Forthcoming Qi Jiguang vs Woku film

[clibinarium]

荡寇风云 ; English title "God of War". Not the greatest choice in English as it gets a bit swamped by the game series of the same name, but anyway..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL0jOIN_ukQ

Qi Jiguang against the Woku. An interesting subject, and we don't get enough movies depicting the Ming Dynasty at war. The Ming troops look pretty good, the Woku look too much like actual Samurai I think. But it should be good for inspiration (need to get my Ming range back on track). In cinemas in China in May, not sure whether it will get a Western release, but it will surface one way or another I am sure.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks interesting 

There were several samurai clans that acted as pirates, Murakami being one of the main ones, so it seems fine to me that samurai are present.

cheers

James

[Vanvlak]

Pardon my ignorance in the matter - that's Ming Chinese vs Japanese pirate/invaders, right?

[clibinarium]

No ignorance there; that's exactly what it is.

[Codsticker]

I am intrigued...

[von Lucky]

Pardon my ignorance in the matter - that's Ming Chinese vs Japanese pirate/invaders, right?

Recognising that non-Japanese pirates would often dress as these Japanese (who were themselves originally a mix of samurai, ronin, smugglers, fishermen, etc.). As time went on the bulk of the Wokou/Wako forces were local Chinese, but the Japanese remained the core fighting force.

[clibinarium]

Absolutely; there would have been lots, and often a majority of Chinese and Korean pirates in the ranks of the woku. Some estimates were 3 Japanese to 7 non-Japanese.

But my issue is that they're unlikely to have been as well equipped, or as homogeneous as this;

 

There were still regular forces of Daimyo who didn't achieve this level of uniformity in the 1550s. Mostly pirates are depicted as umarmoured, and sometimes scarcely dressed. Leaders do seem to have worn armour where available. I'm not really complaining, I am happy the movie has been made and look forward to it.



Great article here on the woku, from the Great Ming Military blog, which if you are interested in the Ming is an absolute must bookmark

http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2016/06/enemy-of-ming-wokou-p1.html

[von Lucky]

You can't have the baddies dressed as the Rebels when they clearly need to look like Imperials

And thanks for the bookmark.

[Vanvlak]

Thanks for the elucidation - this is benefiting my slowly getting into gear Liangshan project 

[Codsticker]

Great article here on the woku, from the Great Ming Military blog, which if you are interested in the Ming is an absolute must bookmark

http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2016/06/enemy-of-ming-wokou-p1.html

Great link, thank you.

Edit: there does seem to be some uniformity amongst the pirates: bald men with no pants!*


* actually... that sounds like the ward Mrs. Codsticker works in at the hospital....