This film falls into the Action Channel late night "guilty Pleasure" zone.
It's derivative in many ways, but I agree with another reviewer here that what made it sort of interesting is that more than half of it was subtitled in Japanese.
What separated it from the norm a little was the impressive screen presence of Kiyoshi Nakajo, as a mysterious Yakuza swordsman, who helps a woman find her sister's killer (played in a nasty but quasi-comical manner by Victor Rivers, the smarmy guy with the thin moustache who was part of Eddie Murphy's con artist posse in "The Distinguished Gentleman"). There's also Martial Artist Gary Daniels, not the best actor around (I sort of lump him into the Daniel Bernhardt category) but has great fight moves. I agree the fight sound was muted for my tastes. I had never heard of or seen Kiyoshi Nakajo prior to this film. He is apparently very popular in Japan. He sort of emanates that conflicted "brooding" Chow Yun Fat thingie (think "The Replacement Killers") which says a lot because his dialogue was all in Japanese. But I found him very intriguing to watch. Think of a Japanese Lee Van Cleef. Stern, quiet, face says it all. Senses his LA Yakuza brother is up to no good.
Kiyoshi is a bit older than the rest of the actors, one who has left a lot of dead bodies in his wake, especially with that sword. You just don't play around with this guy.
Other than Daniel's avenging cop, Kiyoshi and two others, it's hard to tell who is who.
Just get some Kettle Korn, check it out for the fight sequences, don't try to figure it all out. It has a certain style. There's far worse stuff out there than this.
