[Discussion] Satomi Hakkenden (Legend of the Eight Samurai)

Post by **jholic** » Mar 25th, '06, 07:31

Satomi Hakkenden (jdrama)
aka: "Legend of the Eight Samurai" or "Legend of the Eight Dog Warriors"
Air date: 2006/01/03
Runtime: 2:02:50
Starring: Takizawa Hideaki, Ayase Haruka, Kanno Miho, Nakama Yukie, Watabe Atsuro

http://www.tbs.co.jp/satomi8/
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nansou_Satomi_Hakkenden

RAWs on d-addicts by gryzze:
http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/torrents ... +all&sort=

Hardsubbed version by Nya! Fansubs:
http://nya.kadaan.com/

==========================================================

an excerpt from my post in part2 of Satomi:

jholic wrote:i actually watched the movie version of this many years ago while i was on vac in japan. even w/o subs and having my relatives translate it while i watched, i fell in love with it. one movie review book called this movie the "star wars" of jp cinema. i believe it. the special effects look corny for those who watch it now, but it was the story that i loved. (for jp fans, it starred sonny chiba and a young hiroyuki sanada of kou kou kyoushi). i still regard it as one of the best samurai films of all time.

i spent years looking for it afterwards, but since i didn't know the jp title, i mistakenly thought that the english title was 'the tale of seven samurai' (the correct title is actually 'the legend of eight samurai'). so you can imagine my disappointment as i kept running into kurosawa's 'seven samurai' and other movies, but never finding this one.

well, to make a long story even longer, i finally found it at a blockbusters (the salt lake one for you hawaii residents) when vhs tapes were still the only thing to rent. as my luck would have it, someone had borrowed it, and lost it. they only had the cover out to torture me.

eventually, i got a copy of the vhs tape from one of my friends. when the dvd version of this movie was released, it was blasphemous -- full screen version w/ eng DUB and no subs. the injustice was only recently corrected when they released the widescreen, jp audio version w/ eng subs. (probably because i kept sending them death threats....)

i was absolutely ecstatic when i saw this release! the cast looks incredible. when i first tried to tell my jp friends about the movie years ago, they all gave me that look females give to otakus (nerds) when they're excited about an unknown subject. well, the last laugh will be on THEM!! hahahaha! wait till i tell them who's in this latest drama!

Post by **jholic** » Mar 25th, '06, 07:31

i wanted to start off this discussion by giving thanks to gryzze for his generosity in providing the RAWs for all of us to enjoy. also, much mahalos to Nya! Fansubs for their hard work in subbing this special. without their efforts, i would not have been able to watch this drama. they did a FANTASTIC job of subbing, and i highly recommend going to their website and downloading their version.

the cast is the first thing that surprised me about this drama. big name stars like nakama yukie, atsuro watabe, kanno miho, takizawa hideaki, ayase haruka, etc. eye-popping indeed.

overall, i thought the drama was pretty good, but i still enjoyed the original movie more (if you haven't seen it, shame on you! the widescreen, jp audio, eng subbed version recently came out.) perhaps it was sentimentality, but the drama's storyline was quite different from the movie's. i guess it's like an old song - it's hard to enjoy a remakes or remixes when you loved the original.

but don't get me wrong, i still thought it was a good drama. the storyline flowed well, most of the acting was decent, and the special effects were much better than the movie. here are some of my observations (*slight spoilers below*):

- it was difficult to view kanno miho as a villain since i had seen her in 'koi ga shitai'. she did a great job of acting, but it still felt like watching sandra bullock as cruella deville.

- kanno, atsuro, nakama, and even takizawa turned in some pretty good acting performances. the rest of the cast was decent, but nothing that really stood out. ayase haruka was hella cute, but acting-wise ..... well, hm.....

- most of you young'uns wouldn't know it, but hiroyuki sanada of 'kou kou kyoushi', 'onmyoji', 'twighlight samurai' and, most recently, 'the last samurai (w/ tom cruise)' was a bright young star in the original movie. i would liked to have seen him make a cameo appearance in this special.

- raise of hands: who thinks takizawa hideaki would make an exceptional RUROUNI KENSHIN??? i'm not kidding. with the ponytail haircut, he looks perfect for the part. by the same token, i thought that katsuji ryo (who plays inumura daikaku) looked very similar to the chinese martial artist that starred in 'kid with the golden arm'.

