Paul Racine is an American executive on a business trip in Tokyo. One evening he meets a woman in a bar and after a one night stand she is murdered by a legendary ninja cult. Paul sees the ninja leader's face and they try to kill him, but he manages to somehow survive and finds himself a man marked for death. He soon meets a mysterious martial arts teacher and his wife who fill him in on what is really going on... an ancient and bloody feud.
The pretty dull story idea could have been forgivable due to the fight scenes, however for such a martial arts/ninja centered action movie they are actually as dull as the story. Choppily edited, often with obvious jump-cuts, the action scenes just end up being slew of ruthless carnage that manages to knock off all non-significant characters in addition to the bad-guys. The two-dimensional acting and character development don't help out either.
The only thing that stands out in a good way is the limited comic relief of a drunken sword-maker and the use of Japanese music and not a pounding rock soundtrack - it manages to place the film in its actual setting, but in the end, the film is just a poorly made bloody mess. 3/10
Rated R for brutal violence
The pretty dull story idea could have been forgivable due to the fight scenes, however for such a martial arts/ninja centered action movie they are actually as dull as the story. Choppily edited, often with obvious jump-cuts, the action scenes just end up being slew of ruthless carnage that manages to knock off all non-significant characters in addition to the bad-guys. The two-dimensional acting and character development don't help out either.
The only thing that stands out in a good way is the limited comic relief of a drunken sword-maker and the use of Japanese music and not a pounding rock soundtrack - it manages to place the film in its actual setting, but in the end, the film is just a poorly made bloody mess. 3/10
Rated R for brutal violence