There have been plenty of good martial arts films in the
last several years, but it's rare for one to really blow my mind away. Chalk
that up to seeing hundreds upon hundreds of them in my lifetime. Ong-Bak and The Raid: Redemption are two movies that stand on completely
different pedestals from the competition. It wouldn't be right to compare Bushido Man with those two pictures. For
one thing Bushido Man is a low-budget
production without any elaborate stunts or widescreen mayhem. Still, you wish
there were more movies like it. Writer/director Takanori Tsujimoto has managed
to distill the genre to its very best and basic elements.
Toramaru (Mitsuki Koga) has embarked on a journey across
Japan to master every form of martial arts into a discipline he calls the
Cosmic Way. To do so, Toramaru must defeat the top martial artist of each
fighting style. He recounts each hard fought battle to his sensei Gensai
(Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) and presents him with a scroll taken from his opponents
as proof of victory.
Toramaru has faced a variety of combatants with the first
being Yuan Jian (Kensuke Sonomura, who also worked as fight choreographer), a
master of kung fu, followed by Mokunen (Naohiro Kawamoto), highly skilled with
the bo staff. Other challenges aren't so conventional such as Muso (Kazuki
Tsujimoto) the blind swordsman, Eiji Mimoto (Masanori Mimoto), a fierce yakuza
gangster wielding a dagger, and Pistol Billy Kentaro Shimazu), a lover of the
Wild West with a pair of revolvers.
Tsujimoto and Sonomura have crafted a series of
well-choreographed action scenes featuring everything from fists, swords,
knives, nunchucks, and guns. At one point, Toramaru runs into a woman with
laser scoped wrist guns, played by Miki Mizuno, the star of Tsujimoto's ultra-violent
Hard Revenge Milly. Time doesn't seem
to concern Tsujimoto yet, the anachronisms only add to the charm of Bushido Man. Toramaru walks the streets
of modern day Tokyo in a traditional hakama while his fights with Mokunen and
Muso could well have taken place during the feudal era. The initial battle with
Yuan Jian was probably lifted right out of a Shaw Brothers flick and that's no
coincidence as the plot definitely pays homage to the kung fu classic Heroes of the East, which also featured
a protagonist on a similar quest. Later fights take place in a post-apocalyptic
Yokohama ravaged by earthquakes. Citizens are allowed to carry any weapons they
choose and must wear gas masks due to the polluted air.
Bushido Man isn't
all about hard hitting body blows. Toramaru believes in the tenet that you must
know your opponent through his food. There are interludes where Toramaru chows
down on everything from pre-packaged, convenient store snacks to hearty meals
of sushi and noodles or dumplings with chili oil. Throughout it all, Gensai
reacts in a humorous manner as Toramaru whets his appetite as well as the
viewer's.
Don't expect a heavy amount of plot or any elaborate
backstories to all the characters. There are no true heroes or villains in the
movie, which is refreshing. Bushido Man
trims the fat and offers the martial arts fan exactly what he wants in a
martial arts movie: fight after fight after fight. Bushido Man is a fun and inventive take on the genre.
Rating: *** (*****)
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