Aussie fight performer Gary Daniels has long lived with some form of mental illness that convinced him he could act. Every time I see one of his films (usually by accident, one of those rental-store boxes with only the title on it), I think to myself, "gosh, this guy couldn't have made any movies before, he's such an amateur." But unfortunately, he's made quite a few, and hasn't learned a dam' thing working in any of them.
This is his best film, exactly because he plays a character somewhat peripheral to the real protagonist, a Japanese hit-man out to clean up a renegade band of Yakusa operating in the US. He's played by Kiyoshi Nakajo who, surprisingly, almost never made a movie before. His performance is superb; precisely, his performance IS the film.
I ask all Gary-Daniels-haters to set aside their (entirely justified) animosity for the Aussie wannabe, long enough to watch the performance by Kiyoshi Nakajo. He makes his character believable, which adds credibility to a sometimes silly - but sometimes surprisingly suspenseful - crime story.
Not only have I enjoyed the movie on that basis alone, but now two or three times. Not a classic, but not your typical Gary Daniels disaster either. Definitely Kiyoshi Nakajo's film - and he earns it.
