G.I. Samurai (1979) on Netflix
NR19792h 19mActionAdventureSci-Fi
A Self-Defense Force group on exercise, with a tank and a helicopter, slips four centuries into Japan's warring states era. Second Lieutenant Yoshiaki Iba takes charge as samurai attack.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb6.3/101,400 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
On a defensive exercise, a mixed band of Japanese Self-Defense Force personnel travels with a tank, an armored personnel carrier, a patrol boat and a helicopter. A time slip strands them four hundred years in the past, in the era when rival samurai clans fight to become the supreme Shogun, and samurai attack them. Second Lieutenant Yoshiaki Iba, their acting commanding officer, takes charge and allies with Nagao Kagetora, war leader for lord Koizumi. Seeing what their modern weapons can do, Kagetora asks Iba to aid his own struggle for supremacy. Iba's men want to go home, and while some mix with the locals, among them Private First Class Mimura, others run or break the rules.
Cast
- Hiroshi Kamayatsuas Mokichi Nemoto
- Ken Takahashias Masayoshi Hirai
Show all 24 cast
- Toshitaka Itôas Seaman Harumi Takashima
- Tadashi Kanoas Sgt. Hideo Shimizu
- Gorô Kataokaas Tategawa Katsuzo
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about G.I. Samurai (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force cut its support for G.I. Samurai after reading that the script's soldiers go AWOL, forcing the production to use out-dated weapons such as M3 submachine guns and to build the film's tank entirely from scratch.
- The film's battle tactics outlived it: fire rams and ambush trenches from the fight against Takeda Shingen's forces appear in the light novel series Gate, where Zorzal's forces use them during a later Imperial civil war.
- The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force cut its support for G.I. Samurai after reading that the soldiers go AWOL in the script, so the production used old, sometimes outdated equipment such as M3 submachine guns and built the film's tank entirely from scratch.
- G.I. Samurai is cited in the Japanese light novel series Gate as research material for the JSDF's countermeasures against the Special Region's Imperial forces, who use the fire rams and ambush trenches seen in the film's battle against Shingen's forces.
