My review was written in January 1981 after a screening at NY's Japan House.
"Time Slip" is an entertaining combo science fiction-samurai adventure film, with appeal for fans of both genres. The original Japanese version under review is overlong and diffuse, with tightening recommended for domestic use.
Far-fetched story has a squad of modern Japanese soldiers on maneuvers at a remote beach, where at dawn their watches stop and they are transported back to the 16th century. Okay composite shots and special visual effects are used for the transition.
A light tone is established by one of the soldiers' reaction to the appearance of massed samurai warriors in vintage gear: "Is it a festival?". However, the numerous battle scenes are enacted with extremely graphic bloodletting, contrasted with the comic strip nature of the script.
The squad's leader, Lieutenant Iba (Sonny Chiba) decides somewhat illogically that the only way to return to the modern age is to try to radically change history, thereby causing nature to send them back to their time in order to maintain the status quo. To this end, he teams up with a samurai rebel (Isao Natsuki) to try and defeat the establishment and take over the country.
An extraneous, time-killing subplot has Chiba killing off a group of his own men who have turned renegades and started raping and pillaging the locals on their own. Also pointless is some unresolved crosscutting of a modern girlfriend (Nana Okada) left waiting at a train station. A low comedy rape of a local "widow lady" could also be removed to the film's advantage.
The many beautifully staged battles (choreographed by Chiba) are highlighted by the contrast of the old and the new. One delightful swashbuckling scene has samurai Isao Natsuki escaping via rope ladder to a hovering helicopter outside the window after an authentic sword battle with his foes inside a castle. Ultimately, Chiba overcomes his men's desire to return to the initial beach and wait for a second time slip. He has become enamored of the freedom to do as one likes in the medieval period, and has decided to fight to the end in scenes reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"; he and his men decimate hundreds of infantry men and samurai with their machine guns, hand grenades and tank. Finally, superior numbers prevail and all the modern soldiers are killed. This plot twist skillfully avoids the corny "second time slip" used in other films of this type, e.g., "The Final Countdown".
Chiba and his troupe of players are very effective and film's technical credits are top-notch. Worth jettisoning is an awful musical score which includes numerous rock ballads (sung-over mainly in English though dialog is spoken in Japanese) which clashes harmfully with the action.
"Time Slip" is an entertaining combo science fiction-samurai adventure film, with appeal for fans of both genres. The original Japanese version under review is overlong and diffuse, with tightening recommended for domestic use.
Far-fetched story has a squad of modern Japanese soldiers on maneuvers at a remote beach, where at dawn their watches stop and they are transported back to the 16th century. Okay composite shots and special visual effects are used for the transition.
A light tone is established by one of the soldiers' reaction to the appearance of massed samurai warriors in vintage gear: "Is it a festival?". However, the numerous battle scenes are enacted with extremely graphic bloodletting, contrasted with the comic strip nature of the script.
The squad's leader, Lieutenant Iba (Sonny Chiba) decides somewhat illogically that the only way to return to the modern age is to try to radically change history, thereby causing nature to send them back to their time in order to maintain the status quo. To this end, he teams up with a samurai rebel (Isao Natsuki) to try and defeat the establishment and take over the country.
An extraneous, time-killing subplot has Chiba killing off a group of his own men who have turned renegades and started raping and pillaging the locals on their own. Also pointless is some unresolved crosscutting of a modern girlfriend (Nana Okada) left waiting at a train station. A low comedy rape of a local "widow lady" could also be removed to the film's advantage.
The many beautifully staged battles (choreographed by Chiba) are highlighted by the contrast of the old and the new. One delightful swashbuckling scene has samurai Isao Natsuki escaping via rope ladder to a hovering helicopter outside the window after an authentic sword battle with his foes inside a castle. Ultimately, Chiba overcomes his men's desire to return to the initial beach and wait for a second time slip. He has become enamored of the freedom to do as one likes in the medieval period, and has decided to fight to the end in scenes reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"; he and his men decimate hundreds of infantry men and samurai with their machine guns, hand grenades and tank. Finally, superior numbers prevail and all the modern soldiers are killed. This plot twist skillfully avoids the corny "second time slip" used in other films of this type, e.g., "The Final Countdown".
Chiba and his troupe of players are very effective and film's technical credits are top-notch. Worth jettisoning is an awful musical score which includes numerous rock ballads (sung-over mainly in English though dialog is spoken in Japanese) which clashes harmfully with the action.