Il ritorno del samurai

A moderately interesting start, some pretty scenes in sixteenth-century Japan, and a promising idea. But the execution? The comparison that springs to mind after about fifteen minutes is "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death." Really. A specialist in "Oriental history" who doesn't speak any Japanese, walks on tatami without removing her shoes, and is generally dumb as celery? Please. This looks like a student film: the sets are risible, the acting (except, perhaps, for the title character) close to wooden, the plot utterly arbitrary. At least "Cannibal Women" was funny! This is best watched with someone who knows something about Japan, just to watch disbelief repeatedly crawl across their face.

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

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.

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.

A whiskey stream of consciousness review.

Cool exteriors of Motosuka, Japan in the intro scene. As preposterous as the beginning sequence is (knowing the premise). There is a mythical quality that is appealing. Music has some similarities to Red Dawn and First Blood, which is funny, as it is composed by Richard Band, brother of Charles Band (Full Moon Studios). That said, the score is the best and most consistent element of the film. The idea that they could revive a centuries old samurai frozen in ice without brain damage is beyond our current capabilities and requires quite the suspension of disbelief. The fact that it is a cryogenic research facility is a nice touch though, knowing that the hope for revival is in future technological advances and many of todays elite technocrats are fully invested in it. The film borrows a bunch from the film Iceman starring Timothy Hutton. The samurai is much cooler than the caveman, tho me thinks. Having the samurai discover tv for the first time with W. A. S. P. "Tormentor" Playing is a nice touch. Hiroshi Fujioka does a pretty good job of showing curiosity as well as a propensity for the human instinctual gift of understanding in an alien timeline. As much interest as the beginning of the film inspires, the last half hour grinds and seems to lose any of its original inspiration-probably due to lack of budget. There just isn't enough compelling action or memorable scenes to tie the story together. Disappointing with what started with potential. Slashed with a dram of Old Soul (full proof store pick). Cheers!