- interesting use of chinese-style martial arts effects. i've been trying to keep up with my jdramas, but this marks the first time i've seen jet-li, chow-yun-fat style moves in a samurai drama. the dodging/blocking of arrows, wire stunts and flying around provided a refreshing aspect to a samurai drama. is this becoming a trend in taiga dramas?

- and i liked the theme song too.

Sukachu · Post by **Sukachu** » Mar 25th, '06, 11:19

jholic wrote:...
- kanno, atsuro, nakama, and even takizawa turned in some pretty good acting performances. the rest of the cast was decent, but nothing that really stood out. ayase haruka was hella cute, but acting-wise ..... well, hm.....

...

- raise of hands: who thinks takizawa hideaki would make an exceptional RUROUNI KENSHIN??? i'm not kidding. with the ponytail haircut, he looks perfect for the part. by the same token, i thought that katsuji ryo (who plays inumura daikaku) looked very similar to the chinese martial artist that starred in 'kid with the golden arm'.

...

- i thought it was actually pretty cool to have a female as one of the dog warriors (yamada yu - inuzaka keno the entertainer). but all of a sudden *she* turns into a *he*??!?

- the love story between inuyama dousetsu and funamushi was pretty tragic. i was actually kind of upset the writers didn't let funamushi live. the message seemed to be, 'life's a b*tch and then you die", which is fine except everyone else lived happily ever after. what's up with that?
- and i liked the theme song too.

Takizawa Hideaki did a pretty good job, actually I like his acting more now than his singing.
Lol, hmm Takizawa looks better.

Theme song is nice yeah. Never heard of sens though.

8thSin · Post by **8thSin** » Mar 25th, '06, 15:03

I can't believe someone actually made a sub for this. It must have been very difficult (at least it would be for me, with all the Old Japanese)

to the fansub group!

I absolute loved this Dorama SP! I rarely watch Jidaigeki like this, but it was so cool. Loved all the characters, and the battles.

I was surprised by the cast too. I was just expecting Nakama Yukie and Tacky, but I recognized most of the 'Eight Dog Warriors'.

The 'Evil woman' was great. I never thought of her as a villain, but she looked like she's really possessed.

Sukachu · Post by **Sukachu** » Mar 25th, '06, 23:19

Hmm, yeah I thought the same about Takki and Yukie.

Hmm, the "evil woman": looks like she was using some cheap make up, it looked more like that way than being possesed.

Post by **ironicwave** » Mar 29th, '06, 00:05

i finally managed to watch this too and i absolutely LOVED it!!!
i know i didn't see the movie version, but for some reason i kept thinking major deja vu...

did the anime the hakkenden tell the same or similar story?
anyway, i thought kanno miho was perfect in her role, her voice and looks totally creeped me out...
and the rest of the cast was just awesome, so many familiar faces, i don't think there was a minute in this special i wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat gawking...

also, as in most epic style dramas, i loved the scenery, a pure feast for the eyes...

i'm not usually a fan of all the wild "flying" in fight scenes, but i don't think that was overdone in this and the fight scenes in general were very well choreographed...
this may be weird but the one scene...

i thought ozawa yukiyoshi gave a bit of a stiff performance, he had his moments, but wasn't that great...
this is also the first drama i'd seen oshio manabu in and was disappointed to read he's quitting acting... i guess i'll have to see about getting some of his older dramas, i really enjoyed him in satomi...
anyway, this special had a wealth of colorful characters in it and i think the casting was outstanding, overall a wonderful show...

@jholic: i agree takki would make an excellent kenshin, not just the hairstyle, but i think he'd have the face and bodybuild for it too...

i know i'll be watching this again and again and i'd like to thank everyone who made it possible...

meiohsetsuna · Post by **meiohsetsuna** » Apr 30th, '06, 01:13

Wow, this thread slipped from under my nose.

jholic wrote:- raise of hands: who thinks takizawa hideaki would make an exceptional RUROUNI KENSHIN??? i'm not kidding. with the ponytail haircut, he looks perfect for the part. by the same token, i thought that katsuji ryo (who plays inumura daikaku) looked very similar to the chinese martial artist that starred in 'kid with the golden arm'.

Hai! I agree!

All of Nya! thought so too while we were subbing this. ^_^
It was ironic for us, because one of our members, HimekoHimura, absolutely LOVES Takki to death. And before she was a JE/Drama freak, she was an anime freak who had declared Kenshin as her husband. (I prefer Tamahome myself) SO yah, logically we came to that connection.

