American Samurai

Sometimes, not often, you come across a movie where you see the good parts and you can clearly see how close they where to making a good movie and wonder why they failed. In my book, this movie is one that could so easy be a 6 or 7, or even a 8 total rating here on imdb. It would still not be a oscar movie, but i truly think that it had a ponetial at one time in production to become a unforgetable classic.

All that needed to have happend was that the story guy got some feedback and adjustments where made to the story a bit. This is a hindsight and mini reimagine view of the movie, read it after you watched the movie to put my thoughts on top of it. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree?

So the issue i have with this movie is that the hard parts is already there. A story good enough in theory, most actors decent enough, with good enough fighting skills thrown in. And lets not forget the focus on the tradotions of a nice sword!

What they do with what they got, is in part thrown away without any cause, and shown down cheap alleys because of ... lazyness?

Now you might say that is the issue right there in the pudding, that it is in parts mostly, just good enough. But i would argue your wrong in that thinking.

All these sections are just ingredients that could have been a great cake with just a tiny little bit more writing/changes in the story arc and more focus on the characters and swords ... and the removal of one person that contributes absolutly nothing to the story but stealing time. The person not even being a particular bad actor here, is just not fitting in to the story at all exept for... mild spoiler.... being a woman wich in it self ages the movie conciderably these days.

If you just watched this movie. Think of my pictures i'm about to make up here on the spot with the production value, as a re-imagine or a view of what could have been. Do you agree or disagree.

They completly removed the female char and let that time be spent seeing the bonding and development AND separation of the two brothers with a loving father trying his best trying to teach them the values of life, tradition, honour and one of the brothers still failing beacause of .. say failiure to accept his limitations and gets blinded by obession (feel free to apply any reason, i just made one up on the spot). I belivie the focus on the brothers, meaning of the sword and bonding to be more important for the movie as a whole. Make the growing up for the brothers a story set in gorgeos scenery with nature to give it and warmth and pacing.

Also with my imaginary setup above, think of changing the dialoge between the brothers throghout the movie where the american brother keeps asking his japanese brother more through the movie of reunion, to honor there father and to be family. Let the sword be the competing reason to honor.

I belive by taking out everyday reality, to make more fiction masculinity-stero-typical and dull female chars, it lost on being humaine wich it would with its funding AND cast potentially could have pull off with spades and made a great movie.

I would like to say that if not clear, i think this movie was so close to being great, and thank you for reading.

Having all but exhausted the exploitation of ninjas, what was Cannon to do? Right - exploit samurais instead! As well as recycle elements from their past hit BLOODSPORT, including a big burly guy with a beard as one of the contestants! It's clear the movie was cut for an "R" rating, given how some wounds and killings are not shown as clearly as you would think, but the editing also shows signs of production problems. One lengthy scene seems to have been cut in half, with the subsequent half played much later in the movie. There is also awkward narration and a very long sex scene where you never see the faces of the lovers, furthering the suspicion of frantic efforts to patch together the movie. The production values are pretty good, and Firstenberg does deliver the goods with the fight sequences, which are expertly choreographed. He doesn't do well with the actors however, having Dacascos overact at times and Bradley giving yet another uncharismatic performance.

This is an excellent movie in my opinion. Good plot, amazing fighting scenes, and great effects. David Bradley does a great job, and so does Mark Dacascos. However, if you really want to enjoy this movie, don't get the US VHS version, because it is heavily cut. The UK VHS, although it is PAL, has only 1 second missing, and it's a part where a man pulls out a knife in a disco. The reason they cut this out is to prevent kids from imitating this (yeah I know it sounds funny). However, EVERYTHING else has been left intact. Since it is PAL, you would have to convert it to NTSC, but it is much much better than watching the heavily edited US tape.

The French DVD titled "American Samourai" is completely uncut, and also has the one second missing from the UK tape. The bad thing is that this french DVD does not have English sound, only french.

Anyway, this movie is an excellent martial arts movie!

