Onmitsu kenshi

I recalled watching this program as a young boy in Australia in the 60s, and enjoyed it on DVD again as a 50-year-old father of young kids. Although the bad guys are mostly shallow characters and there is a component of violence, I am very happy to have my 6- and 8-year old kids watch this because the central characters are deep, kind and honourable, the Japanese culture shines through, the violence is not gory, nobody glories in it, and the program is beautiful to watch. It does not promote nightmares, but instead it shows much of the culture that must have primarily influenced the design of Jedi knights in Star Wars.

The quality of the DVDs does leave something to be desired. Video perfectionists will not like this one. It is strongly reminiscent of something held on 16mm film and projected onto the wall in some basement... which it may well be. The soundtrack is also lacking in the quality we have come to expect from home theatre. However, my kids noticed only that it was not in colour, and I suspect they only noticed that because we had been talking recently about how old things are often like that. The beauty of Mt Fuji is evident even in B&W. Something about the 17th-century setting makes the quality part of the atmosphere, as if you peer into the past through some time window.

Overall this program is better than most things on the air, and a far better advertisement for Japanese TV than Pokemon, but you may consider it of marginal value if you did not have the experience of seeing it back in the 60s. My score of 8/10 takes its age into account.

I remember this show from my teenage years. Koichi Ose seemed to tower over the rest of the Japanese cast, yet he was only 5'7" tall. Japanese born before the war are much shorter than their children.

It was sad to see that Fuyukishi Maki, who played loyal Tombei, died from cancer. That is a horrible way to die.

Something about the show that always made me laugh was when one of the villains would mouth about twelve words and the subtitles would read "What was that?" The same people seemed to do the subtitles for all non English language films. It was a lot of fun though, even if cheaply done. Local shows at that time were no more sophisticated. Someone would slam a door and the whole wall would shake.

I saw "The Samurai" as a teenager when it first hit television in Sydney in 1964. I took an instant liking to the series, even though episodes were roughly edited (especially the sword battles and Ninja trickery), poorly dubbed and in poor condition technically. Merely reversing the footage of actors leaping off walls, trees and roofs served to show the characters performing amazing leaps - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" it wasn't!

Here was a highly entertaining series was overflowing with frenetic action, crash zooms, cheesy melodrama, wobbly fill light from reflector boards waving in the wind and great authentic Japanese locations, as Shintaro Akikusa (Koichi Ose) and Tombei The Mist (Fuyukichi Maki) battled the evil Koga and Fuma Ninjas with magic and wondrous feats of Samurai derring-do. The series was an exotic and exciting departure from the usual children's time slot programming of the day and we young and impressionable fans loved every minute of it! :)

In Australia, the series rapidly became a major hit. Everywhere could be seen children in dressing gowns, and other robes made from curtains and sheets, battling each other with sticks and fake star knives. Some youthful fans, more enterprising than most, actually cut and sharpened star knives from thin sheet steel, so producing truly dangerous weapons that were flung happily about school playgrounds, before being confiscated and the makers severely reprimanded by startled teachers(!)

At the height of the series' popularity, Koichi Ose came to Sydney and Melbourne in late 1965 to perform in a series of stage live shows based on the series. I remember seeing his arrival at Sydney Airport on the nightly television news and it was obvious that the startled actor was totally overwhelmed and bewildered, as stepping from the plane, he was mobbed by thousands of suitably costumed fans, who screamed with delight and flung star knives about. He was to perform in both States in front of huge crowds in several live shows based on the TV series, where he aptly displayed his genuine skills with the sword and martial arts.

(13th April, 2006) Now it's been several years since Season 1 came out on DVD for we lucky Aussies (Zone 4, pity about the rest of the planet), and we are now up to Season 6! Obviously those teenage fanboys from the far-off sixties are still maintaining their devotions as middle-aged Baby Boomers and gobbling up the seasons as they come out. (Pity the dressing gowns no longer fit, eh!) All I can say is - Keep those DVDs coming! :)

Go Shintaro! Go Tombei!

You know there are still grown men in Adelaide who giggle happily over memories of Tombei the Mist and Shintaro going "Waaaahhhrrrr" and slashing people around with his sword.

No school yard was safe from kids racing around with sticks and star knives made from cereal packets - oh remember star knives! Actually when I came to watch Kurosawa's samurai movies I really couldn't help expecting someone to suddenly jump backwards into a tree, which made Seven Samurai a bit difficult to watch. :) But watching the Lone Wolf and Cub movies was a real pleasure because there's a similar thing going on here.

Of course the stories in Wolf and Cub make considerably more sense than in The Samurai, but it probably didn't matter to use kids. In fact, even though there was, I seem to remember, some sort of continuing plot from episode to episode I don't think that they were actually played in order and it didn't seem to matter - or perhaps they were played in order and we just couldn't tell.

Great nostalgia and a happy memory. I was a grey ninja by the way.

I quickly grew to like this series because of its unfamiliar story lines, unusual fighting style and background settings. In particular, the outdoor scenery set it apart from children's shows of the period imported from Western sources which often relied on cardboard backscenes. Just have a look at the first two seasons of Dr Who, for example, which were made in 1963-65.

The serialised presentation of the stories raised my enthusiasm to view each successive episode, wondering how the cliff-hangers would work themselves out, bearing in mind the cultural differences. It was quite surprising to see how the problems were solved! As it was screened in my years of transition between secondary school, entry into the workforce and marriage, I could not view every episode when originally shown four decades ago. So, as I embark upon watching the DVDs, I feel a strong sense of nostalgia. I'm sure that many others who, like me, grew up in Sydney during the 1960s, would feel the same way.