When a seasoned swordsman (Hotei) walks off with the clan’s ceremonial sword, the hotheaded Heishiro Inurai (Fukikoshi) rushes after him, but an initial defeat and time spent recovering with a former samurai and his daughter teaches him the value of living a more peaceful life.

“Cool, funky and peaceful!” This tagline for Hiroyuki Nakano’s pop-culture chambara film appropriately sums it up. Rock ‘n’ roll guitars flare courtesy of musician/co-star Tomoyasu Hotei, amuzing references to anime and Hollywood abound, and dynamic camera swoops betray Nakano’s experience in the music video business. With these elements is a casual anti-violence theme and a lead character appearing more a clownish hipster than 17th century samurai. In the process of twisting conventions, Samurai Fiction also manages to pay homage to the genre with its visuals and exciting action.

In his screen debut, Hotei effectively plays a seasoned swordsman named Nannosuke Kazamtsuri who steals a treasured blade from the clan that had recently hired him. The clan leader’s inexperienced son Heishiro Inurai (Mitsuru Fukikoshi) impulsively rushes out to kill the thief and retrieve the sword. Joined by his two closest friends, Inurai catches up with Kazamtsuri and together they challenge him, only to be soundly defeated by his superior skill. Inurai is only saved by the intervention of an elder swordsman named Hanbei Mizoguchi (Morio Kazama). Kazamtsuri wanders off to stay with a female crime boss and her oddball retinue of gamblers and prostitutes. Yet, his mind becomes obsessed with his encounter with Hanbei who easily thwarted his attacks unarmed. Meanwhile, Inurai recovers from his wounds in the care of Hanbei and his pretty daughter Koharu (Tamaki Ogawa). The two struggle to keep Inurai from attempting to complete his fool’s errand while a pair of ninja stalks Kazamtsuri who eventually brings the fight to them.

The story is pretty conventional, although the way in which it is told is anything but. Nakano gets past the difficulty of putting a modern spin on a period film by having the story told from a modern narrative as the hero looks back at his life 300 years prior. This opens the door to just about anything, but the film doesn’t go overboard. Subtle comic touches are nicely woven into the story. They are not geared to illicit belly laughs, but to create a quirky and pleasant world that can only exist in the movies. Great examples include an old and clumsy ninja who refuses to give up his sneaky ways, a real hand saw musician who performs a rendition of Stephen Foster’s “Swanee River,” and most notably lead actor Mitsuru Fukikoshi’s brilliant facial caricatures. It may or may not have been coincidental, but Fukikoshi bares a certain resemblance to John Belushi and a scene where he raises one eyebrow is a dead on reference to Belushi’s ’70s era samurai parody of Toshiro Mifune on Saturday Night Live.

Nakano’s use of black and white is itself homage to the early chambara films of Toshiro Mifune as directed by Akira Kurosawa such a Yojimbo. This allows the director to use color as an exclamation as when the screen turns red when a person is cut down. More modern references make there way into the film as well. Viewers may scratch their heads whenever Fukikoshi gets a nosebleed around Ogawa who plays Koharu. But anime buffs will note that this is an odd, but common convention of that medium that causes all sorts of awkwardness for a male suitor.

None of the actors are martial artists or even experienced in screen swordplay. This is thankfully not a problem with two experts, one in swordplay and the other in ninjitsu coaching the cast and stepping in to double or play extras. Being a film that offers a more positive message than most chambara films, Nakano doesn’t revel in the carnage the way classic chambara films do. Don’t expect to see decapitations or geysers of air-compressed blood here. Yet, there is a fair amount of enjoyable ninja action and ample swordplay that is shot with clarity, a bit of humor, and little gimmickry.

The music of Samurai Fiction deserves special mention. It was all created by Hotei who carefully lays down contemporary riffs with doodling guitars, synthesizers, and other instruments. This sets a playful tone for the action and a contemplative tone for Nakano’s attractive outdoor shots in bamboo forests and rocky cliffs. Tarantino fans may notice that Hotei was also tapped to compose “Battle without Honor or Humanity” for Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

At the time of Samurai Fiction’s release, period samurai films were in serious decline. Since 1998, Nakano went on to film another hip period actioner entitled Red Shadow. Ryuhei Kitamura has also brought his own modern sensibility to the genre with Azumi while martial arts legend Hiroyuki Sanada starred in one of the genre’s best films in years, Twilight Samurai. History may or may not remember SF as the film that once again made chambara a bankable film property in Japan in the new millennium, but it should at least be remembered as a film that put an entertaining and fresh face on an old genre.

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