Zipang (1990) User Reviews

Japanese equivalent of a Shaw Brothers production

[miszel · 7/10 · 30 June 2005]

I saw Zipang on midnite madness TV the other day. Fun little film, the Japanese equivalent of a 70's Shaw brothers production. The same cast of hundreds, same lame wigs, same cheap/charming production values and tight shooting schedule.

The plot is simple a sword master and his group of friends; a midget, a bomb expert (who blew his nose off), a geek (with glasses so you know the filmmakers aren't striving for historical accuracy), and...a small rubber elephant (no joke you have to see it and then maybe you can explain it to me) must get a golden sword before a gang of ninjas, a rival gang of thieves does the same. The sword has magical powers and belongs to a Golden King who lives in a Golden Kingdom. The plot isn't all that important, the set piece battles are. These are done with great flair even if the swords do wobble rubbery from time to time. Thrown in some cheap SFX (the matte painting looks like a Betamax pause still), a lot of references to other movies and video games (actually the whole movie is a lot like a video game come to life) and you have a lovable, scruffy little mess that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Well worth seeing if you like old kung-fu movies, definitely great in its category.

Wild But Tame

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 5/10 · 31 August 2003]

Like a lot of Japanese films I've been seeing of late, ZIPANG is set in ancient Japan, but seems to take what can only be called a "groovy" perspective on the whole thing. ZIPANG may look like a period film, but its many clever gadgets and other modern devices that appear certainly says otherwise.

The movie itself has a convoluted plot that's better left to the viewer to discover. Recapping the story in a few sentences seems impossible, not because it's so complex, but because it's so silly and pointless.

Still, ZIPANG is a good way to past the time. It's certainly no better than say RED SHADOW.

5 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie and reviews of other foreign films)

Such good fun.

[RatedVforVinny · 7/10 · 8 December 2019]

Very odd Japanese, fantasy movie, that mixes up a lot of fun Martial Arts and comedy, with some really strange supernatural goings on. Difficult to rate because there is not much to compare with, past or present. As far as originality goes it's certainly 'Out There'. sort of like that popular TV show 'Monkey' but not quite.

Magnificent flight of fantasy.

[pantagruella · 2 December 2003]

I'm hurt. Five out of ten? This is a wonderful film. It starts out in an updated idiom of Sonny Chiba's best Samurai fantasies and then progressively gets more and more eccentric and mythic. It's stylishly violent in places, comical, inventive, engaging and profound. It's genuinely a film to be discovered by a discerning few. Such a film could never be made in the West because the West no longer draws on its own legends and lore and has forfeited its own Romantic visions.

Amazing with it's stupidity

[mavruda1977 · 4/10 · 21 December 2006]

Well , I've had enough with stupid movies, but this one has something in deep. Actually I could not find it, but this movie make me to laugh on some proper moments. The beginning was strange and I saw some well known characters like : Zatoichi - but this one could see, Sazen Tange, an European sword fighter(?!?) and a bunch of samurais waiting on a bridge just to be slayed by Jigoku's sword. If we ignore the idiotic idea of having assistants who passes the sword to Jigoku like golf sticks, we have a fairy tale. A queen of the sunless land, a weird tattooed nudist (this guy rock- in the beginning he just yells like a savage guy and almost everyone could kick his butt all the time. It was hilarious.) We do have a strange vision of love between Yuri the pistol and Jugoku. Well the pistols , rocket launchers and other stuff along with the faked midget elephant make this movie a tale about a strange world - as it is in: The NeverEnding Story. It's probably the same. Next thing is the quest of finding a treasure - a golden sword (ignore the strange useless shape of it) and funny ninja tricks. Just see the movie without having great expectations.

Excellent tribute and unique variation on the best fantasy sword films from Asia

[ChungMo · 8/10 · 12 May 2006]

This one has much of a debt to pay to the crazy magic sword epics of the Shaw brothers as well as the great samurai films of the sixties and seventies. A band of "outlaws" chance on a treasure that reveals the way to Zipang, the mythical land of gold. They inadvertently resurrect a wild man who looks like he's a Japanese Samoan. The treasure is coveted by the Shogun so he sends his army of blue ninjas after them. There's also Yuri, the Pistol Girl who's after the leader of the outlaws for the reward.

The list of crazy stuff that occurs is long but it's delivered in a well-directed and beautifully photographed package that doesn't skip on incredible fight scenes and a great music track. There are two long one-take fight scenes that have to seen. Almost nobody does those anymore. The army of ninjas is an army of ninjas, there are dozens of ninja actors. The lead actors are all great for this kind of entertainment. The art direction is also very good. There are a couple of gory sword stabbing and a touch of Lone Wolf style blood spurting but mostly the violence is bloodless.

