Le Guerrier fantôme

Ghost Warrior is a low budget fish-out-of-water story about a 400 year old Samurai who is resurrected in 80s Los Angeles which would probably even confuse a person being only resurrected after 40 years. Despite being paired by Shout/Scream Factory with the more horror oriented The House Where Evil Dwells this is in no way a horror film but more of an action/thriller drama with light sci-fi elements. This is competently made and looks good but it's just a film with little momentum or urgency and nothing feels important and any excitement is muted. The cast is decent though no one looks familiar or seems memorable. The main girl is cute and looks like a young Denise Richards. She starred in the decent slasher Humongous but I didn't recognize her here. Thankfully there's no love story between her and the samurai as she just tries to guide him through modern day L. A. A romantic subplot would have dragged down an already unexciting film. This film was so low budget they couldn't even afford a "notable" Asian actor like George Takei, James Hong or Pat Morita. Yes, I know one of them isn't Japanese but like any American can tell the difference just by looking at them. Any who claims otherwise is a liar and a scoundrel.

The film mostly slogs along with the samurai having awkward encounters with home invaders, idle motor vehicles and a TV playing a WASP video. At one point he encounters a gang and despite this being an independent film it's one of those multi-cultural gangs mandated by Hollywood propagandists. He saves an old black man from them including cutting off a hand in one of the films few gory scenes. This assault made me think of the recent story of poor, old 73 black man, James Lambert who was murdered with traffic cones at 3 am on the streets of Philadelphia. His attackers weren't young adult multi-racial men but a savage, feral gang of 10-14 year old male and female black "children". A disgusting and vile story almost completely ignored by the media. Sorry James your black life didn't matter because it was ended by people who weren't pale enough. The kindly old rescued black man takes the Samurai to a sushi restaurant which is kind of hilarious. He's mistaken by a couple there for Toshiro Mifune proving again that all East Asians look alike to Americans. Eventually the plot gets going as the scientists who resurrected him try to hunt him down. They want to kill him and make it look like he was never revived so they can't be blamed for his murderous rampage.

Ghost Warrior is decent but just never gets very exciting. There's some violence including a severed hand, knife to the eye and other sword slashings. One person is killed in a samurai/motorcycle duel but they drop the ball not showing the person's top half flying off with blood showering all over. Instead they just show you him lying on the ground with some blood oozing from his mouth. Another way they drop the ball is when the girl feeds him a cup of Ramen noodles. We never get to see his reaction to see how they might compare to ancient Japanese cuisine. Are cheap Ramen noodles just as good as Asian food from hundreds of years ago? We'll never know because this movie just isn't that well thought out. This is R-rated but the violence isn't especially graphic though it has to be the only reason for the R-rating as there's no drugs, sex/nudity and only mild profanity. There's a few racial slurs as the gang calls him things like "Banzai" and "Nip". Nip makes me think of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine exposes herself unknowingly in a Christmas card. The Ghost Warrior title isn't really appropriate and only mentioned during the movie as him being a "ghost" from the past that doesn't belong in this era. An alternate title in the trailer is Swordkill which is kind of cool but also bland. This movie is also kind of cool but also bland. 81 minutes is plenty long for this. It's basically a movie to watch when you don't want too much excitement and just want to relax with something safe and mostly inoffensive.

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.

This movie was pretty good, but not the best samurai movie. Hiroshi Fujioka, an excellent actor, did portray a samurai better than most actors have in past movies. Infact, Fujioka gave one of the best samurai performances of all time. He really knows his stuff. But it's the plot that keeps this movie from being one of the best samurai movies. And some of the acting is rather bad from Fujioka's supporting cast members. Hiroshi Fujioka is the main reason to see this movie. Mr. Fujioka used a REAL katana in this movie, which is rare in movies to use a real weapon.

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!

Instead of trotting out a generic plot, "Ghost Warrior" is propelled by it's imagination. Suspend disbelief, sure, but this "fish out of water" scenario works. The story is straightforward and almost fable-like. The introduction of an honorable 16th Century fighting arts master to the sometimes dishonorable reality of modern Los Angeles, inevitably forces confrontation. An ancient warrior, re-animated by science, must battle for his life. The film is beautiful, especially flashbacks to the samurai's past. No better than average acting is easily forgiven, because the imaginative script holds your interest. Recommended for anyone looking for something out of the ordinary. - MERK