Samurai Commando Mission 1549

Samurai Commando Mission 1549 (2005)
Japanese title: 戦国自衛隊1549
Translation: Sengoku Self-Defense Force 1549 (or Warring States Era Self-Defense Force 1549)

 

Starring: Yôsuke Eguchi, Kyôka Suzuki, Haruka Ayase, Masatô Ibu, Kazuki Kitamura, Kôji Matoba, Akiyoshi Nakao, Katsuhisa Namase, Tomoya Nanami, Daisuke Shima, Shin Takuma, Takeshi Kaga
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Action Director: n/a

In 1999, Toho decided to revive their Godzilla series following the monstrous (heh) disappointment that was the Hollywood Godzilla movie. Thus was born the Millenium Godzilla series, which ran for six movies before being put out to pasture in 2004 with the equally-monstrous failure of Godzilla: Final Wars. The first movie in this new series was Godzilla 2000, which was directed by series veteran Takao Okawara (Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for Earth and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II). That film was a box-office disappointment—although it has developed a strong following among fans--and Okawara more or less retired for directing afterward.

The next film was Godzilla x Megaguirus: G Extermination Operation, which was directed by Masaaki Tezuka. Tezuka had already been working for Toho for a number of years, having served as Assistant Director on movies like Sayonara, Jupiter and Princess from the Moon. His venture into Godzilla filmmaking was his first solo directorial effort. GxM also underwhelmed at the box office and has garnered mixed reviews from fans: some criticize the film’s bad science and uneven special effects, while others praise the film’s score, fast pace and enjoyable monster battles.

After a more successful third film—Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (or GMK)—Toho brought Tezuka back for the fourth entry in this series: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. This film was a success with local audiences, thanks in part to being paired with a Hamtaro short film at the beginning. Fans have praised this movie for its strong female lead, an exceptionally good score, and an excellent final monster battle. Tezuka-san also directed the follow-up, Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, which was the only film in the Millenium series to establish a continuity with the previous film, as all the other movies take place in their own respective chronologies.

Following the close of the Millenium Godzilla series, the various directors went on to diverse projects. Shusuke Kaneko, who directed GMK, went on to direct the popular live-action Death Note films and the Azumi sequel, plus other movies of varying genres. Ryuhei Kitamura, who directed Godzilla: Final Wars, has jumped back and forth between violent horror films in Hollywood and more diverse projects in Japan. Tezuka-san, on the other hand, directed a few more projects before what would appear to him dropping out of the game. Samurai Commando Mission 1549 is his first big project following his third Godzilla movie and in a lot of ways, feels like an unrelated sequel to Godzilla x Megaguirus or Godzilla: Tokyo SOS.

In 2003, the Japanese Self-Defense Force is conducting experiments with a special magnetic shield meant to protect electronic devices from the EMP-like effects of plasma spikes on the Sun. The test goes awry and opens a rip in the time-space continuum, transporting a number of soldiers and vehicles back to the Sengoku Period, circa 1547. Before the rift closes, a samurai named Shichibe (Kazuki Kitamura of Godzilla Final Wars) is transported to modern times.

Two years later, the JSDF—represented by Rei Kanzaki (Kyôka Suzuki, who had a small role in Godzilla vs. Biollante)—shows up at the doorstep of retired soldier Yusuki Kashima (Yôsuke Eguchi, of the Rurouni Kenshin films) and asks him to join her for a visit to the site of the experiment. There she reveals to the fate of the soldiers from two years ago and something even more dire: apparently, intentionally or not, those soldiers are altering history. This has resulted in a number of “holes” opening in the world which now threaten to consume it and simply make this reality disappear as we know it. The military invites Kashima to accompany them on a mission to “rescue” the soldiers from the Sengoku era in order to save the world. For reasons that are never clear—at least not in the 87-minute international version—Kashima initially declines, but eventually relents.

