The Lost World of Sinbad

The Lost World of Sinbad (大盗賊) is a 1963 Japanese drama action film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Mie Hama.

The film is often confused with the theme of fantasy instead of tokusatsu, but the book Toho Special Effects All Monster Encyclopedia specifically identifies it in the genre of tokusatsu fantasy. It was also released as Samurai Pirate in the United States.

Cast

 * Toshiro Mifune as Sukezaemon Naya
 * Makoto Sato as the Black Pirate
 * Jun Funato as Ming, the Prince of Thailand
 * Ichiro Arishima as Sennin the Wizard
 * Mie Hama as Princess Yaya
 * Kumi Mizuno as Miwa
 * Akiko Wakabayashi as Yaya's maid

Production
The film was based on a screenplay by Takeshi Kimura and Shinichi Sekizawa which was based on a treatment by Toshio Yasumi.

Release
The Lost World of Sinbad was distributed theatrically in Japan by Toho on October 26, 1963. The film was Toho's third highest-grossing film in Japan in 1963 and the 10th highest grossing domestically.

The film was distributed by American International Pictures in the United States with an English-language version, where it was re-titled Samurai Pirate, and then again re-titled The Lost World of Sinbad. The film was released as a double feature in the United States with War of the Zombies on March 17, 1965. It was released in the United Kingdom in 1976.