Rick, a down-and-out American boxer, is hired to transport a sword to Japan, unaware that the whole thing is a set up in a bitter blood-feud between two brothers, one who follows the traditional path of the samurai and the other a businessman. At the behest of the businessman, Rick undertakes samurai training from the other brother, but joins his cause. He also becomes romantically involved with the samurai’s daughter.

Scott Glenn gives an excellent performance as a waistral, down-on-his luck, out-of-work boxer who becomes a fallguy for a heirloom (Samurai sword) smuggling plot. Scott, like others in only a handful of movies (e.g. The Yakuza (Robert Mitchum) and Black Rain (Michael Douglas)) gives a rare performance that contrasts the Japanese/American cultures of honor, discipline and duty. John Sayles and John Frankenheimer explore these values with a shoot-em-up verve that attempts to merge business, home, family, warrior and personal values. Tall order! Glenn is the Kevlar-perfect warrior who somehow survives James-Bondian onslaughts .. . and Samurai-disciplines to emerge a winner. Toshiro Mifune needs no introduction .. . and is, as always, a delight. One could only have hoped that better definitions of the term “Ninja” (fogged in myth as assassins and even as a race of women assassins) and “Samurai Sword” (through an expert such as Kenji Mishina) could have been added to the movie. A unique movie dealing with topics that fifty years after a major military and cultural conflict between two diverse cultures, go largely unexplored …

IMDB

BRRip 720p | MKV | 1280 x 720 | x264 @ 2560 Kbps | 1h 49mn | 2,18 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 160 Kbps | Subs: English (embedded)
Genre: Action, Drama