Bushido Man (Takanori Tsujimoto!!!) (2013)

[Takuma]

[Gwai LO]

I have been more excited for this film than anything else in recent memory. i know R2 has a dvd release but any news on a R1 release? i watch the trailer almost daily.

[Takuma]

I have been more excited for this film than anything else in recent memory. i know R2 has a dvd release but any news on a R1 release? i watch the trailer almost daily.

No news so far. I wouldn't except a R1 dvd before next year as there's still a lot of NA festival screenings to come. Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival will screen it in November in New York, and Dark Bridges Film Festival later this month in Canada.

[Gwai LO]

Well I see the R2 release for nov 2nd. I don't need English subs but I do need r1... Has it leaked anywhere on the Internet? I going to buy it once I find it, but until then I just want to watch the damn thing. I've heard awesome things about this movie!

[Gwai LO]

this is still my most anticipated movie of the year. i have been fallowing this movie for a long time. if anyone hears of any R1 release please keep me updated

[Tosh]

My two favorite worlds collide - food and MA! Looking forward to this! When is this released in Japan?

[Gwai LO]

release date for R2 is nov 2nd.. pre order is already up on yesasia... but im looking for a english sub version R1

[Takuma]

Here's a brief look at the Bushido Man R2J DVD

As suspected before, no subs. Extras are limited to a 15 min film festival feature (Canada) and trailer. The biggest problem with the disc is the encode. There's a crazy amount of compression artifacts in some scenes. Now, the film was shot on very modest equipment, but I don't recall that many artifacts when I first saw the film in Yubari. I could be mistaken and maybe this is the best the film is ever gonna look on home video, but I'd love to see a foreign Blu-Ray. Other than artifacts, this is how the film is supposed to look like.

Briefly browsing through the fights I still stand behind my earlier review. There's a lot of fun to be had here, with some jaw dropping fights like straight out of a 1980's Hong Kong film. Indeed, the actors are even playing their roles in Hong Kong mode (read: not acting very well). Camerawork and editing is also quite good, similar to director Tsujimoto's earlier film Bloody Battle. The film's biggest problem is when it goes to humour/parody mode in a few scenes after the halfway. Marc Walcow especially - I love the man and what he's done for Japanese cinema, but please God don't let him in front of the camera again. A few of the fights also go into the joke territory, but that can be forgiven as there are a total of 8 fights in 87 minutes, and most of them are long (6-10 minutes).

Fight index:

1. Mitsuki Koga vs. Kensuke Somomura (Kung Fu Master). Pure gold. A flashback to Hong Kong kung fu cinema. 6 min.

2. Mitsuki Koga vs. Naohiro Kawamoto (Bojutsu Master). Another excellent Hong Kong style fight. 4 min.

3. Mitsuki Koga vs. Masaki Suzumura (Nunchuku Master). Don't get your hopes up for this. 1 min.

4. Mitsuki Koga vs. Kazuki Tsujimoto (Blind Samurai). Moody swordfight with samurai philosophy. 8 min.

5. Mitsuki Koga vs. Masanori Mimoto (Knife Master). Fast paced and brutal fight, quite good actually. 7 min.

6. Mitsuki Koga vs. Kentaro Shimazu (Gun Master). This is a bit of a comedy and trick fight, a let down. 3 min.

7. Miki Mizuno vs. Marc Walcow and gang (Gun-fu). Despite some decent action, this is embarrasing post-modernism. 3 min.

8. Mitsuki Koga vs. Final Opponent (kung-fu, swordfight, nunchuku, gun-fu): Imagine Story of Ricky as a superbly choreographed martial arts film. Pure jaw dropping fighting insanity. 8 min.

DVD screencaps

edit: two larger caps to highlight the worst compression problems:

http://bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/upload/HungFist/bushidoa1.png

http://bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/upload/HungFist/bushidoa2.png

[Gwai LO]

well it sucks the dvd is only R2. if anyone can find a way to watch this online, i would love to see it

[rdenn]

really enjoyed this one a lot more than the big budget nonsense I have had to endure this year, the mantis man fight was pure class.

[Gwai LO]

i enjoyed this movie a lot also. i watched it without english subtitles so i did not get the whole story but i was able to understand most of what was going on. the Mantis fight was epic. I also liked how they had Milly play her original character

[Drunken Monk]

I genuinely disliked the film from start to finish. Over edited, poor sound effects and I didn't think the choreography was much to behold either. The whole thing had an amateurish You Tube vibe to it.

Maybe I'm missing something. Granted, it wasn't horrible but it in no way lives up to its hype.

