Bushido Man

An old fashioned fighting movie to delight genre fans

Bushido Man (2013)

It’s been ages since Japan produced anything as manly as Bushido Man. Seven warriors, seven battles! There’s almost nothing else to be found in the film. The casting alone is ace. Mitsuki Koga (Evil Ninja, 2010), Masanori Mimoto (Alien vs. Ninja, 2010), Kensuke Sonomura (Hard Revenge Milly), Kazuki Tsujimoto (Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle)… Nothing but martial artists, stuntmen, action directors and yakuza film b-actors! Pretty face idols that have been terrorizing Japanese action cinema since the 80’s are nowhere to be found!

Violence director Takanori Tsujimoto has established his name as the most promising talent in his field. Tsujimoto’s early shorts lefts something to be desired, but his Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle holds as the most intense Japanese action film of the 2000’s so far. Bushido Man sparked interest ever since the clever advertising campaign, which revealed Koga’s opponents one by one in teaser posters released during a 6 month time span.

In Bushido Man Tsujimoto tones down the violence in favor of martial arts. The concept is like an amusing variation of the Shaw Brothers film Heroes of the East. The protagonist (Mitsuki Koga) pilgrims around Japan looking for masters of martial arts to challenge. In each fight he has to adapt a new fighting style or weapon. The opponents are kung fu master, stick fighter, nunchaku expert, blind samurai, knife specialist, revolver man, and a woman with special weapon. In preparation the hero always heads to a restaurant first. “Learn about your opponent through his diet”.

Today’s Japan is an extremely difficult environment for action filmmakers. The genre simply doesn’t have domestic demand. In Bushido Man the budget has been cut down to the minimum. The cheap visuals look, where especially outdoor scenes tend to look less than natural, is not much to write home about. Thankfully the rest of the film turns out pure 1980’s madcap Hong Kong action. The opening fight alone, in which Koga meets the film’s action choreographer Kensuke Sonomura, is among the best hand-to-hand battles seen in Japanese cinema.

A lot has been invested in the amount of fights. Well over half of the running time is spent fighting. The rest of the time Koga wanders around Japan looking for opponents and eating their favorite foods. The fun concept freshens the movie, though feels slightly underutilized. A few additional scenes would not have hurt. Even then, Bushido Man took more days to shoot than most other Japanese genre films of recent, and the production was delayed by more than half a year.

The philosophical aspects of bushido are brought up both between and during the fights. The self obvious wisdoms and old fashioned gentleman gestures are heartwarming, even if decidedly silly. After each fight the protagonist develops as a fighter and a human being, and learns from the opponent’s strengths. Such moments, as well as the sheer amount of fighting, make Bushido Man feel like an old fashioned martial arts movie in the best way.

Towards the end the film loses its track a bit. Metaphysical references and scenes of comedy are more embarrassing than clever. The fighting spirit of the first half suffers a bit, and action choreography takes a few steps back with more emphasis on firearms. Even then, the final fight reaches such levels of pure, again 80’s Hong Kong style, madness, that entertainment is guaranteed.

Despite a few flaws during the second half, Bushido Man is easily one of the best attempts in Japanese martial arts cinema in ages. In a time when bikini models and pop stars dominate most of the genre, a mentally insane fight circus such as Bushido Man is welcomed with open arms. Japan’s most famous active screen fighter Tak Sakaguchi would better come up with new tricks as Koga just stole the game!