American Samurai

This movie was bought for me as a gift. I really appreciated the sentiment – the gift giver knew I liked Samurai and Period-Piece movies, and this one had "Samurai" written right in the title.

I appreciated the thought…but that’s essentially where the good feelings end.

This movie is pretty terrible…but you probably guessed that with a name like "American Samurai," right? Created in 1992, American Samurai arrived on the heels of a large ninja craze. But when ninjas were being phased out after their 80s boom, there was a need for other crappy martial arts inspired movies. Hence American Samurai.

To fill you in quickly on the plot – two half brothers are raised by a kenjutsu (sword) master. Their family sword gets stolen and this causes a rift in the family, forcing the brothers to go separate ways. Eventually they meet back up in an underground turkish fighting ring. Combat ensues tournament style.

Flashback a few years to 1988 when Bloodsport hit the scenes. Initially it had a lukewarm reception, but has grown into a cult classic. I personally love that movie, even with all of its bad acting and thin plot. Bloodsport is one of those rare movies that is bad…yet so good. American Samurai seemed to notice this unusual achievement and thought "hey, we can do that! Let’s throw some swords into it and we’ve struck gold!"

I suppose we have to give them a little credit for trying, but they fell short of the mark. The acting is unpleasant and the story is like a thinner version of Bloodsport. It feels like they gathered up as many martial art cliches (the outsider prodigy, the feuding brothers, the underground tournament…etc etc) and mixed them all up into script soup.

I did try to keep an open mind and recognize the movie for its decent qualities. The actual combat is choreographed well. I was expecting some pretty rough stuff, but was pleasantly surprised. You get to see a variety of weapons spun around, which is always fun.

Overall, I would say pass on this movie. There are many intolerable martial arts movies out there and this one does a good enough job with the action to stay out of the dregs. But between the completely unoriginal plot, the not-so-awesome acting, and the overall insulting nature to historical Samurai and Budo…