A squadron of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers find themselves transported through time to their country's warring states era, when rival samurai clans were battling to become the supreme Shogun.
Acting
Sonny Chiba's unhinged charisma carries everything.
Practical Effects
Real tanks, real explosions, real stuntmen eating dirt.
Direction
Saitō commits to the premise with zero irony.
Director
Kōsei Saitō
Sonny Chiba
Lt. Yoshiaki Iba
Isao Natsuyagi
Nagao Kagetora
Kôji Naka
Taisuke Mimura
Jun Etoh
Nobuhiko Ken
Ryô Hayami
Kazumichi Morishita
Akira Nishikino
Koji Kikuchi
Yoichi Miura
Manabu Nonaka
Isao Kuraishi
Masao Maruoka
Tsunehiko Watase
Hayato Yano
Kenzō Kawarasaki
Koji Kano
Takuzo Kadono
Seaman Toshishige Suga
Hiromitsu Suzuki
Go Nishizawa
Raita Ryu
Haruhisa Kimura
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Japan's economic boom, the film anxiously interrogates military expansion—ironic given the JSDF's constitutional limitations. The tank becomes a symbol of repressed national aggression.
Sonny Chiba performed his own horse stunts, including the final charge—he broke two ribs and finished the scene anyway. That's not method acting, that's just being Sonny Chiba.
JP