[Gwai LO]

I respectfully disagree. I thought the Kung fu scene, sword, bow staff, knife fight, and end fight scene were all great! Granted I couldn't understand a word being said, so I have NOOO idea about the story.. But as far as action, I thought it had some of the best fight scenes I have seen in a while. Even the poster said "zero budget" so I didn't expect the greatest camera work.. I just watched it to enjoy the fights and The mantis style was awesome.

[Takuma]

Even the poster said "zero budget" so I didn't expect the greatest camera work..

I think the camerawork was excellent... it was the camera itself (and lighting) that was crappy.

[BaronK]

The first fight, bo fight, knife fight and end where the best of the bunch. Some really good stuff in the first 2 fights. I mean lovely. The hands had some counters and rolls and stuff that was just goodness. Some of that camera work went together with some of the action in an absolutely great way. Some too much.

My problem with it all is that every action set had so much stop and go and stop and talk, that it was killing it for me. I understood the "why" behind it, but I really kept bringing a halt to all of the fights.

I do recommend though.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Finally! BUSHIDO MAN coming to region 1 DVD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.

I can't wait to pick this up.

"Upon returning from a pilgrimage across Japan, the warrior Toramaru arrives with tales of seven epic battles against Japan’s most legendary fighters. As Toramaru’s philosophy dictates that he “know the enemy by eating his food,” each masterfully-choreographed fight is preceded by a helping of his prey’s favorite dish.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles will be released June 10, but you can pre-order now at: http://bit.ly/1q1ABTE

#bushidoman #sevendeadlybattles

http://instagram.com/shout_factory#"

https://www.facebook.com/shoutfactoryofficial

[One Armed Boxer]

I got through watching this one earlier in the week. Definitely a movie to recommend to fight fans, and the movie tagline 'eat & fight' is the perfect summary for what you're going to see.

In a way that's a good and bad thing. 'Bushido Man' sticks to doing exactly what it says on the box so much, that there are zero surprises in store, it's literally eat and then fight, repeat x 7. This is fine, and I wouldn't even class it as a complaint, however what it does mean is that you end up watching the fights more for their technical competency rather than having any kind of emotional investment in them. It's kind of like the 'Bangkok Knockout' of Japan, only better and with more philosophy behind its theme.

I came to this realisation when watching the knife fight, which is fast and furious with a real sense of danger and nicely shot, and it brought to mind the knife fight in 'Sha Po Lang / Kill Zone'. Then it hit me why I enjoyed that fight a hell of a lot more than I did anything that was happening in 'Bushido Man', and that was the fact that there's an emotional buildup and some really high stakes at risk in the Donnie Yen vs Wu Jing faceoff.

The fights in 'Bushido Man' show that Japan could be up there as a great action movie producing country, however for me the stakes just weren't high enough in them to make me really care if Koga emerged the victor or not. I'd like to say this will launch a new wave of action movies out of Japan, but then I remember I also said that about Tak Sakaguchi, and then Rina Takeda, so I doubt it will. However as it stands, 'Bushido Man' is a pretty fine effort.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Ah... those are all valid points One Armed Boxer.

I think I was so surprised and grateful for a good, new Japanese martial arts flick that the action swept aside the story/emotional content weakness for me. But I do see what you mean. With more of that it could've been an outright classic. Still, as it is, I enjoy the action immensely.

It may have also helped me that I didn't see that poster, and knew little about it when I saw it. All I had was Takuma's recommendation that it should be seen.

[Ronin]

A friend of mine asked me to post this concerning the upcoming Shout! Factory release:

"Due to an authoring issue on Shout! Factory's upcoming BUSHIDO MAN Blu-ray, the subtitles on the 11-minute interview / documentary featurette run out of sync, so much out of sync that non-Japanese speakers will not be able to follow it (the subtitles are off by several minutes, it appears). The feature film plays fine.

The DVD is apparently unaffected by the authoring issue.

Shout! Factory plans to reissue the Blu-ray "on future runs", but didn't provide more specific information.

For the time being, fans should probably opt for the DVD instead of the BD if they want to watch the special features."

[bigrogie]

I watched the subbed version a few weeks ago. I was enjoying it quite a bit until the last 20 minutes which are plain dumb and ridiculous. Total non-sense. So 8/10 for the first part and the last 20 minutes: 0/10! Worst ending I have ever seen.

[Takuma]

A few more reviews and comments by forum members:

ShaOW!linDude

- http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?p=235710#post235710

Drunken Monk:

- http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showpost.php?p=236153&postcount=545

[The Taiji Pirate]

Bushido Man is an independent martial arts movie released in 2014. It got some positive film festival buzz, and I really enjoyed it! Just wondering what anyone else thinks

[SMK]

Have not seen it, sorry. Anyone else here seen this film?

