Member daisho2004 Posted August 17, 2010 Member Share Posted August 17, 2010 Just wondering if anyone had seen this movie? It was on the IFC channel last week and you can still catch it this month. The storyline was good, and it had a few good action scenes which weren't half bad I mean it does have Yasuaki Kurata in it and he does kick some ass! Its worth a watch if not anything else. By Mark Pollard | Published November 21, 2007 A demon summoned into the world by a samurai prepares to be reborn centuries later with only a Japanese police commissioner (Yasuaki Kurata) and two French kids to stop him. It’s the legendary Philip Kwok and Yasuaki Kurata together again for the first time since Ninja in the Deadly Trap (1985). Although not onscreen, Kwok directs the action in Samourais while Kurata, who is still in great shape, knocks around the bad guys. Not surprisingly, the martial arts action is well-crafted and Kurata’s acting is fine, but that’s all I can say about this film that’s positive. The story, which tries to mix Japanese folklore, Hong Kong action and French smarminess, is rubbish. It starts out in Japan’s feudal era with the title samurai hunting down his own pregnant daughter. It turns out that he previously summoned a demon to help his clan overcome their enemies and now the demon has decided to become reborn as a human, which he does. Fast forward to the present day and the samurai’s descendent Commissioner Fujiwara (Yasuaki Kurata) is about to face the same challenge when the aging demon starts the whole process over again by dying and magically impregnating Akemi, his daughter who is in Paris. Fujiwara arrives to take on the demon’s trained goons and to kill his own daughter. Enter teen poster boy Marco (Cyril Mourali) and his idiot sidekick who looks and acts like Saved by the Bell’s Screech. As friends of Akemi, they come to her defense, but that only makes it all the more certain the the demon will be reborn and will threaten them all. This is one dumb film that has the look of a polished production, but is otherwise completely amateur and awkward in its story. It looks like two different films, one written and directed by Giordano Gederlini and the other directed and choreographed by Phillip Kwok. Gederlini’s story and his execution of it is awful. You have a woman dropping a baby in a cocoon that immediately grows into a man complete with leather underwear, a demon who doesn’t seem to pose anymore of a threat to the world than your average crime boss, and generic CGI effects that are pointless. The characters are about as developed as your average Saturday morning cartoon and the actors who play them are terrible. Every attempt at humor goes horribly wrong. Then there is the complete nonsense regarding a fighting video game developed to fund the demon’s operations, kill players with a mini flying disc, and even turn an unskilled martial artist like Marco into a super-powered fighting machine controlled via the Playstation 2 by his kid brother. The one non-action element worth praising is the makeup effects that are about as good as you’ll see anywhere. One of the professional artists involved includes Jean-Christophe Spadaccini, who worked on high-profile French films like City of Lost Children and Tom Thumb. When turned over to Kwok, Samourais briefly gets interesting from an action fan’s perspective. There are several fight scenes with Kurata, all of them good. The best features Kurata taking on a sword-wielding goon with police batons in a public restroom. The stunt work and stunt actors’ moves are all excellent. Unfortunately, the rest of the film in intolerable and probably isn’t worth enduring to see Kurata in action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted August 17, 2010 Administrator Share Posted August 17, 2010 I saw this when it came out on DVD, and I did not like it. Somehow I wound up with a copy of it- perhaps I bought it for two bucks at a going-out-of-business sale purely for Kurata. Can't remember for sure. But my memory rates it around a 4 out of 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ASIAN FURY Posted August 23, 2010 Member Share Posted August 23, 2010 This movie is stupid. I only bought the DVD because I'm a huge fan of Kurata-san. The bathroom fight is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShaOW!linDude Posted September 20, 2010 Member Share Posted September 20, 2010 Kurata's fight in the bathroom IS awesome. Other than that the only other good thing in this movie is the big fight in the gym. This movie is so bad it's not even cheesy good 'bad'. I rented it when it first came out years ago and watched it on DVR a couple of months ago. I wouldn't ever buy it but if I did, it would only be to fast forward to the fights and there's just not that many good ones in it to warrant that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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