Much better then I expected. Recommended if you are not in the mood for reality.

A definite gold medallist

[MiztaBungle · 24 June 2004]

Set in a fantasy futuristic medieval Japan, 'Zipang' is a deliciously quirky action movie following the wacky adventures of outlaw Jigoku-goraku-Maru as he is pursued by a band of bounty hunters led by Teppo Oyuri otherwise known as Pistol Lily. During their escapades they meet a half naked guy and decide to help him recover the legendary sword thought to be the key to 'Zipang' – the city of gold where his lover is held hostage by the evil king.

The characters are interesting, requiring no real development due to their comic book style appeal. Director Kaizo Hayashi does a great job paying a tongue-in-cheek tribute to an era of classic martial arts characters including a not-so-blind samurai and a ninja displaying amazingly ability. The style over substance element means the film does slow down at points and the ridiculous plot doesn't give the viewer enough to cling on to. But who cares? The action scenes are excellent and the humour is great, remaining buoyant even when the plot spirals into absurdity.

Zipang

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 1 June 2023]

Jigoku is a samurai outlaw with a bounty on his head that Zatoichi, Cyrano de Bergerac and Yuri the Pistol is out to collect. Except she's the one who nearly catches him. And then he falls in love with her. And he has a bigger thing than saving his head on his mind. He's looking for a golden sword that's inside a cave. It's more than a weapon. It's the key to Zipang, the city of gold ruled by the love-hating Golden King, who has a woman trapped in an ice cave. And her lover has been released when the sword was freed. And oh yeah, there's also an army of blue ninjas who want to steal the golden sword.

If you're confused, don't worry. Zipang packs a lot in a short time. And then throws in lots more.

Have you ever played Kabuki: Quantum Fighter on the old NES? Then you know this movie, even if you didn't know it, because it was the Americanized tie-in game for a movie that would never be released in the West.

As he kills nearly 150 people (146, if you want to know), Jigoku discusses his nine swords, even if we don't see all of them. He's got a samurai sword, a sword that shoots its blade, one that has two blades, a really long samurai sword and even one with a spinning top on it.

Director and writer Kaizô Hayashi also made To Sleep As to Dream, another movie that is just as delightfully strange as this. Sure, you can watch this as a swords versus ninjas treasure hunting movie, but there are deep themes inside, like wondering what love is and the dangers of only caring for things. Also, for some reason, everyone looks like they're wearing street fashion and we have no idea where in time or space this is all happening.

This is a film with human-sized kites, ninjas with high tech goggles, mechanical claws and guns, as well as monsters, a friendly baby elephant, a samurai who knows how to use a rocket launcher and so much joy in every frame that you just can't believe it's happening.

I read a review on Letterboxd where someone said it was too long and kind of boring and I wonder why that person hates magic so much.

A Japanese Variant of "Wild Wild West"

[jmaruyama · 18 April 2002]

Jigoku-goraku-Maru (JGM or roughly translated as "Hellraiser") is a swordsman for hire, traveling with his band of mercenaries in feudal Japan. JGM is constantly being pursued by innumerable bounty hunters and other fortune seekers trying to collect the bounty on his head. One of those hunters is the beautiful Teppo Oyuri (aka Pistol Lily) who is an expert in Western Firearms and a deadly markswoman. During their travels, JGM and his mates happen across a map that supposedly leads them to a fortune in gold. What they find instead is a Golden Sword with incredible powers, that is the key to finding the legendary City of Gold, Zipang (Portuguese for Japan). Unfortunately for him, this unleases a string of events which culminate with JGM and company traveling to the very halls of Zipang to do battle with its Warlord King and his "Haniwa" henchmen.

Zipangu is surprisingly similar in style to the recent Wild Wild West (1999) movie and Original CBS TV Series. While predating the Wild Wild West movie by nine years, Zipangu could easily be called a Japanese "Wild Wild West" type of saga. Like WWW's James West, JGM is a feudal samurai who is decidedly and strangely modern. JGM's "Neo-Samurai" attire fuses Western influences (leather) with Japanese (silk). He carries a cache of wicked swords and stores them much like a golfer his golfing clubs. In a hilarious and elaborate opening sequence, JKG goes through his arsenal of swords one right after another, dependant on the opponent his is facing. Even his vernacular is a wierd mixture of modern slang and feudal speak.

Director Hayashi has a flair for parody as he literally borrows and lampoons all the various Samurai Movie conventions. One delightful highlight includes JKG's encounter with a all too familiar Blind Masseur (Zatoichi?) who turns out to be able to see after all. The Ninja (Shinobi-Nin) opponents whom JKG encounters throughout the film are also a joy to watch as they incorporate and wield various "modern" type of devices and gadgets that would make Wild Wild West's Artemus Gordon green with envy.

