''American Samurai'' is a martial-arts

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Sam Firstenberg Sam Firstenberg (born Shmulik Firstenberg on March 13, 1950) is an Israeli-American film director. He is best known for having made low-budget B-movies most of his career, among them the first two films in the American Ninja series, ''American Ni ...

and starring David Bradley and

Mark Dacascos Mark Alan Dacascos (born February 26, 1964) is an American actor, martial artist and television personality. He won numerous karate and kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18. He is known for his roles as Wo Fat in ''Hawaii Five-0'' ...

and produced by

Cannon Films The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested ...

. Filmed in Turkey, it was released in the United States in 1992.

Premise

After a plane crash in the Japanese mountains, its only survivor—a baby named Andrew Collins—is adopted by Tatsuya Sanga, a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

master. Andrew, along with the samurai's son, Kenjiro, are trained in the warrior’s way. Andrew excels in his training and soon surpasses his stepbrother’s skills. Kenjiro's jealousy pushes him to join the

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

, where he takes the Yakuza oath and forsakes the moral values of the samurai’s code. He leaves his father’s home, swearing to one day take revenge on his brother. Ten years later, Andrew works in

L.A. Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

as a journalist. He and a female photographer track down an

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

-smuggling operation in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Soon, the drug dealers kidnapped the girl, forcing Andrew to enter a deadly weapons based martial-arts tournament ruled by illegal gamblers whose greatest champion is the lethal Kenjiro.

Cast

* David Bradley as Andrew "Drew" Collins ** Mariano Edelman as Drew Collins As Teenager **Euthymios Logothetis as Drew Collins As Baby *

as Kenjiro Sanga **Tal Akioshi Kitaoka as Kenjiro Sanga As Teenager * Valarie Trapp as Janet Ward * Rex Ryon as Ed Harrison * Melissa Hellman as Samantha *

John Fujioka John Mamoru Fujioka (June 29, 1925 – December 13, 2018) was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was particularly known for performing the role of a Japanese holdout soldier in ''The Last Flight of Noah's Ark'', ''Who Finds a Friend Fin ...

as Tatsuya Sanga * Douvi Cohen as Stephano * Rocky McDonald as Conan * Ron Vreeken as McKinney *

Dion Lam Dion Lam (林迪安; Lam Dik-On) is a Hong Kong action choreographer and actor. Filmography * 1980 ''The Hangman'' * 1982 ''Energetic 21'' * 1983 ''Crazy Blood'' * 1988 ''Mistaken Identity'' * 1989 '' The Killer'' * 1989 ''Ghost Ballroom'' * 1 ...

as Hsing Yi / Lee * Antony Szeto as Phan-Xu * Melnik Dubroviko as Contestant * Kevin Villis as Contestant * Avi Mamn as Contestant * Vladimir Markov as Contestant * Mark Warren as Turk In Disco / Lars * Koby Azarly as Turk In Disco * Shalom Avitan as Turk In Disco * Baruch Berkin as Hotel Clerk * Arie Moscuna as Announcer * Michael Morim as Police Chief * Misha Gal as Body Guard * John Slater as Body Guard * Sigalit Shiry as Belly Dancer

Home media and alternate versions

The DVD is available in Region 1. However, it is based on the edited R-rated cut. This version has subtitles added to the days of the tournament (i.e. "Day 2", "Day 3", etc.) Additionally, many scenes of violence or injury are zoomed in on, poorly cropped, or deleted altogether to avoid explicit details. The unrated cut has different dialogue in some scenes, no subtitles, and all of the violence is onscreen and considerably more graphic. This version is not available in the United States but can be found in other regions. There is an uncut Belgian bootleg DVD and the British version has approximately one second of footage cut.

References

External links