After a plane crash in the Japanese mountains, a baby named Andrew - the lone survivor - is adopted by a samurai master (John Fujioka). Andrew trains in the ways of the samurai alongside the samurai's own son, Kenjiro. Grown up, Andrew (David Bradley) is bestowed the family sword, an act that angers the now Yakuza Kenjiro (Mark Dacascos). Years later Andrew works as a journalist and the sword is stolen from him. He and his photographer Janet (Valarie Trapp) head to Turkey to investigate a sword killing of a Sheik. Naturally, this means they are kidnapped and Andrew is forced to enter a deadly martial-arts tournament where the reigning champion is Kenjiro. One of the last of the Cannon productions, you can see them grasping at anything to make them money as this is basically a violent remake of their last hit BLOODSPORT (1988). You get all of the same stuff (right down to the bearded American fighter friend), but minus all the "plot" that the Van Damme film had. This is actually the first Bradley film I've seen and he does quite well in the lead. Of course, anyone would look good opposite the bug-eyed performance by Dacascos as the villain. Man, he is hilariously bad. I'm glad he kept working as he is a talented martial artist, but thank goodness someone told him to turn it down in his future roles. Director Sam Firstenberg delivers solid action and if you are going to see the film, make sure to seek out the unrated version as the US version removes a lot of the violence. Yes, there is gore on display (bullet removal, arm severing, beheading) that seems to be more befitting of a horror movie from that era.
Review of American Samurai
