical fantasy fair (one dignified, one angst-driven, one annoying, etc) band of warriors protecting a princess. Didn't really watch it for acting but the over-the-top action and the rousing storming of the castle where each warrior gets bumped off at each new area. I especially find the musket of infinite shot amusing. Won't win any awards but fun to watch regardless.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2019
Good against evil with a twist of the supernaturals!
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. S. J. Whitby
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, but flawed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2008
Legend of the Eight Samurai, from the perspective of a Sonny Chiba fan, and a fan of Japanese cinema in general, is an extremely entertaining film. The plot is fairly straightforward, a Princess must break the curse placed on her family by gathering eight supernaturally ordained warriors to fight off a horde of the evil undead that want to capture her for their own nefarious purposes.
The blurb bills it as "The Star Wars of Samurai films", but with the exception of one relatively insignificant plot point this comparison does not really bear much scrutiny, if anything this film reminded me of Conan the Barbarian, with evil magicians and much swinging of cold steel in some well choreographed fight scenes.
Sonny Chiba, as always, helped me to enjoy this film by being hard as nails, and is definitely the star draw of this film, although, because of the nature of this film, and his supporting role it is not up to scratch in comparison to some of his other work, such as the superb G.I. Samurai or the gloriously grindhouse Street Fighter trilogy.
The main problem I had with this film was the absolutely appalling soundtrack, which completely ruined the sword and sorcery feeling of the film by consisting of disgustingly insipid mid-80s power ballads rather than more traditional Japanese music.
The special effects have also not dated very well, in particular the giant snakes and centipede, which seem to be made of vulcanised rubber and fly around unconvincingly, and their primary mode of attack seems to be holding still while the victim rolls into them and screams for their life. Truly horrifying, but not in the way it was intended (unless you have a phobia of being hugged to death by unconvincing rubber wildlife).
The final problem I had was that the subtitling is not great, some lines are missed out altogether, although these seem fairly few, but the worst offence is failing to get one of the characters names right on several occaisions, with it changing entirely between lines.
This is really a film for fans of the genre, and of Sonny Chiba. If you can look past the dated special effects in some scenes (which I actually quite enjoyed, in a kitsch sort of way), the absolutely TERRIBLE music and some inconsistent subtitling - which is pretty much par for the course for English releases of Japanese films anyway - then you'll have a good time watching it, it doesn't demand much of you and spins an enteraining yarn.
The blurb bills it as "The Star Wars of Samurai films", but with the exception of one relatively insignificant plot point this comparison does not really bear much scrutiny, if anything this film reminded me of Conan the Barbarian, with evil magicians and much swinging of cold steel in some well choreographed fight scenes.
Sonny Chiba, as always, helped me to enjoy this film by being hard as nails, and is definitely the star draw of this film, although, because of the nature of this film, and his supporting role it is not up to scratch in comparison to some of his other work, such as the superb G.I. Samurai or the gloriously grindhouse Street Fighter trilogy.
The main problem I had with this film was the absolutely appalling soundtrack, which completely ruined the sword and sorcery feeling of the film by consisting of disgustingly insipid mid-80s power ballads rather than more traditional Japanese music.
The special effects have also not dated very well, in particular the giant snakes and centipede, which seem to be made of vulcanised rubber and fly around unconvincingly, and their primary mode of attack seems to be holding still while the victim rolls into them and screams for their life. Truly horrifying, but not in the way it was intended (unless you have a phobia of being hugged to death by unconvincing rubber wildlife).
The final problem I had was that the subtitling is not great, some lines are missed out altogether, although these seem fairly few, but the worst offence is failing to get one of the characters names right on several occaisions, with it changing entirely between lines.
This is really a film for fans of the genre, and of Sonny Chiba. If you can look past the dated special effects in some scenes (which I actually quite enjoyed, in a kitsch sort of way), the absolutely TERRIBLE music and some inconsistent subtitling - which is pretty much par for the course for English releases of Japanese films anyway - then you'll have a good time watching it, it doesn't demand much of you and spins an enteraining yarn.
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Andrew
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for samurai buffs
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2018
Very enjoyable
Johnny
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2015
wow, this Movie is a Dream come true, fantasy, samurai action, adventure and some romance 5/5
Kindle-Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kulante Firma
Reviewed in Germany on April 2, 2014
Diese Firma ist sehr zu empfehlen! Ich konnte mir leider den Film nicht so oft anschauen , da dieser nicht für unsere Region geeignet ist.Habe es der Firma mitgeteilt und promt kam ein Entschuldigung sschreiben plus Entschädigung. Vielen Dank!
Erik Lien
1.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated effects
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2013
The movie is a typical eighties movie with poor acting and very silly visual effects and sound soundefects.
The plot is an adventure type.
Unless you are a collector or have a special interrest in some of the actors, the movie is terribly outdated.
The plot is an adventure type.
Unless you are a collector or have a special interrest in some of the actors, the movie is terribly outdated.



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