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Two years ago, Colonel Matoba and his platoon - including modern
weapons, tanks, helicopters and the like - were accidently sent back in
time to the age of the Civil War. Now though, it seems that in the past he
has begun to alter history, and the changes in history are taking effects
on the present time ... which might eventually lead to the collapse of
time as such itself ...
So another platoon is sent back in time, containing among others Ltd
Kanzaki (Kyoka Suzuki), who is partly responsible for having sent Matoba
back in time, Kashima (Yosuke Eguchi), a civilian who's ... well, I don't
exactly know why he is there, but he's the lead of the film anyways, and
Shichibei (Kazuki Kitamura), who has travelled from the past to the
present and who will now act as their guide.
Back in the past, our group of heroes realizes that despite their
modern equipment they are no match for the contemporary samurai warriors,
on one hand because they are already used to modern weaponry and know its
weaknesses, on the other hand, the platoon is not allowed to shoot anyone
to not upset time itself even more. At the same time, our time travellers
have to learn that Colonel Matoba has since become a powerful warlord of
the past, and he was clever enough to even build oil refineries so he
won't run out of gas and the like, just to ensure his status and strike
fear into his enemies ... and Matoba has no intentions whatsoever to
return to the present, where he would be a mere colonel.
At first it seems everything is lost for our heroes and Matoba has
defeated them hands-down - but he has his enemies on his own court, like
his wife Nou, who was formerly promised to Shichibei and is still in love
with him, and her father Serpent, a warlord dethroned by Matoba. Matoba
though has still one ace up his sleeve: a nuclear bomb he plans to blow
the past to Kingdom Come with - why eludes me though.
Point is, after much battling, Kishima and Kanzaki can defeat and kill
Matoba, but not before he has set the timer for his atom bomb - but
Kishima figures if they hurry back to the time portal they might be able
to diffuse the bomb because the portal tends to shortcut all electricity
... and thus both our heroes and the past as such are saved and everything
ends happily ...
Previously, the novel Samurai Commando Mission 1549 is based on
was filmed as G.I.Samurai in
1979, an d in direct compraison, Samurai Commando is the better
movie. While G.I.Samurai is
mainly one (impressive) battle scene after another but not much story to
link the slaughter, Samurai Commando features an interesting and
thought-through story - even if the plot has its lapses in logic and
reason as all time travel stories tend to do.
This all said, Samurai Commando Mission 1549 is far from great,
it's a fun sci-fi actioner that's kept alive by a fast pace and plenty of
action on the battlefield (even if the action pales compared to G.I.Samurai),
but you might not be able to remember much of it even two days later.
Anyways, you can at least enjoy the ride as long as it lasts ...
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