Kage No Gundan II Observations

[kungfusamurai]

I just finished watching episode 1. First of all, I was under the impression that the character Chiba would be playing would also be called 'Hattori Hanzo', but his name is Shinpachi. Damn that Quentin Tarantino and his misinformation! :)

Second, I noticed during the massacre scene (the Iga villagers seem to get massacred a lot), things looked familiar, including the two kids who fall on top of each other and get skewered by a katana. I realized it was completely taken from Yagyu Conspiracy (the film). How the heck did Sonny Chiba get permission to use that? Then I saw it in the final credits - directed by Kinji Fukasaku. I take it Chiba and Fukasaku had a great working relationship since they worked together quite a bit during the late 70s/early 80s.

KFS

[chiba2000]

As for Mr. Tarantino being right or wrong, these are the characters Chiba played in Kage 1-5:

Kage 1 - Hattori Hanzo
Kage 2 - Tsuge Shinpachi
Kage 3 - Tarao Hanzo
Kage 4 - Hattori Hanzo
Kage 5 - Hattori Hanzo

Short Hanzo/Kill Bill info: Hattori Hanzo was a Iga ninja who served TOKUGAWA Iyeasu. So it's a bit disappointing that he is portrayed by Chiba in Kill Bill as a "sword smith"...eh what?! You can find a very interesting summary about Hattori Hanzo's life here...

www.skhquest.com/articles...ttori.aspx (http://www.skhquest.com/articles/HanzoHattori.aspx)

/Chiba2000 8)

[kungfusamurai]

Yeah, he could have still had him as a ninja. Perhaps he could have played a corporate spy? :)

Does anyone know why Season 5 is so short? I saw one website that said there were only 4, but they tagged on episodes from 5. So was 4 a longer season or did 5 get cancelled?

KFS