I'm glad to see people loved it!

ironicwave >> I never watched the anime, but it's my impression that it was a wee bit different. Just technical details. I believe the 'curse' came about differently. Something about Satomi promising to marry his daughter off to whomever could defeat the invaders, and the only one who could defeat them was a wolf. The father disapproved of the pairing and the curse came about... at least that's what I remember from the synopsis I read for it. Old anime...

Satomi Hakkenden is a classic Japanese fairy tale (must like how Gumiho is a classic Korean fairy tale) which has been retold many times over and varies slightly from village to village.

Post by **jholic** » Apr 30th, '06, 16:19

meioh: glad to see you here. i'm happy to hear you and ironic agree with me. while watching this, all i could think of was how he'd be the perfect kenshin. isn't his hair reddish in this series too?

ironic: did you ever watch 'koi ga shitai' (one of my first and favorite jdramas of all time). after watching it, it's hard to picture kanno as a villain. she's so sweet. and the scenes were very picturesque, but perhaps i was paying too much attention to ayase.

i'm going to have to find that anime. i loved the storyline that the movie used, but maybe the anime might have a good storyline as well. say hi to himeko and the gang for me, meioh. miss hawaii pretty badly.

Post by **ironicwave** » May 1st, '06, 00:20

i meant to rewatch the anime, but still haven't gotten around to it...
it is in fact pretty old and was a major pain in the rear to get as well as i remember...

and i'll have to pop in koi ga shitai one of these days then, jholic...
sadly, there never seems to be enough time to actually watch the dramas and once they're off harddrive... well...

at least when one series or another is commented on positively, it makes it back to my mental rolodex... and eventual viewing...

Crazy Penguin · Post by **Crazy Penguin** » May 1st, '06, 13:16

I wouldn't really say "Chinese-style martial arts effects". There has been plenty of flying and other things along that line in Japanese movies before, like in "Azumi" or "Red Shadow", or lots of dodging and deflecting arrows in "Kozure Okami" back in the 70s. You have a lot of flying in basically every movie that includes shinobi (take the fight good shinobi vs monkey boy in Azumi), the shinobi fairy tales come from somewhere after all. Not to mention that arrow-cutting is something I'd rather call "typical Japanese" anyway (I don't think you can really block or even cut an arrow with those kung-fu style swords, unlike it can be done with a decent katana (like some ken-jutsu instructors in Japan still do it)).

I remember the anime, I have it somewhere on tape. There were a few differences.

No surprise that they shortened some parts, the anime goes over 4 DVDs after all.

The biggest issue with the anime, at least for me, was that the drawing style after several episodes suddenly turned completely ugly for a short time before it returned to how it was in the beginning. No idea why they did that. If you're in Germany, you can get all episodes on DVD from Amazon Germany.

I really liked Hamaji in this one. She was just as cute and loveable as the anime Hamaji, maybe even more. Seeing Yukie in a role like Fusehime is always a pleasure. And of course, who wouldn't love the yamabushi (who reminds me more of a shinobi from a typical shinobi fairy tale with some of his magic moves).

One of the highlights in the first part, for me, was definitely the use of a jitte. You don't see those that often. For me it's one of the most fascinating non-lethal weapons from feudal Japan. Really good to see one used.

Though, my favorite remains the "Evil Woman". Not only did she do a great job in that role, but also her clothes... a dream, really. Black, red and gold, one hell of a kimono. I want that kimono!!!! (yeah, I'm odd, I'm male, 30 and really like to watch the magnificent kimono female characters are wearing in jidai geki)

Now... back to waiting for part 2 to finish...

jica · Post by **jica** » May 12th, '06, 09:48

Really, I think Kanno Miho owned this drama, she was sooo convincing as the evil woman. I didn't realize it was her until the end when I saw her name

Ashame to say this, but I was watching the drama mainly because of Takizawa, but I'm glad I did it, you shouldn't miss it. Worth watching. Tackey looked good, really good, but I don't know if there was so much acting...

I haven't watched many samurai dramas, for me this was a mix of anime and hk costume drama, but I liked and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks everybody who contributed in fansubbing and everything

What anime are you guys talking about?