While the pacing is a bit slow at times and the story is an exercise in style rather than substance, the movie as a whole is quite enjoyable and a feast for the eyes. Not for the overly serious and a must for Japanese cinema fans.

High-Tech Ninjas in Old Japan

[BrianDanaCamp · 14 May 2001]

ZIPANG (1990) is a rather strained Japanese costume fantasy about a group of characters seeking a magical golden sword on a journey that takes them to Zipang, a mythical sky kingdom. The main character is Jigoku, a wanted criminal traveling with a band of outlaws. His chief rival is Yuri `the gun,' a female bounty hunter who carries a two-shot pistol. The two eventually fall in love. (The lead actors are Masahiro Takashima and Narumi Yasuda.)

They meet a seemingly primitive man in loin cloth, dubbed `the Prophet,' who originally came from Zipang and was trapped on earth many long years earlier. Up in Zipang is a Princess in white trapped in a white stone hut waiting to be rescued by the Prophet. Jigoku and Yuri find that their destiny is to help the two reunite. But they first must confront an evil ninja with some high-tech weapons.

Director Kaizo Hayashi mixes swordplay, historical drama, slapstick, romantic comedy, fantasy and science fiction, but the film never finds the right tone nor do the story elements ever quite gel. An early battle between Jigoku and the bounty hunters is clearly a parody as Jigoku fights such famous Japanese swordsmen as Zatoichi and Tange Sazen and a famous French swordsman, Cyrano de Bergerac! The whole story of the Princess and the Prophet and the island of Zipang in the sky is not even told until more than half-way into the two-hour film, so for the first half we have no idea where the story's going.

The high technology used in some scenes is amusingly far-fetched. The ninja villain has a pair of binoculars with a zoom lens that takes pictures on a little metal chip that is then transported via guided flying throwing star to the castle of the Ninja's lord who then projects the photos from the chip with some kind of slide projector apparatus. Fans of gimmicky Japanese fantasy will be interested but others may find the movie's charms somewhat fleeting.

Offbeat samura fantasy

[lor_ · 16 May 2023]

My review was written in June 1990 after a screening at Japan House in Manhattan.

"Zipang" is a tongue-in-cheek samurai fantasy whose best U. S. chances would come in a dubbed version for action audiences.

Director Kaizo Hayashi scored with art film enthusiasts via his "To Sleep so as to Dream" (1986), followed by "Circus Boys", but this time has adopted too cutesy an approach to appeal to serious-minded Japanese film buffs. It's analogous to Joseph Losey's comic strip film "Modesty Blaise" as applied to the revered tradition of period samurai epics.

Already trimmed from its Japanese release version of 118 minutes to a better paced 100-minute cut for international distribution, pic is ripe for dubbing in its unusual use of flippant English subtitles. Characters are translated with vulgarisms and anachronistic hip expressions that lampoon the action.

Film proper includes anachronisms as well: infrared binoculars, morar shells and even a slide projector figure into the action set several centuries ago as a shogun seeks a legendary island kingdom of gold known as "Zipang" (which turns out to be Japan after all).

Hokey group of characters makes Kenneth Robeson's "Doc Savage" troupe look serious by comparison. Handsome swordsman Masahiro Takashima is painfully hip in his styling, with an okay gag (suitable for ripoff by "Saturday Night Live" or Mel Brooks) of him using numbered swords like golf clubs. In battle he calls out to his squire (or caddie) for "number 7" and the appropriate club is soon skewering hundreds of baddies one by one.

This comical mayhem creates an anticlimax early in the film in a bravura single-take overhead shot of him decimating over 50 warriors merely to cross a bridge.

Overload of subplots feature a shogun questing not only for gold but the meaning of love, a ridiculously modern girl (replete with Louise Brooks hairdo) named Yuri the Pistol who sparfs withbutsoon becomes enamored of Takahima, a ghostly ancient warrior helped by the heroes to finally unite wih his lost love, a queen, and a silly papier-mache type baby elephant.

The specter of Steven Spielberg hangs heavily over the proceedings, ranging from a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" sequence in a caver to a final gag lameduckedly spoofing the music and sharkfin image of "Jaws" En route Hayashi provides entertainment via speeded up camera action, nimble ninja cavortings (led by the comical Yukio Yamato) and some interesting special effects. The musical score, which owes more to Ennio Morricone than traditional Japanese samurai pics, is sprightly and effective.

Acting is over the top; and won't be seriously impeded by dubbing, especially the unconvincingly sentimental "timeless" love story.

Art director Takeo Kimura, in whose honor Japan Society hosted this U. S. premiere in Gotham., has used Aztec and Incan Monuments as his design inspiration to impressive effect.