A Major Disappointment

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

At first, I refused to watch this film, only because Christophe Lambert; this french gifted actor who literally wasted his skill in garbage grade Z stuff over the Atlantic. So, because of him, I did not see this film in theatre, at its release time, but afterwards, on TV. and I admit that it was a good surprise, as were nearly all the American Japanese movies I have seen in my life. When I watch this one, I of course think of THE CHALLENGE, YAKUZA, BLACK RAIN, BLUE TIGER all features speaking of the these two cultures - Japanese and US - colliding. Yes, a great little flick, with tremendous scenes, but don't compare it to the other ones I talked about just above. It is a little worst, although a pretty good time waster. And one of the best post GREYSTOKE and HIGHLANDER Christophe Lambert's films. But, I insist, certainly not because of him.

This movie has a lot of factors to recommend it and here they are:1) The bullet train battle. One samurai and his wife take on a dozen ninjas aboard a passenger train. This scene must be seen to be believed, trust me. Which brings up another great feature: The samurai's wife loyally stands by his side no matter what he does, right or wrong, until the bitter end. She's just as capable and brave as he is, and is always right in the middle of all the action. He's not the stereotypical loner; he has a woman he can always count on. Also, the villain himself has a perverted version of this relationship; he too has a steadfast wife that he relies upon. 2) There's a lot of very adept writing throughout the film. Among some other excellent concepts, it also pays tribute to the Iliad (honest, it does) by using two major plot points from the ancient masterpiece. There's a skillfully done version of Hector killing Patroclus, who's disguised as Achilles; and of course the old Trojan Horse shows up at the end.3) It subverts a lot of Hollywood clichés. The white hero is injured, helpless and physically outmatched for almost the entire film, and he requires a lot of rescuing by some of the Japanese characters. When the white hero fights the villain, it's the villain who's badly wounded and exhausted, not the other way around as it usually is. For a change, the hero is the one who resorts to dirty tricks and improvisation to win. So it actually seems somewhat realistic that the hero could come out on top in this case.4) The sword fights are quick and brutal and gruesome. It's all stabbing and slashing; not that constant parrying with the swords clanging off each other for ten minutes and no one gets hurt until the finish.5) There's a distinct element of Japanese mysticism and superstition, but it's all very subtle and not obvious at all. There's a little bit of reference to curses and legends and so forth, but it isn't laid on too thick. The samurai picks up the wrong sword during the penultimate battle, and it costs him his life. Joan Chen's character supernaturally guides and aids the hero after her death, but it's never blatant. A young Japanese girl who is certainly her in spirit form (Lambert even refers to this girl as his "angel") saves him at the Pachinko arcade and later on she shows up as herself in a hallucination, which stays the villain's deadly hand just in the nick of time. Same as she watches over the hero, she also hexes the villain before her death and haunts him until his own end. It's a nice touch.6) There's a faint undertone of attraction between the samurai's wife and the hero. The samurai even seems to give it his blessing as he's dying, when he orders her to survive her own wounds. Of course, she and the hero are the only ones still alive after the big battle sequence and it sure looks like they will hook up quite soon. 7) The acting is uniformly outstanding and exceptional by all the Asian actors and actresses. Christopher Lambert is one of the oddest movie stars ever; his acting is wooden and his accent is distracting, but he does somehow pull it off and makes a fine hero this time around.Anyway, this is a classic action flick and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're like me and are fascinated by the concept of ninjas and samurai still secretly lurking about in the modern world, and of course doing battle with each other, then you need this one in your collection.

When viewing "The Hunted" you wonder who this movie is meant for. It could not be action fans since the action scenes are horrible. Sure there is a lot of blood. But none of the fighters showed any extraordinary skill. Here you have this so called ninja who has to kill this woman (Joan Chen) and in stead of just doing so he takes his time and asks her how she wants to be killed. Not only that he even shows his face to her.(Which of course is always a big no no for an assassin.) You might think that he is a decent ninja. When she answers him to die slowly with a lot of pain he says he is under orders to do it quickly so he can't fulfill her request. And all this portrayed by the same man who played the last Emperor of China. Good god,and this is only in the first ten minutes. Christopher Lambert is a witness to this killing and has seen John Lone's face. These super skilled ninja's failed to kill him off and they chase him. Lambert gets help from a samurai but only to use him as bait. Now the most ridiculous thing is that everything is taken so seriously. But how could you. It is basically one silly scene to another. Lambert fans will be disappointed since he has more of a supporting role and only comes into action a couple of times.Do yourself a favor and forget about this movie!

Samurai flicks may be considered a guilty pleasure, but this one is well worth watching.It is not a Toshiro Mifune classic, but it features plenty of Samurai action and lots of blood is spilled.Christopher Lambert (Highlander I, II, and III; Mortal Kombat) plays an American businessman who picks up an extremely lovely Joan Chen (Lust, Caution; Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl) in a bar and they have a pleasurable time before ninjas arrive to kill her for a transgression. The leader, John Lone (The Last Emperor, Year of the Dragon) is identified and the hunt begins.The businessman enlists the help of super Japanese actor Yoshio Harada and Yôko Shimada (Shogun and "Shogun"). What he doesn't realize ifs the Samurai isn't really interested in helping, he just wants to do battle with the Ninja.It's fast paced and exciting with enough exploitation to make it special.