The Warrior’s Way

Schlock Swordsmanship Western

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

R4 DVD

If you are looking for an East Meets West film with a credible plot and good acting, don’t bother to read any further. Don’t expect a serious film like Red Sun or even the dreadful TV series Kung Fu. What you’re going to get in The Warrior’s Way is an unbelievable plot, inexplicable settings, posing swordsmen, flying ninjas, and spectacular slaughter scenes galore. Forget how bad this film is – just sit back and enjoy it as it tramples on cliché after cliché. There’s even a shot of our hero riding (well, walking) off into the sunset !

The Warrior, played by Korean actor Jang Dong Gun, is a top swordsman who is in disgrace for refusing to finish off the last member of a hated clan, a baby girl. He and the child flee to a remote town in the American Wild West. He will be safe here as his ninja clan will not possibly be able to trace a lone Oriental swordsman carrying a baby. He hopes a friend in the town will give him a job, but the friend has been killed by the local pack of thugs in a raid. He takes over his friend’s laundry business.

The town is populated by the remnants of a circus. We are not told what they are doing out there in the middle of nowhere but the skyline is dominated by their huge Ferris Wheel. Most of them are in mortal fear of a return visit from the brutal cowboy gang, especially the girl who becomes the warrior’s love interest. He starts training the townspeople to defend themselves.

The cowboys duly return to town in large numbers and the slaughter begins. Just as the townsfolk are getting the upper hand a large group of ninjas appears flying over the town and join in the fray. Cue lots of slaughter between the ninjas and the cowboys. And so on.

The film is more like a comic book than a film plot. It is simplistic, larger than life and simply ignores the holes in the plot. It is, therefore, great fun. The CGI is really good, the action scenes are suitably bloody. The sword scenes are done in the much-cliched slow motion style so you can see every drop of blood spurting from severed heads and arms, with spraying blood decorating every building within range.

I am sure this film was not meant to be taken too seriously, at least not by Western audiences. Eastern audiences may see something in it that I missed. It is a caricature of the East Meets West genre and in that style it is really well done. Cheap thrills and a laugh a minute.

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