Post by **ironicwave** » May 13th, '06, 18:06

jica wrote:What anime are you guys talking about?

it's an older 90's anime called hakkenden: legend of the dog warriors
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=249

i'd seen it a long time ago and now know for sure where i got my deja vu feeling when watching satomi hakkenden...

jica · Post by **jica** » May 14th, '06, 06:35

ironicwave, thanks for the info

hakumei · Post by **hakumei** » May 25th, '06, 02:47

I just watched the first part of this yesterday, and I really love it. Only, I cannot stand Hamaji...:: shudders :: That is probably the only thing I hated about this, Hamaji.......those kinds of girls who are so bloody annoying. They always seem to trip and fall too. But that is just my opinion!

Other then that, I really love the warriors so far and the actors they choose to play them. It is a great dorama!

Post by **jholic** » May 25th, '06, 03:21

hakumei: i'd like to hear what you think about it after you've watched pt2.

Robina · Post by **Robina** » Jul 15th, '06, 04:56

I watch Satomi Hakkenden and i really like it

The story was nice and the more imprtant thing is the action or i mean the sword fighting ^^

Ne ne ne there is a character that I found cute and sweet and he is Shinbei (the eight warrior)
[img]http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6844/whoishetr2.jpg[/img]
Can you tell me the name of this actor?

nicpkh · Post by **nicpkh** » Jul 15th, '06, 07:09

Salute to this drama, I really like it a lot just finish watch first part and the storyline are interesting. Really like the way Takizawa acting. Plus the special effect are great. The effect on murasame-maru are so real, when the person using it to slashing. heheh

Recommended to all whose like action drama, this drama should watch it.

Going to continue second part now.

nicpkh · Post by **nicpkh** » Jul 15th, '06, 07:30

Can someone tell me where can i download the OST for Satomi. Domo Arigatou

Post by **mizune** » Jul 15th, '06, 22:52

Robina wrote:Ne ne ne there is a character that I found cute and sweet and he is Shinbei (the eight warrior)
Can you tell me the name of this actor?

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Yamashita_Shoon

alanz76 · Post by **alanz76** » Jul 25th, '06, 07:45

i am still searching the original movie of satomi hakken-den (1983) jholic do u have this original movie?or anybody out there who got this movie? pls msg me at alanpejan76@yahoo.com....thanx

Post by **jholic** » Aug 1st, '06, 04:31

alanz: please do a search on other bt sites.

Links of Interest
Asian Movie Torrent Links

tegomasu · Post by **tegomasu** » Aug 1st, '06, 05:46

if i downloaded the Hardsubbed version by Nya! Fansubs, what system or player do i use to open it??

meiohsetsuna · Post by **meiohsetsuna** » Aug 1st, '06, 05:50

I recommend VLC for EVERYTHING~! It even skips those pesky region codes when you play a dvd.... ^_^

go to videolan.org or something... or jsut run a google search for VLC/videolanclient

tegomasu · Post by **tegomasu** » Aug 1st, '06, 05:57

thanks soo much!!

ainangst · Post by **ainangst** » Aug 7th, '06, 16:24

after one week of downloading finally able to see part 1

OMG! GREAT!!!
sugoi!!!
takki

*unable to express awe properly*

part2 is currently downloading at 2kb/s... handicaped snail

minna...tasukete kudasai

please seed...onegaishimasu *bowbow*

thesis_2003 · Post by **thesis_2003** » Aug 7th, '06, 17:49

I am crazy about Samurai things. Let download and see! Thanks for the post.

alanz76 · Post by **alanz76** » Aug 14th, '06, 07:14

jholic...i am sorry, i am still unable to find the old satomi hakkenden..another problem is i am unable to read in chinese character..hehehe..please assist me to watch the old one.
another thing is i had downloaded it but yet still the new satomi...please help.any one have ideas?

Post by **jholic** » Aug 15th, '06, 00:47

alanz: i would just be patient and wait till asiandvdclub comes online again. i remember seeing it there.

garnet07 · Post by **garnet07** » Oct 24th, '08, 09:30

Kind of awkward reviving an old topic, but I really thank Nya Fansubs for doing this project. Loved every minute of this SP especially because of all the awesome cast.

Ok, I was enticed on watching it because of Takizawa Hideaki, but after finishing it, man that was a good 4 hours of being a couch potato. I didn't expect to recognize so many wonderful Japanese actors all in one sitting. I also love this fantasy style storyline and the special effects were pretty good for a TV made movie.

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[Discussion] Satomi Hakkenden (Legend of the Eight Samurai)

[Discussion] Satomi Hakkenden (Legend of the Eight Samurai)

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