The time travel is successful, bringing another JSDF garrison into the Sengoku Period. While conducting reconnaissance of the area, one of the helicopters is destroyed by a missile fired from a local castle(!). Meanwhile, an army of samurai fall upon the soldiers, causing them to flee. The next day, the samurai army, led by modern-day soldier Yoda (Devilman’s Kôji Matoba), show up and force Kashima and the others to surrender. Once in the castle, Kashima and the platoon discover that many of the soldiers from 2003 not only survived, but have set up shop as a powerful clan in 16^th century Japan. Moreover, their leader, Colonel Matoba (Takeshi Kaga of the Death Note films), has not only assumed the role as daimyo in this world, but he has assumed the name of Oda Nobunaga, the warlord known for beginning the unification of Japan. But pretending to a historical figure isn’t enough for him: he wants to change history and make Japan into a world superpower before that concept has even been invented.

It’s hard to rate this movie objectively, simply because the International Version available in Brazil runs a scant 87 minutes, compared to the 119-minute running time that shows up on the IMDB. I’m guessing a lot of character development was axed, because the people in this movie have almost no dimension whatsoever. Kashima’s character is probably two-dimensional, although the rest of the soldiers barely register as cyphers. It is interesting that both this and G.I. Samurai suffered the same fate of being heavily cut and butchered for overseas release. The latter’s DVD release rectified that problem, but I think I’d have to turn to grey market sources to watch the full version of this movie.

What I can say about this movie is that it corrects some of the flaws of the first movie. This movie has actual female characters, mainly in the form of Tanzaki and Nobunaga’s wife, Princess No (a real historical personage, played by Ichi’s Haruka Ayase). We don’t spend enough time with either of them, but once again, more scenes involving them might have been lost in exportation. This movie also has a more focused story, an actual villain (with a tangible Eeeevil plot), and a sense of urgency. The evil scheme is pretty silly—the villain wants to cause an epic volcanic eruption that levels much of Japan so that he can rebuild it in his own image—but it’s there. The movie also brings up the flaw in Sonny Chiba’s schemes of power: he would eventually run out of bullets and fuel and thus would become fairly useless in that period. The soldiers in this movie actually build an oil refinery and (presumably) manufacture their own ammo.

This does bring up the burning question: how would normal soldiers (and a few officers) be able to build an oil refinery…in two years? And where would they pump oil from? Wasn’t Japan supplied with petroleum from Indonesia? Also, wouldn’t rebuilding a country from the ground up, especially in a modern fashion, be too big an undertaking for a single lifetime? Unless he trained and taught an entire generation about how to manufacture automatic weapons and explosives, all of his work would be for naught. I mean, apparently Afghan artisans were able to reconstruct an AK-47 after about ten years of study, so I guess it would be possible. But the finer details of the villain’s schemes are discussed in this version.

Tezuka-san directs Samurai Commando Mission 1549 is very workman-like manner. Although he had a natural knack for kaiju action sequences, I think that has as much to do with the special effects crew and suit actors as it did the director himself, who probably just oversaw everything and gave his OK for the fight choreography. The action sequences here are a little bland. Not necessarily incompetent, but nothing great. He should have asked Toho and Kadokawa to bring in a Stephen Tung Wai type to stage the swordfights and gun battles. I’m not a huge Tung Wai fan, but the man knows both battle sequences and gunfights, and would’ve certainly made the set pieces more interesting.

The early scenes of the military experiments going all wrong were very reminiscent of JDSF sequenes in Tezuka’s earlier Godzilla movies. In fact, it is easy to imagine Samurai Commando as a sequel to those films, especially Godzilla x Megaguirus, as imagining what would have happened in Japan after disposing of Godzilla. “Yeah, we defeated Godzilla with a black hole. And now we’ve caused time-destroying black holes all over the world while testing plasma shields.” That is very GxM in terms of military malfeasance and mad science. All this movie needed was better action sequences and a Michiru Oshima score in order to reach the levelof entertainment that was GxM.

This review is part of the "Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!" series (click the "banner" below):