SENGOKU JIETAI

(vt Time Slip) Film (1981). Toho. Dir Kosei Saito, starring Sonny Chiba, Iasao Natsuki, Miyuki Ono, Jana Okada. Screenplay Toshio Kaneda, based on Sengoku Jietai (1971) by Ryo Hammura (JAPAN). 139 mins, cut to 100 mins. Colour.

   Based on one of Ryo Hammura's intelligent novels, which use sf reinterpretations to comment on Japanese history, this tells of a troop of modern Japanese soldiers caught in a timeslip and transported back to 16th-century conflicts in the same area between local warlords. Thetroop's commander, unlike the agonized ship's captain in The FINAL COUNTDOWN (1980), has no hesitation in trying to change history so that heand his men might somehow be returned to their own time, and sets about conquering Japan. This action adventure plays its sf riffs confidently, and shows visual flair in the numerous gory battle scenes in which few soldiers (with modern technology) face many samurai (with very sharp swords).

   PN