American Samurai

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!

I have seen MUCH worse Fu/ninja flicks then this but this one isn't very good either.

Kind of a ripoff of American Ninja, white guy learns Japanese style blah blah blah. Unlike the characters in that series of movies, some of the people in this actually do seem to know martial arts. Kind of a cross between a genuine fu flick like a Jet Li movie and typical American crap.

The rest of the plot is......ah who cares, its a samurai movie, doesn't matter. :P

Unlike American Ninja this movie doesn't have 2 guys taking on dozens of "ninja masters" that can be knocked out with one punch, this has more of a realistic one on one style and it is a challenge for the combatants. Much like Blood Sport.

What it does have going for it it the interesting fighters in the last 45 minutes of the movie, the first half of the movie is just filler to make an excuse for all of the fighting at the end so skip it.

The fighters at the end look like they were pulled straight from an early 90's 2D arcade fighting game. That is the high point of this flick.

The low point, and I mean VERY low point is the last fight scene. Both of the "samurai" are wearing the same black and white outfit, no other colors. If you look close during the last fight though you can clearly see red streamers coming from out of the frame, they reused footage from one of the earlier fight scenes to add length to the last fight and it looks SOOOOOOOO cheesy. Also the actors don't know a damn thing about sword fighting, they just clang them together for 5 minutes, that coupled with the reused footage makes it a non-climax.

Since 45 minutes of this movie is solid fighting with fighters that actually do know how to use their weapons, the very last scene isn't as important.

You can do worse then this, any American Ninja above 2 for example.

Not really good or really terrible.

5/10 when compared to other Fu/ninja movies, would score higher if the last fight scene was done well.

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!!!

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.

I first saw this movie when I was in 8th grade. A friend invited me and a couple of friends to his house after school to see American Samurai on video. The movie lacked of some elements like acting, and editing but we all agree on one thing, the movie had impressive sword fighting scenes. The movie was release by the time the fighting Games where at there higher point. It follows a sequence of low budget films related to competition fighting in the eighties and early nineties like; Bloodsport, Kickboxing, Shootfighter, and American Ninja. The story begins when an American couple and there son are traveling on a privet plane, that crashes nearby an isolated part of Japan. An old Japanese swords man finds the boy that is the only survivor and takes him as his own, and trains him in the Samurai ways. A few years later his other son Kenjiro (played by Mark Dacascos) joins the Yakuza mafia and is disowned by his father. Kenjiro steals the family Katana so he can use it in gladiatorial fights that take place in a Turkish arena. Andrew Collins (played by David Bradley) is set to find the sword of his adopted father. On his way he meets with Janet (played by Valarie Trapp) and falls in love with her. Janet is kidnapped by Kenjiro and forces Andrew to fight in the arena. Soon Andrew is faced against fearless fighters from around the world, and that the fights are to the death. The only way to survive is by using his Samurai techniques. Mark Dacascos performance as the villain is great, and the fighting scenes are phenomenal. The concept of armed combat is what really made this film unique at the time. So if you want to see a classic martial arts movie, this you will definitely enjoy.