Satomi Hakkenden is based on the tale of The Hakkender: Legend of the Dog Warriors. In some ways you can call it the Lord of the Rings of Japan, though the story pre-dates Tolkien’s classic by a century or two. The main story is about two warring clans of the Hikita and the Satomi. The Hikita were on the losing end, and enlisted the help of conjurers and those of the black arts. this led to the close annihilation of the Satmoi clan. On the back foot, but still fighting, the main family of the Hikita were killed, but before they died they placed a curse upon the Satomi that would last through generations.
The head of the Satomi was disturbed at the possibility of losing, and losing his daughter Fuse. Betrothed to one of the soldiers, the head asked the soldier to bring him the head of the Hikita and off he went. As a joke he asked their Yakafusa if he brought the head of the clan, that he would give his daughter’s hand in marriage to the dog. Where the soldier failed, Yakafusa succeeded, and so it was that the joke was to be true, and the curse placed upon the Satomi carried out.
Men, being men, were not happy with this decision, and so they rode out to killed the dog and to bring back Fuse. Fuse, honouring her duty as a wife, protected Yakafusa and in doing so was killed, but released eight magic pearls from within, that carried the hope of the Satomi and also the curse. The eight pearls would present themselves to eight warriors at birth, and would represent the hope that could destroy the Hikita and their curse once and for all.
Fast forward 100 years and the Hikita are back, badder than ever, and practising black magic to bring forth a demon that would kill the Satomi and their present princess Shizu. Protected and saved, she is told to seek out the eight she will lead to save her land the people. And while she’s at it, would she mind breaking the curse and saving the Satomi clan too? Tea, two sugars and no milk, thanks.
Fukasaku’s interpretation of the story is ambitious, wild and certainly flamboyant. Created in the early 80s, the film does exercise every lavishness that 80s fantasy films contained. Blue screen technology, crazy special effects, lots of bright shiny things, and big fight scenes coupled with shaky sets and bad acting are all 80s nostalgia that are present and correct. Think of films like Krull where the order of the day was big ass production on the cheapest possible budget, and you sort of get the idea of what to expect visually at least.
In terms of plot, much of it is artistic license, which results in a mishaped, confusing array of events that loses the drama, strength and depth of the main story in favour of big action scenes, lots of dodgy costumes and minor 80s fantasy titilation in the form of a naked body or two. Though if you’re expecting full on sex, it’s not here, since all you get is the nape of a neck, lots of touching, clothing, miming of names to deliver the effect of sexual gratification. It’s pretty amusing.
Pioneer released a volume set of anime based on The Hakkenden in the late 90s, and is far superior interpretation. The story is much closer to that of the original book, and offers a far grittier, gothic and morbid example of the story. The melanholy atmosphere is simply not matched by Fukasaku’s effort, which feels more like watching a carnval parade, or some sort of on stage play.
I didn’t enjoy the change in the tale, and the lazy romance which offers little to the story. Even character names seem to have switched, resulting in my own confusion. Thugh I admit, I’m not sure which is closer to the original, but I expect the several hour animated series is more likely to be accurate than a 2 hour party extravaganza.
Many of the key characters are given a back seat, and only serve to play the expendable folk. It’s sort of like Star Trek, you know the guys in a certain colour of uniform, or a character that is given prominence in one scene is going to be meeting his maker. The same is true of Satomi Hakkenden.
Many of the sets and scenes are simply too dumb to hold the disbelief you’re meant to entertain watching the film. It’s not meant to be realistic or particularly serious, and really just very cheap entertainment. Even with that aspect it disappoints because it doesn’t entertain as much as it bores for over two hours straight. Knowing most of the story, perhaps added to my disappointment, just as I found Lord of the Rings from Peter Jackson to be a mediocre snorefest, Fukasaku’s interpretation is of that calibre, though we are saved the pain of several more hours of it.
Even with modern technology and even if Fukasaku was still alive, it would still fail as a faithful intepretation, or as a film that could warrant attention. The story has been turned into a derivative 80s fantasy film, acting is ambitious but ludicrous and the entire piece is a collective mistake in film making, let alone fantasy film making. No, adding Sony Chiba to the roster would not improve the film.
Verdict: Shoddy, lame yet ambitious interpretation of a classic Japanese fantasy tale. A dog’s dinner of a film