Hard Gay to star in stage version of "Samurai 7"

by Chris MaGee

Razor Ramon, better known as his latex-wearing alter-ego Hard Gay, had a phenomenal run in the Japanese media a few years ago, but now his hip thrusting homophobic schtick has joined the "Where's the Beef?" lady and M.C. Hammer in that great big pop culture graveyard, so what's a former Japanese pro wrestler to do? Take to the stage of course! In this case in the theatrical adaptation of anime series "Samurai 7", which in turn was a futuristic take on the 1954 Akira Kurosawa classic "The Seven Samurai".

Ramon will star as the robotic samurai Kikuchiyo who is the rough equivalent to the iconic Toshiro Mifune role in the original film. The rest of the seven samurai for hire will be portrayed by Masaya Kato, Masataka Nakagauchi, Hijiri Shinotani, Ryuji Sainei, Tsuyoshi Kida, Hiroki Takahashi.

I can't be nearly as upset by this adapation as I was about the shot-for-shot remake fo "The Seven Samurai" made by director Hiroyuki Nakano for use in pachinko machines, in fact the concept of a rag tag group of mercenaries taking on a noble cause has become part of our cultural vocabulary since Kurosawa's film, so more power to them. Plus Razor Ramon needs to eat.

"Samurai 7" will run at the Shinjuku Koma Stadium from November 14th to 24th. Thanks to Tokyograph for the story.