[ShaOW!linDude]

Here's the mini-review I did for it back in June 2014.

BUSHIDO MAN (2012) Running time: 88 mins.

Stars: Mitsuki Koga, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Masanori Mimoto, Kentaro Shimazu, Kazuki Tsujimoto, Nachiro Kawamoto, Kensuke Sonomura, Masaki Suzumura, Ema, Miki Mizuno

Action Director: Kensuke Sonomura

Dir.: Takanori Tsujimoto

Synopsis

Toramaru (MK) is a student of the Cosmic Way fighting system. He goes on a year long journey to challenge 7 martial artists. On his return, he regales his teacher, Master Gensai (YY), with the tales of each duel. What is interesting is that in order to understand his opponent, he always eats the same diet they do. Gensai revels in the victories of his student, but something doesn't taste quite right. Could treachery be afoot?

***SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!!***

Fight #1 --- Toramaru vs Yuan Jian (Kensuke Sonomura)

Great fight! Some really good exchanges here, and there's lots of Mantis style from both combatants. The choreography is very intricate, very fast, and very smooth. There's not but a couple of kicks, but that really doesn't matter. It's all good. My only qualm with this fight is that I would've thought there would be more of a showcase in versatility in styles especially from a kung fu practitioner.

Fight #2 --- Toramaru vs Master Mokunen (NK)

Killer fight with bo staffs! This is one of the best bo fights I've seen in I can't remember when. Some of this is just amazing! It's so fast and intricate. And it's quite innovative, at least to me. I saw some moves and uses I've never seen before. My only qualm with this one is Toramaru's rally. It's a bit of an abrupt end, and should really have gone a little longer.

Fight #3 --- Toramaru vs Nunchaku Rinryu (MS)

Lame!...lame, lame, lame, lame, lame. A fight that never happens because his opponent knocks himself out while showing off. Don't build up for something like this and then go for a gag laugh. What a gyp!

Fight #4 --- Toramaru vs Muso, the blind swordsman (KT)

Great fight! Very philosophical. Some outstanding sword play here. The choreography is innovative and atypical to most sword fights I've seen.

Fight #5 --- Toramaru vs Eiji Mimoto (Masanori Mimoto)

This was a cool knife fight, a little too drawn out though. I guess I expected more intricate interplay, but it has its moments. Maybe it was the fact that Mimoto is a yakuza member driven by angst and regret. Boring. Hey, it's still better than the nunchaku fight.

Fight #6 --- Toramaru vs Pistol Billy

Meh. Not a fight really. More of a challenge against a guy dressed up like a cowboy using six shooters.

Fight #7 --- Toramaru vs "M" (Miki Mizuno)

"M" is supposed to be the title character from the "Hard Revenge Milly" franchise. It's never actually stated, but there is a visual clue if you spot it. Anyhow, this actually more her fighting 4 hitmen than fighting Toramaru. The MA is decent, a little slow at times, but it has a very bizarre and fun ending.

Fight #8 --- Toramaru vs Master Gensai

Wow! Super cool bizarre end fight! This fight is off the chain. It goes through a number of short stages. I love the power hits in this! Don't want to say too much.

Okay, I love this story. The pacing is fantastic. The blending of Toramaru eating and fighting the opponents with each corresponding meal is a great premise. I was getting hungry. The humor is good and subtle though there are a couple of cheesy bits. (It's a Japanese film, so what do you expect?)

My dislikes are few. What was suppose to have been a duel with nunchakus never happens. You don't do that. You just don't set that up and then not follow through. Sometimes the fights get interspersed and drawn out with philosophical dialogue. Look, I'm all for discussion, you can even talk smack during, but let's either do it at the beginning or at the end. I also think the weaker fights should've been used first to build momentum to the end fight. It starts strong and then lags to slowly pick up towards the end.

My likes are many. Mitsuki Koga looks like Yuen Biao (at least when he has short hair). He's a good martial artist. Actually everyone used is a good martial artist. The choreography is solid and sometimes dazzling. I would've liked to see a little more bootwork but it was good enough that I didn't care. The acting is food, and the premise is engaging. I love duels. I tend to get a little bored with the constant seeking for revenge. And the ending is great. As badly as I want to comment on it, I won't, but stay through the credits.

The Japanese film industry needs to focus more on their MA movie output. They ought to crank out more stuff like this. I heartily encourage all of you to support this film and GET IT!!!