Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

DrTopo That movie is alright but the beginning is horribly long and boring. The first 30 minutes or so are spent resurrecting dead people and it seems like an eternity. However, afterward you get a few good fights. For Kill Bill fan, you get to see where Tarantino got his inspiration for the Hattori Hanzo scene. Except this time it's Sony Chiba who ask for a sword. Hattori Hanzo doesn't want to make him a sword until a resurrected Musashi shows up at the door. Musashi ends up leaving but they know he'll be back so Hattori Hanzo makes a sword that can cut spirits (like in Kill Bill).The fight with Sony Chiba and Musashi is really good and so is one more fight in the movie. Definitely not as good as Shogun's Samurai that also features Chiba as Jubei Yagyu but cool to see for Chiba or Tarantino fans. What I recommend is to listen to the first 5 minutes then fast forward until they are done with the reincarnation crap.

houseofjames While Makai Tensho cannot be mistaken for masterpiece film-making, it is definitely a fun-ride for those in love with Samurai movies. The cast is filled with a veritable who's-who of Japanese cinema, including such luminaries as Ken Ogata, Soony Chiba, Tetsuro Tamba. It is also very gratifying to see the venerable Tomisaburo Wakayama (star of the 70's epic Lone Wolf and Cub series), still slicing and dicing with the best of them.The film has some incredible action set pieces, including a stunning showdown in a burning castle. Some of the effects and costumes are a little over-the-top, but the actors seem to be having so much fun, and the direction is so fast paced, that you just can't help but be swept up into the pulp fantasy. Makai Tensho is a gem in modern samurai films.

Warren Chang I recently viewed a subtitled version of Makai Tensho: Samurai Reincarnation from my video store. I had previously viewed the dubbed version a few times throughout the years and found the movie to be strangely appealing but also confusing and the dubbed dialog rather silly. Characters would suddenly disappear or appear without any explanation and the plot seemed somewhat incoherent. The subtitled version appears to have more footage, which helps explain the story much more clearly and the movie appears much more sophisticated. In the subtitled version, the subtlety of the acting is quite good. For example, the acting of Kenji Sawada as the Christian Shiro appeared almost ridiculous and over the top in the dubbed version, but hearing it in Japanese with subtitles, it had much more subtlety and created a much more complex character. There are many good and familiar actors (to those familiar with this genre)who give good performances from Sonny Chiba as Jubei Yagyu to Tomisaburo Wakayama as the elder Yagyu, who is famed for his character in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Don't judge this movie, until you have the opportunity to view the subtitled version!

Nate-9 I couldn't watch the entire film the dubbing was so bad. So I turned down the sound and heard nothing. After ten minutes I couldn't watch it either way...which is too bad since it looked like a good film. But this was a serious samurai horror film that was dubbed by people who thought it would be funny to do Erkel or Bert & Ernie voices over a Japanese film. These are the same people who ruined Ninja Wars! It's great for Mystery Science Theatre 3000 but this was a legitimate release!