Bushido Man is an entertaining action movie!

 

Sometimes you just need an entertaining movie regardless of differing flaws in terms of executing the plot and otherwise. I wanted to make sure to highlight such a movie in today's blog post. Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles was released ten years prior to this post, but I thought it'd be interesting to look back at. It was a collaboration between director and writer, Takanori Tsujimoto and action co-cordinator/director Kensuke Sonomura. 

The plot sounds like a rather cool, albeit somewhat generic and typical martial arts movie plot. The protagonist, Toramaru, is a highly skilled martial artist and has been on a journey to learn various different styles from several masters. He recounts the tales of his encounters and duels to his own master, Gensai and as such, he tales are told through flashbacks. He also informs his master of the food that he ate before each fight which does serve a purpose. It turns out that Gensai wanted the scrolls belonging to each master of the fighting styles and had tasked Toramaru with acquiring them. 

I felt like the plot could have been explored a little more. We could have seen more of each master such as a little backstory for each one, some emotional moments and more set up. It definitely feels like it could have been helped by having a series rather than being a movie as there's more that could have been explored within the movie's universe.

To answer the question of why Toramaru tells Gensai about his particular choice of meal, the answer is rather simple. The martial artist wanted to get into the headspace of each individual opponent and figure out their style before heading into battle with them. It's rather far fetched and not something that I think would ever work in real life, but it was still interesting to see. 

The majority of the movie takes place in flashbacks as Toramaru recalls the tales of his many battles to his master, Gensai. This is an interesting framing device, but also one that made it quite easy to predict what seemed to be the inevitable conclusion. It was a little too predictable. However, sometimes the expected outcome is better than an unwelcome subversion of expectation. 

Takanori Tsujimoto is a very competent director and despite having a very low budget, he managed to create an entertaining movie. He used a nice, dynamic array of camera shots from static to moving and close to wide angles. I particularly enjoyed the wide angle shots that framed the fighters before the fight itself and those that established the environments. What I didn't like is some of the freeze frames as I felt like it messed with the pacing and took away from the scenes. 

Tsujimoto did manage to subvert expectations in a sense. The first half of the movie is mostly played straight with some element of realism. Even the nunchaku fight at least seemed to air on some kind of realism when compared to what comes after. The second half of the movie turns bonkers in a fun way. There's a severed arm used as a nunchaku, a wrist gun that fires when someone makes a punching action, and a post apocalyptic Yokohama where several earthquakes have turned it into a desert with crumbling buildings and tanks patrolling the highways. 

The highlight of the movie is of course the action. With Kensuke Sonomura serving as the action director, it's to be expected that the movie has some great fight scenes. Sonomura-san knows how to perfectly frame his fight scenes and makes sure that each and every strike, grapple and slash is within view of the camera and that it is easy to understand what's happening. There's a variety of fighting styles used to tremendous effect in the movie from Northern Praying Mantis style kung-fu to Bo staff fighting to Knife fighting and even Katana wielding action. The kung fu fight scene is particularly memorable thanks to some excellent choreography and Kensuke Sonomura proving that he knows the art thanks to being the opponent of the movies protagonist himself. I love the honour and sportsmanlike conduct that Toramaru exhibits. Both men change their trajectory when falling in order to save a turtle/tortoise before Toramaru crushes his own hand to level the playing field after his opponent injures his own. He also cuts his own eyes with a katana to match the blind swordsman and to learn the techniques. 

Another favourite fight of mine, perhaps my own personal favourite is the knife fight with the Yakuza. It's an excellent fight that showcases Toramaru's skill and adaptability. I love how they both disarm one another and eventually just decide to fight the old fashioned way, fists and headbutts galore! It helps that the Yakuza was portrayed by Masanori Mimoto, a man who always delivers. 

Then there's the nunchaku fight. Sure, it might be the most anti-climatic of all of them, but it made me laugh. Toramaru went to the trouble of purchasing a new pair of yellow sneakers and nunchakus (In a fitting tribute to Bruce Lee) just for the nunchaku master to get overconfident and knock himself out. It at least taught the lesson of never get too overconfident or it'll be your downfall. 

Mitsuki Koga did a tremendous job in carrying the movie. He managed to convey a lot through facial expressions and body language. He also deserves credit for managing to convincingly utilise the many fighting styles in the movie. 

Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi and Kentaro Shimazu chew up the scenery with fun performances as Gensai and Billy Shimabukuro respectively. I will say that the movie has Gensai sporting the most ridiculous fake moustache I've ever seen, to the point that it distracted me in his scenes. 

Overall, it is a rather flawed and yet wildly entertaining movie with some great action sequences and a bonkers climax which is worth a watch. I would recommend it to those who wish to switch their brains off and just have fun with an action movie that doesn't require a lot of critical thinking to enjoy.