El hombre de hielo

When I first saw this movie, I was quickly taken by it and impressed. Sure it was a low budget movie and I wasnt expecting Gone With The Wind, but I certainly was not expecting as much bang for the buck as I got. I recommend this little jewel to anyone who is willing to watch it. You would not be disappointed.

American cryosurgeons tried to anatomize frozen body of Yoshimitsu Taga, the great samurai general of 400 years ago, then found he had been in suspended animation. Occasionally, a guard of the institution tries to steal the priceless katana(samurai sword) of resurrected warrior, to be slashed with the very treasure. Yoshimitsu wanders about modern American town, happens to slay street gangs with guns to save an old man. Yoshimitsu is living in laws and morals of ancient war age, so that is very natural to him. But cryosurgeons want to kill him secretly to avoid trouble, and of course, police force tries to shoot him down...

You can easily see how silly the plot is, however, I recommend this film. The samurai in this film is REAL. Actor Hiroshi Fujioka is genuine sensei of swordsmanship, so he knows how to use katana and how a samurai think, feel and act in a strange situation. Fujioka's presence made this lame plot a memorable tragedy.

Magnificent and sad music by Richard Band is another salvation of the feature.

In 16th century Japan, an efficient and fearless Samurai named Yoshimitsu (Hiroshi Fujioka) is wounded in battle after his sweetheart has been killed. He falls into a body of water and is frozen for over 400 years. Then, in the 1980s, his perfectly preserved body is discovered, shipped to America, and he is soon revived, to adjust to a different time in history and a different culture. A journalist named Chris Welles (Janet Julian) tries to protect him from those that would do him harm.

"Ghost Warrior" is definitely a notch above the typical Empire Pictures fare. Produced by Charles Band, written by Tim Curnen ("Forbidden World"), and directed by J. Larry Carroll (co- writer of "Tourist Trap"), it works largely because it's able to downplay comedy and take its premise fairly seriously. It also works because it allows Fujioka to play his time travelling warrior with a great deal of dignity. This doesn't mean that it's without a sense of humour, but it never gets overly campy or cheesy.

Granted, more could have been done with scenes of Yoshimitsu experiencing 1984 L.A. (among other things, he discovers cars, tires, TV sets...and the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.). The character of Alan Richards (John Calvin) is rather ridiculous what with the about-face that he pulls. And the movie ultimately loses a bit of momentum in its final act.

Still, it's appealing, and earnestly acted. The lovely Julian ("Humongous", "King of New York") is a fine leading lady. Fujioka does have an effective screen presence. Veteran Charles Lampkin (Arch Obolers' "Five") is extremely likable as the senior citizen who attempts to befriend Yoshimitsu. Bill Morey ("Death Race 2000"), Andy Wood ("Rambo: First Blood Part II"), Robert Kino ("Night of the Creeps"), and Peter Liapis ("Ghoulies") co-star.

"Ghost Warrior" has a solid, atmospheric opening and a very nice music score by Richard Band. It actually gets pretty gory at times.

Worth a look for 1980s cult cinema enthusiasts.

Eight out of 10.

For all its modest running time, the unfairly neglected 'Ghost Warrior' (1984) is, for me at least, one of Empire Pictures more fascinating and singular productions, much like the iconic, neon-bright Sci-fi mash-up 'Trancers', 'Ghost Warrior' is a low budget, boldly inventive Sf/Chanbara hybrid about an enigmatic protagonist from an alternative time-line adrift in the greatly disorientating milieu of 20th century Los Angeles. Yoshi (Hiroshi Fujioka) an esteemed Samurai Warrior from 16th century feudal Japan is Rod Serlinged into a discombobulating diorama of unfamiliar technologies, amusingly prototypical B-Move Gang-bangers, a strange, oppressively vast city with its perplexing multitudes of baffling cultural incongruities, a burgeoning love affair that spans centuries, and the shock rocking sounds of L. A. metal warriors W. A. S. P all coalesce to make Yoshi's fateful sword-slashing exodus such a quixotic B-Movie delight! Two splendidly engaging lead actors, another nifty score by maestro Richard band, and some sanguinary Samurai showdowns made me a hardcore believer, man! 500 years ago deadly samurai Yoshi was left for dead, in 20th century L. A. he's woken up completely on the wrong side of his head!

Ghost Warrior (1986)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The body of a 400-year-old samurai (Hiroshi Fujioka) is found frozen in Japan so it's moved to Los Angeles where a secret agency brings it back to life. It doesn't take long for the samurai to escape and start killing off some bad people but a reporter (Janet Julian) goes along with him to try and protect him from the agency who wants him dead before anyone finds out what they did. GHOST WARRIOR comes from producer Charles Band so that should tell you to expect a low-budget, silly story and nothing too spectacular. This here is a pretty strange film because it's clearly just trying to cash in on the success of other martial arts movies but I'm not sure who this film was aimed at. The story itself is somewhat sci-fi but those elements are never really explored. The martial arts stuff takes up a good portion of the running time but there's so much more that could have been done but isn't. Early on we get a campy scene where a bunch of punks are picking on an old man and then the samurai comes to his rescue. These scenes are pure camp and they are fun and help make the picture interesting. These scenes also contain some campy violence but sadly moments like these are so far apart from one another. The relationship with the reporter is just downright silly and never really adds up to anything. It's too this stuff wasn't eliminated in favor of more action. GHOST WARRIOR is the type of "C" picture most people are going to be expecting but it's too bad a little more effort wasn't put into it because we could have had a fun camp film.