Kinji Fukasaku’s good looking, big budget, samurai adventure did gangbusters on its initial release back in the early 80s, and while it’s not the auteur’s best, ‘Legend of the Eight Samurai’ is nevertheless a (mostly) fun outing.

Princess Shizu (Yakushimaru) is the last surviving member of the Satomi clan who have been slaughtered by a merciless and undead (!) opposing clan called the Hikita. The princess flees into the forest for her life, the Hikita keen to find her and wipe out the entirety of the Satomi once and for all. In hiding, she eventually crosses paths with the keen-to-prove-he-is-a-mighty-warrior Inue (Sanada). He takes the princess under his wing, the two soon falling for one another as they attempt to allude the Hikita. They also cross paths with two warrior monks who say they can help lift the curse bestowed on the Princess and her clan and rid the land of Hikita once and for all. By uniting the mighty Eight Samurai warriors via special bestowed upon glowing orbs (!), the rag-tag group of would-be warriors set out to find the rest of the samurai and defeat the Hikita.

Following very similar story beats to Fukasaku’s own ‘Message from Space’ (and adapted from Kyokutei Bakin’s novel ‘Nanso Satomi Hakkenden’), ‘Legend of the Eight Samurai’ (which also shares several cast members from ‘Space’) is unfortunately not as fun as Fukasaku’s earlier sci-fi epic. Perhaps being laden with pretty much the same plot as ‘Space’, ‘Legend of the Eight Samurai’ feels a tad overfamiliar and isn’t injected with nearly as much energy as ‘Message from Space’ (or other earlier Fukasaku films). Not through lack of trying though, as Sanada brings enough youthful energy for several films and come the final run the epic siege on the Hikita fortress is rousing stuff.

It just takes a while to get going with too much wandering around, the leads randomly and conveniently bumping into everyone, and their romance clogging up too much of the runtime. Yakushimaru and Sanada certainly have chemistry and make for a good-looking couple, but their scenes of wooing just seem to drag on, with proceedings taking a while to get the sword-based action a title like ‘Legend of the Eight Samurai’ promises.

However, once the action ignites it’s worth the wait, mounted with Fukasaku’s knack for verve and Sonny Chiba’s gift for ferocious choreography. Coupled with this is the film’s blend of historical and fantastical meaning we get some cool monsters (giant centipede, giant snake attack!) and the Hikita are great over-the-top villains led by the fantastic Mari Natsuki as their evil leader, Tamazusa. The film also looks great with some epic sets and production complimenting the period and fantastical elements, the blend of practical effects and location work giving the film its epic quality.

It’s a shame the film isn’t as supercharged as its opening and closing segments and perhaps some runtime trimming may have helped propel proceedings more, but ‘Legend of the Eight Samurai’ is still old school fun despite its limitations and looks fantastic thanks to Eureka’s new restoration.