Jipangu

Very odd Japanese, fantasy movie, that mixes up a lot of fun Martial Arts and comedy, with some really strange supernatural goings on. Difficult to rate because there is not much to compare with, past or present. As far as originality goes it's certainly 'Out There'. sort of like that popular TV show 'Monkey' but not quite.

Jigoku-goraku-Maru (JGM or roughly translated as "Hellraiser") is a swordsman for hire, traveling with his band of mercenaries in feudal Japan. JGM is constantly being pursued by innumerable bounty hunters and other fortune seekers trying to collect the bounty on his head. One of those hunters is the beautiful Teppo Oyuri (aka Pistol Lily) who is an expert in Western Firearms and a deadly markswoman. During their travels, JGM and his mates happen across a map that supposedly leads them to a fortune in gold. What they find instead is a Golden Sword with incredible powers, that is the key to finding the legendary City of Gold, Zipang (Portuguese for Japan). Unfortunately for him, this unleases a string of events which culminate with JGM and company traveling to the very halls of Zipang to do battle with its Warlord King and his "Haniwa" henchmen.

Zipangu is surprisingly similar in style to the recent Wild Wild West (1999) movie and Original CBS TV Series. While predating the Wild Wild West movie by nine years, Zipangu could easily be called a Japanese "Wild Wild West" type of saga. Like WWW's James West, JGM is a feudal samurai who is decidedly and strangely modern. JGM's "Neo-Samurai" attire fuses Western influences (leather) with Japanese (silk). He carries a cache of wicked swords and stores them much like a golfer his golfing clubs. In a hilarious and elaborate opening sequence, JKG goes through his arsenal of swords one right after another, dependant on the opponent his is facing. Even his vernacular is a wierd mixture of modern slang and feudal speak.

Director Hayashi has a flair for parody as he literally borrows and lampoons all the various Samurai Movie conventions. One delightful highlight includes JKG's encounter with a all too familiar Blind Masseur (Zatoichi?) who turns out to be able to see after all. The Ninja (Shinobi-Nin) opponents whom JKG encounters throughout the film are also a joy to watch as they incorporate and wield various "modern" type of devices and gadgets that would make Wild Wild West's Artemus Gordon green with envy.

While the pacing is a bit slow at times and the story is an exercise in style rather than substance, the movie as a whole is quite enjoyable and a feast for the eyes. Not for the overly serious and a must for Japanese cinema fans.

ZIPANG (1990) is a rather strained Japanese costume fantasy about a group of characters seeking a magical golden sword on a journey that takes them to Zipang, a mythical sky kingdom. The main character is Jigoku, a wanted criminal traveling with a band of outlaws. His chief rival is Yuri `the gun,' a female bounty hunter who carries a two-shot pistol. The two eventually fall in love. (The lead actors are Masahiro Takashima and Narumi Yasuda.)

They meet a seemingly primitive man in loin cloth, dubbed `the Prophet,' who originally came from Zipang and was trapped on earth many long years earlier. Up in Zipang is a Princess in white trapped in a white stone hut waiting to be rescued by the Prophet. Jigoku and Yuri find that their destiny is to help the two reunite. But they first must confront an evil ninja with some high-tech weapons.

Director Kaizo Hayashi mixes swordplay, historical drama, slapstick, romantic comedy, fantasy and science fiction, but the film never finds the right tone nor do the story elements ever quite gel. An early battle between Jigoku and the bounty hunters is clearly a parody as Jigoku fights such famous Japanese swordsmen as Zatoichi and Tange Sazen and a famous French swordsman, Cyrano de Bergerac! The whole story of the Princess and the Prophet and the island of Zipang in the sky is not even told until more than half-way into the two-hour film, so for the first half we have no idea where the story's going.

The high technology used in some scenes is amusingly far-fetched. The ninja villain has a pair of binoculars with a zoom lens that takes pictures on a little metal chip that is then transported via guided flying throwing star to the castle of the Ninja's lord who then projects the photos from the chip with some kind of slide projector apparatus. Fans of gimmicky Japanese fantasy will be interested but others may find the movie's charms somewhat fleeting.

This one has much of a debt to pay to the crazy magic sword epics of the Shaw brothers as well as the great samurai films of the sixties and seventies. A band of "outlaws" chance on a treasure that reveals the way to Zipang, the mythical land of gold. They inadvertently resurrect a wild man who looks like he's a Japanese Samoan. The treasure is coveted by the Shogun so he sends his army of blue ninjas after them. There's also Yuri, the Pistol Girl who's after the leader of the outlaws for the reward.

The list of crazy stuff that occurs is long but it's delivered in a well-directed and beautifully photographed package that doesn't skip on incredible fight scenes and a great music track. There are two long one-take fight scenes that have to seen. Almost nobody does those anymore. The army of ninjas is an army of ninjas, there are dozens of ninja actors. The lead actors are all great for this kind of entertainment. The art direction is also very good. There are a couple of gory sword stabbing and a touch of Lone Wolf style blood spurting but mostly the violence is bloodless.

Much better then I expected. Recommended if you are not in the mood for reality.

Well , I've had enough with stupid movies, but this one has something in deep. Actually I could not find it, but this movie make me to laugh on some proper moments. The beginning was strange and I saw some well known characters like : Zatoichi - but this one could see, Sazen Tange, an European sword fighter(?!?) and a bunch of samurais waiting on a bridge just to be slayed by Jigoku's sword. If we ignore the idiotic idea of having assistants who passes the sword to Jigoku like golf sticks, we have a fairy tale. A queen of the sunless land, a weird tattooed nudist (this guy rock- in the beginning he just yells like a savage guy and almost everyone could kick his butt all the time. It was hilarious.) We do have a strange vision of love between Yuri the pistol and Jugoku. Well the pistols , rocket launchers and other stuff along with the faked midget elephant make this movie a tale about a strange world - as it is in: The NeverEnding Story. It's probably the same. Next thing is the quest of finding a treasure - a golden sword (ignore the strange useless shape of it) and funny ninja tricks. Just see the movie without having great expectations.