War movies, samurai movies and time travel movies have all long been genre staples but to the best of my knowledge, 1979's G. I. Samurai (a.k.a. Time Slip) is the only film to combine all three of those elements into one single film.

Directed by Mitsumasa Saito (who also directed Chiba in Black Magic Wars), the film follows Yoshiaki Iba (Sonny Chiba) and his modern day battalion of Japanese soldiers, complete with jeeps, tanks, and modern weaponry, who travel back through time to feudal times where they come up against an army of samurai.

Iba is forced to keep a cool head and retain control of his soldiers, but a sneaky samurai named Kagatore (Isao Natsuki) sees these modern day warriors as his chance at the big time and he conspires to team up with them so that he can use their weapons against the current reigning shogun.

Though Kagatore seems to be on the up and up about all of this, and promises to help the men find their way back to their proper place in the time slip, there's something about him that Iba can't quite put his finger on – something suspicious.

Released in North American in a version forty minutes shorter than it's Japanese counterpart, G. I. Samurai has always had a reputation as a fairly goofy film in genre circles. Seeing it in its native language and in its original aspect ratio and at its full length makes all the difference in the world for this film though, and the battle scenes in particular really shine through on this DVD. Yeah, it's true that the story is pretty far fetched and maybe a few of the actors overdo it in a scene or two, but hey, war is Hell, right? When Iba and his men are forced to stand against an entire army of samurai you know it's going to hit the fan and when it does, boy howdy, it's a doozy.

Cinematography, sets and costumes are all handled well, and seeing the samurai alongside the modern day soldiers makes for an interesting visual contrast. Chiba does a solid job in the lead, as does Natsuki.

Video:

Looking miles above the fullframe Visual Entertainment VHS release from the mid 90s, Adness' full-length version of G. I. Samurai is presented in its original 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio. While the colors could have been a touch brighter the source material used for this transfer looks to have been in very nice shape as there isn't any major print damage worth complaining about and while there is a bit of grain, it's very natural looking. Mpeg compression artifacts are not a problem and edge enhancement is kept to a minimum. Seeing the film in its proper aspect ratio really brings the battle scenes to life and gives the movie a much more epic scope.