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GI Samurai (Sengoku Jieitai) - Detailed comparison between the short International edit and longer Japanese edit. ("TIME SLIP" review)

Dir: Mitsumasa Saito.

Recently the full length, subtitled version of "Sengoku Jieitai" has been released onto DVD by 'Adness' as part of their 'Sonny Chiba Collection'. The West has waited many years for this version to be available as all previous releases have been of the edited, dubbed version commonly known as "Time Slip", "Time Wars" as well as "GI Samurai". As a companion piece to my main review of the "Time Slip" edit, I shall now have a look at some of the differences (for and against) between that International version and this, the full Japanese release.

Plot summary:

Japanese movie icon Sonny Chiba stars as Lt Iba, who with his company of men (including their tank, jeep, supply lorry and armoured car) and a helicopter crew and a patrol craft are (via some delightfully bizarre, if cheap, visual effects) transported back in time to Feudal Japan, and tun right into a war between to rival Shoguns.

Joining up with the Commander of one of the Shogun's armies, named Kagetora, Iba decides to help take over and become joint rulers of this violent land....

 

***SPOILERS***

The biggest change of course is that this release is the Japanese language version, and this automatically makes the entire movie a more serious and rather less goofy affair as far as the characters are concerned. It goes without saying that this is a vast, and welcome, improvement to the movie in general.

The first difference (and in fact it opens the movie) is that we see the girlfriend of one of the soldiers catching a train in modern era Japan. This aspect is perhaps the most noticeable change in the 2 versions, as all subsequent sequences of 70's Japan are removed in the shorter edit. There are only 2 characters these scenes appear for, the aforementioned boyfriend 'Kikuchi' and one of the soldiers who was training to be a sprinter (though he has only one flashback, later on, of him running in a park and eyeing up the female joggers). These scenes can distract from the unfolding 'period' action, but 'Kikuchi' is now made a far more prominant character and the danger he is in is given an added edge by having edits of his girlfriend waiting for him at the train station as we see him fleeeing for his life. The only time these flashback scenes really become useful though is when 'Kikuchi' is fighting for his life against real-life Samurai as she watches a safe modern re-inactment of Samurai horse skills wondering where he has got to!

The sequence when 'Kikuchi' and his friend with the glasses are attacked in the woods is also very different. While 'Kikuchi' seems to simply run away and escape in the short edit, here we see him chased and seemingly fall to his death from a cliff into the water. 'Kikuchi' is later found by some Samurai and dragged back to his comrades camp. Here he is slapped around the face by Lt.Iba for deserting before having his wounds tended and re-joining the men. All this trauma also explains why he is so 'out of it' during the final battle.

The nasty 'Yano' is given more screentime as well. An entire scene missing from the shorter edit has him kill one of the sailors who is trying to blow up a truck (to create a 'quake' to kick the 'time slip' back into play..in what is actually a pretty messy aspect of the plot) by throwing a knife into his neck. This death and the following conversation/explanation are all missing and the shorter version simply skips to 'Kikuchi' going awol.

When 'Yano' and some of the men steal the boat, the longer edit then delivers a massive amount of extra footage. In the short edit we only hear that 'Yano' is raiding the coastal villages before he is attacked and killed by Lt.Iba, in this edit we see him dispose of the corpse of the Captain and then actually see him and his men attack the villages and shoot the inhabitants before capturing some of the women and taking them back to the boat to be raped. These sequences deliver the odd bloody bullet hit and a lot of shots of topless/naked women (long views of full frontal nudity only with obviously no pubic hair on display) and, although not that explicit by any means, they certainly add a more exploitative edge to the film and make 'Yano' into far more of a monster.
There is one especially powerful sequence where Lt.Iba flies over the aftermath of one of the raids, where we are shown dead bodies strewn along the seashore and a naked child walking through the devastation. All in all a welcome mass of footage that adds a bleaker edge to the film. Obviously removed to get Iba and his men really involved with the Samurai much sooner, as 'Kagetora' and his warriors have been out of the film for a while at this point.

There is also drastic editing of the battle where Lt.Iba and his men kill 'Yano' and his men. In the short edit it seems that it is Chiba who shoots the guys on the boat while swinging from the rope. In fact the full version has Iba drop a sniper off on some nearby rocks and it is actually HIM that kills the men on the boat while Iba keeps them distracted! After this fight we also have a scene (cut from the short edit) where a weary Iba actually decides to take 'Kagetora' up on his offer to take power and rule.There is also a discussion on the beach between Iba's men when they decide what to do (again the rather confused plot idea to 'make' the time portal appear is mentioned) before joining 'Kagetora'.This sequence also shows what happened to the soldier in the yellow sunglasses, as now we see him decide to stay with a young family he has become close to.

