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| Our Hero |
Japan is kind of fucked up. They are on the cutting edge of technology and very traditional. But their entertainment is beyond belief. Maybe it's our fault. We did drop TWO atomic bombs on them. That could lead to some country wide psychological issues. Regardless,
Hanzo the Razor is a
samurai film with an awesome twist. It's really a hard boiled cop movie. Like
Dirty Harry or
McQ, Hanzo is a beat cop who just wants to clean up the streets. Of course the setting isn't modern day San Francisco or the mean streets of New York but feudal Japan. He fights with his superiors as any hard boiled cop will and he deals out hot plates of justice with his sword and other martial weapons. Hanzo's main weapon however is his...."short sword" if you will. Hanzo goes to great lengths to train his hog, pouring hot water on it, pounding it with a stick and thrusting it into a bag of rice. He uses his tool to force information and confessions out of women involved in crimes. As with all things Japanese, women are subservient and used by the male characters. It's no different in this one. The hanging net scene is so strange and goofy, that you can't really be offended by it, but it's close. The kung-fu/sword play is bad and Hanzo is a chinless skinny-fat guy with mutton chops. I'm not sure you can call his character likable as he goes to extremes to fight crime. You would never see Dirty Harry stab a guy in the face, fake his death and then use him for information later and then let him die. Hanzo does it though. Sword of Justice was the first of a trilogy, the first probably being the best. Hanzo is an odd, somewhat disturbing movie, but the attempt to make it different from other martial arts films is noteworthy. Even the soundtrack is done in the cop movie style made famous in the U.S. I would recommend this for exploitation fans and vets of these types of movies. Exploitation rookies should probably steer clear, although it's not going to kill you to check it out. I'm not afraid to say I'm a fan, but it's not for everybody.
Japan is kind of fucked up. They are on the cutting edge of technology and very traditional. But their entertainment is beyond belief. Maybe it's our fault. We did drop TWO atomic bombs on them. That could lead to some country wide psychological issues. Regardless, Hanzo the Razor is a samurai film with an awesome twist. It's really a hard boiled cop movie. Like Dirty Harry or McQ, Hanzo is a beat cop who just wants to clean up the streets. Of course the setting isn't modern day San Francisco or the mean streets of New York but feudal Japan. He fights with his superiors as any hard boiled cop will and he deals out hot plates of justice with his sword and other martial weapons. Hanzo's main weapon however is his...."short sword" if you will. Hanzo goes to great lengths to train his hog, pouring hot water on it, pounding it with a stick and thrusting it into a bag of rice. He uses his tool to force information and confessions out of women involved in crimes. As with all things Japanese, women are subservient and used by the male characters. It's no different in this one. The hanging net scene is so strange and goofy, that you can't really be offended by it, but it's close. The kung-fu/sword play is bad and Hanzo is a chinless skinny-fat guy with mutton chops. I'm not sure you can call his character likable as he goes to extremes to fight crime. You would never see Dirty Harry stab a guy in the face, fake his death and then use him for information later and then let him die. Hanzo does it though. Sword of Justice was the first of a trilogy, the first probably being the best. Hanzo is an odd, somewhat disturbing movie, but the attempt to make it different from other martial arts films is noteworthy. Even the soundtrack is done in the cop movie style made famous in the U.S. I would recommend this for exploitation fans and vets of these types of movies. Exploitation rookies should probably steer clear, although it's not going to kill you to check it out. I'm not afraid to say I'm a fan, but it's not for everybody.
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