Film review of “New Satomi Eight Dogs”: The 1980s masterpiece of gods and monsters is fantastic and nonsensical | a fan creation | a fun read

Golden Horse Fantasy recreates the 4K restored version of “Legend of the Eight Samurai” (Legend of the Eight Samurai) on the big screen. The movie is really super fantastic and super ridiculous. I didn’t expect it to be so large. It is similar to “Seven Samurai” and “Seven Samurai”. The adventure fantasy action film based on “Lord of the Rings” has influenced many later works of the same type, such as “New Momotaro” and “New Zodiac” filmed in Taiwan.

The movie is adapted from Kamada Toshio’s novel of the same name. This story was an earlier literary work in the Edo period. In 1982, Kamada Toshio rewrote it into a supernatural fantasy novel. Director Fukasaku Kinji is also a famous director with a wide range of genres. It feels like a continuation of his 1981 “Samurai Resurrection” genre film, which also starred Shinichi Chiba and Hiroyuki Sanada.

“New Satomi: The Legend of the Eight Dogs” is a 1983 movie. The technical aspects may seem crude and funny now. For example, the boa constrictor and the giant centipede feel very “Taiwanese”-like. However, this film was considered a commercial hit at the time. The film was produced with top-notch talents and created an astonishing box office record and a hot topic.

The movie could be said to be avant-garde and novel at the time, and even now it is still a breakthrough. This fantasy legend combines palace revenge, gods and monsters, incest and ambiguity, ancient costume chivalry, heterosexual love, the merger of east and west, and is full of collage-style aesthetics; Some scary elements also have a body horror style (for example, the monster appears and takes off its face).

The story lasts for more than two hours, which is a bit long and trivial, and the protagonists are on the run and are being hunted. It’s really surreal to find so many beautiful and gorgeous costumes to change into (Hiroyuki Sanada’s short leather pants and tight mesh top, It’s basically taken from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”). However, we can see the youth idol Yakushimaru Hiroko, who is cute and sweet with a little baby fat, and the young and masculine and handsome Hiroyuki Sanada, which is also fresh and interesting.

But the most eye-catching one is Natsuki Mari, who plays the role of the Demon Queen Tamaki. Her expressive and rich body expressions, seductive appearance, and bold nudity in the blood pool bathing scene make this character full of charm and charm. Her charm makes other characters seem boring compared to her.

For me, the biggest achievement of the movie is the theme song “Satomi Hakken-Den” written by John O’Banion that is like a Western hit. This song is really super guava and so beautiful, and it is played twice in the film. ; One time is when the male and female protagonists have a dramatic relationship, and the other time is when the credits roll. This kind of Western pop music is paired with Eastern gods and monsters, which creates a strong conflict and is very impressive.

The moviegoers sitting in the row behind me in the auditorium were extremely noisy during the viewing. They reacted to every scene and would say “It’s coming!” before the highlight scenes. It was really like watching a cult movie, but it was quite interesting.

✏️Zhu ZhehuiAlan, is currently a director of the Taiwan Film Critics Association. His current job is the operations manager of an online audio and video platform. Articles have been published in media such as Yongmovies and udn. The FB & iG fan page is called “Alan’s Movie, Drama and Entertainment Chat”