After Iba and his men join up with 'Kagetora' the short edit jumps to the fight at the castle where 'Kagetora' escapes by hanging from the helicopter. Again the longer edit delivers a mass of extra footage between these events. We are given more (very mysterious and alluring) shots of the girl one of the soldiers has fallen in love with as she follows on behind the convoy and the long night-time sequence mentioned above where the wounded 'Kikuchi' is brought into camp and Iba and his men chat with 'Kagetora'. The short edit also loses a wonderful sequence showing the long, long trail of 'Kagetora's' Samurai army, mixed in with the military vehicles of Iba to make a striking contrast, as they snake along a path.

After the fight at the castle the shorter edit goes into a short discussion on tactics before going right into the huge final battle. The longer version instead gives us an extended (and unintentionally homoerotic, it has to be said) sequence of Iba and 'Kagetora' bonding. We see them train together, fire bows on horseback together, stand on their heads on the beach(!) and basically act like good wholesome chums! All backed with a truly awful, sung in English, Japanese rock ballad!
Some of the scenes of the 2 warriors together actually work well in enhancing the link between the two men (which is important now as the following battle will see them parted completely until the tragic, final showdown) but some of the scenes are embarrassingly bad, and made worse by having that song play over them! All in all...a sequence that did not need completely removing (which the International version did), but a songless edit would have been much better. As it is though, perhaps the short edit works best at this point

After this sequence we get another big change. Again, before the final battle, we have a big block of extra footage. Set during the night before the battle, this sequence has more of the soldier and his girlfriend together, some of the men relaxing, 'Kikuchi' in his tent witing his girlfriend's name in wax and a bunch of the men being sent to a local prostitute by Lt.Iba (again, some breasts make a welome appearence). This main extra sequence with the prostitute (although quite funny) seems at first to be obvious padding and it seems that is why the entire thing was removed, but later on in the main battle one of Iba's men will come face to face with one of the Samurai they meet while they are all waiting their turn to go with the woman! To those familiar with the film, he is the guy who climbs onto the tank gun barrel and looks in through the window. In the shorter edit he is just a nobody who seems to be pulling a surprised face because he can see men inside the strange machine, in reality it's because he recognises the driver!

The final battle plays out the same in both edits, with only slight changes. A big change dialogue wise occurs here though. The traumatised 'Kikuchi' states in the English dub that "to meddle in history, it's wrong" as he stands looking dazed at the battle's start. In the subtitled version he actually states "I must kill the enemy", which is the complete opposite! And subtitle would seem to be the accurate translation as right after this he goes piling in machine gun blazing, an action not consistent with stating that meddling in history is wrong!
Other changes are the loss of the 'prostitute' flashback when the driver looks at the Samurai on the tank barrel and the cutting in of the waiting girlfriend watching the Samurai show as 'Kikuchi' fights for his life.

After the battle there are to very important sequences removed in the short edit that completely change the 2 lead characters. The International cut simply goes from the battles end to Iba and his men waiting for 'Kagetora' and his Samurai to arrive and preparing for a possibly fatal betrayal.
IN the longer version we have a crucial nighttime scene where Iba's surviving men declare that they want to leave and go back to the area where the 'time slip' occurred as the planets have moved and the portal may open up again. But the now power hungry, battle fueled Iba orders that they will stay and that there is no reason to go back to their own time as they are warriors without a war and men without power. Both of which he declares this era gives them. This change in Iba and the fact it is he that orders the men to their fate changes the ending to a large degree.

The other addition is that we see 'Kagetora', on the same night, being told by the Shogun and his advisors that Lt.Iba and his men must be killed and that there is no way that 'Kagetora's' promise of power sharing will happen.
And when news is heard that Iba has lost almost all his men and all of his vehicles/weapons during the battle it is openly decided that he is now an easy target for assassination.
Again, a massive change here. In the shorter edit it seems that a still marginally 'pure' Iba is coldly betrayed by 'Kagetora', when in reality an increasingly power mad Iba is actually betrayed by a reluctant, indeed powerless (something that the shorter edit also loses), 'Kagetora'.

The only other, general, change to be mentioned is the music score.
The changes in music for the shorter edit were actually an improvement. Some of the more cheesy 'heroic' music was removed (like when Lt.Iba drops from the helicopter during the battle with the boat) and at least three rather bad songs (two sung in broken English) were removed.
For example when 'Kituchi' and his friend are chased through the woods the shorter edit gives us only an instrumental backing, whereas the full version has a song played. The songs can be very bad at times, and the changes made to the International edit (although one song is kept) were for the best it has to be said.

Overall, aside from the specifics mentioned above (mostly the bonding sequence and the music) the Japanese version is the only way to go.
The plot is changed in important areas as far as characterisation and motives are concerned, the DVD transfer looks great (and avoids the problem seemingly in all of the International prints of the picture endlessly flicking from widescreen to full screen) and the Japanese language track is a vast improvement.
Essential viewing.