I happened to get a chance to see Ten To Chi To or Heaven And Earth, as we knew it here, on the big screen when it debuted in Calgary in the spring of 1990. After having worked many long hours on the movie for a good part of the late summer in 1989 as one of the 2000 Samurai infantry extras, it was amazing to see the finished product on the big screen. As mentioned in one of the earlier reviews, for fans of the Samurai movie genre, this is a must see. The large battle scenes are spectacular.Trivia note. Actor Ken Watanabe was originally cast as one of the lead actors in Heaven and Earth. While filming Ken was diagnosed with acute myelogenic leukemia, a life-threatening disease of the bone marrow, that put an end to his part in the movie. Ken had to return to Japan for treatment that kept him away acting for a few years. He came back in 1994 only to have a relapse, but once again battled back. Ken has been nominated for Best Actor in a supporting role at this year's Academy Awards for his outstanding performance as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai. I wish him all the best! BTW, I was one of a handful of extras who worked all through the filming from July to early Sepetebmber 1989, here in Alberta. During the last few days of filming there was only about 50 or so of us left. On the final day, final scene, a Saturday afternoon IIRC, some production people came around and handed each of us a cold beer. Director Haruki Kadokawa came out and toasted us. He smiled and said, "Very long. Very hard. Thank you!"

One of my favorites, despite all the historical inaccuracies. As a Canadian, I feel a certain pride watching it repeatedly.Filmed in Alberta, Canada for its wide open space and abundance of horses. Morley Flats standing in for the Plains of Kawanakajima. 3,000 Canadian extras and 1,000 horses were used for the huge battles. During the filming, several behind-the-scenes TV documentaries were made and I was fortunate to video-tape most of them.Alberta's superb riders, cowboys and cowgirls, and native Americans, 1,000 of them were employed to appear as mounted samurai. 2,000 other extras were transported by schoolbuses to the shooting location to appear as samurai infantry. Many were young kids, many were young girls, because they were the right height to fit into the thousands of samurai armor used for the film. These extras were trained in spear-fighting and drilled to march in unison.To hide their Caucasian features, the 3,000 Canadian extras all wore armoured face guards. These technically made them all Samurai. One of the flaws in the film, since the bulk of actual samurai armies were composed of peasant soldiers (ashigaru), whose faces would have been exposed and unarmoured.As a Canadian, I still get chills watching the spectacular battle scenes. Those Canadians made fine samurai.

The movie Heaven and Earth is quite a dramatic one. From it's beginning we can feel the atmosphere of medievil Japan. First I thought it would be boring but then I realised that I wasn't right. First I was shocked with the scene where Yae challenged any of Ochigo warrior to fight her and she was shot by Kagetoro, then thrilled and dissapointed with her death in the final battle. I have seen many movies but Heaven and Earth is really the best. Naomi Zaizen's play was brilliant.

You're in for an action packed treat if you rent this tonight..that is if you can find it. Hey it's a Japanese movie about 2 warlords. One noble and defensive, forgoing all worldly pleasures to protect what he rules. The other, ambitious, ruthless, and even more powerful. The clashes of over 10,000 samuri on the battlefield is breathtaking. Forget historical accuracy...after all wasn't Tombstone just a bit better than Wyatt Earp?