Whilst I understand the lower ratings given by others, and the derogatory comments directed toward this film, I believe it's also important to point out the merits of the film. David Bradley's acting is certainly passable in this film, and his martial arts abilities are obviously very adequate for his role, with some slick fight scenes. Mark Dacascos is a stand out in a film bursting with a rich variety of contrasting fighting styles and weapons. This is "BloodSport" with weapons, and a LOT more blood!!! (it even boasts a cocky large Yankee competitor like Bloodsport!). The action is somewhat brutal, and in the original cut, very little is left to the imagination when it comes to the gory wounding and killing blows (which I feel is as it should be!). Dacascos as Kenshiro in particular brings a restraint and elegance to his role as a Yakuza swordsman, intent on perfecting his craft at the expense of his opponents (and their limbs!) in the arena - only drawing his sword upon his infliction of a lightning fast maiming or killing blow.

Yes, this film does not boast polished storytelling, or compelling characterisation, but it does provide a unique and entertaining addition to the martial arts genre and stands alone as an ultra-violent tournament-style actioner with a talented cast of martial artists.

And for this at least, we should recognise it's value!!!

American Samurai fits into a genre of cinema that enjoyed far to short lived a success, that being the underground, martial arts death tournament film. Films like this enjoyed a great boom in the eighties and early nineties and arguably were the influences for the modern fighting tournament games such as Street Fighter 2 and the like. Some other films of this genre are "Ring of Steel", "Best of the Best 2", "Blood Fist 2" and perhaps one of the last of these magnificent creatures to appear in theater; John Claude VanDam's "The Quest"... unless of course you count the more recent "Fight Club", which you shouldn't because it's not about underground martial arts guys that fight but just normal guys and that isn't the main plot of the film anyway really. As evident from the title this film also belongs to the school of sticking the word American in front of stuff IE: American Ninja's 1 through 4, American Ronin and American Cyborg. this usually means you have an instant classic on your hands. Anyway what really makes the film shine is the cast of characters. American Samurai offers more weird fighters than any other film of the genre that I have yet seen. If nothing else it would make a great video game. I will attempt to catalogue the assortment of fighters in the style of a badly translated Nintendo instruction booklet.

• The American Samurai: A warrior of much honor though American, trained by master Samurai in Mountains of Japan. Master of Sword and peaceful of heart but strong to win. Entered tournament to reclaim family sword from evil brother.

• His Yakuza Samurai Brother: Adoptive brother of American Samurai and son of Master Samurai. Strong fighter but gangster with no honor or mercy too.

• The Bowie Knife Cowboy: American fighter, fast with knife although quite stupid. Fights in tournament for much cash prizes and honor.

• African Master of the Quarter Staff: Not much known about this fighter. likes to strike poses with his staff weapon.

• Pirate Swordsman: A much feared prate from the coast of far off lands. Wears eye patch but is still dangerous.

• The Deadly Braid: Much like fighter in "Best of the Best 2" he fights with sharp implement tied to his long braid of hair. Born in China he possess much fighting spirit.

• Chinese Axe Spear Guy: Second warrior from china and master of martial arts axe spear technique. Fast warrior but uses much energy in attacks.

• Conan the Barbarian Guy: Former stunt man of lame 80's European sword and sorcery/caveman movie genre gone renegade. Now looks for new career wielding broadsword for money and glory in tournament.

• Nordic, Viking, Berserker Type: Crazy Horned warrior from Sweden. Attacks fierce with axe.

• Weird-ass, Klingon Sword Looking Thing Wielding Guy: Warrior killed by Evil Yakuza Brother. Fought with weird-ass star trek, alien weapon things.

I know there wear a few guys I've forgotten too. Oh yeah this film also features John Fujioka playing the Japanese martial arts master who raises and trains our hero upon finding him stranded in his infancy. This is the exact same role he played in American Ninja. "I only play old Japanese Guys that find American babies and raise them to be martial arts masters". Now that's over specific type casting if you ask me. Anyway the film is also peppered with blindfolded swordsman training sequences, lots of crazy fighting and flash backs to really bad wise old sensei advice. In short this movie rocks. There should be more films like this. I'd comment on the film's success at creating one of the most awkward romantic subplots ever but I think I've run out of space. See it yourself.