Search - The Bushido Blade on DVD

A Cut Above

James Bond 007 | Ft. Worth Texas | 03/19/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I enjoyed this film a lot. Of course I'm a Toshiro Mifune fan, not to mention I've always liked Richard Boone. This isn't Macbeth, but it doesn't try to be or need to be. It's simply a good story with good acting. If you enjoy Shogun you will probably enjoy this as well."

Toshiro Mifune and Sonny Chiba, two greats, together for a f

Master Killer | Island of Misfit Toys, USA | 02/10/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"What attracted me to this movie in the first place was the chance to see my two favorite Japanese actors on the screen together, sadly Mifune and Chiba only have one brief scene together. So this leaves the rest of the film to stand on it's own, and I must admit, I was suprised that it turned out to be an enjoyable piece of entertainment, but nothing more. The important thing to remember here is that this is an American movie, not a Japanese film, so you can't compare it to the great Samurai films of Kurosawa or Hiroshi, and disapointingly, Mifune is not the star, and dose not partake in any of the sword play or battles. What we do have is an entertaining attempt by westerners to make a samurai movie with truely mixed results, too many westerners in swordplay when what we really want is samurai on samurai action, but the cast dose have a showstopping scene-stealing appearance by James Earl Jones. Sonny Chiba, who has a slightly larger role than Mifune, dose get a little bit of swordplay in towards the end of the movie. Frank Converse as the film's main hero, is just okay, but Richard Boone is in here in his last role. So, it's safe to say that the cast is what makes this movie, love it or hate it, or just enjoyed it, as I did, the cast can't be denyied it's brillance. It is important as Mifune and Chiba's only film together, sorta like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood being together for us westerners, still in many ways a weak movie. It wants to be James Clavell's SHOGUN, and is in some ways similar to Ed Zwick's THE LAST SAMURAI, years later, but not as classy or as well put together as those ones. Ultimately, I would say see it if you can, buy it, if the price is right, just remember it's an American movie.

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