Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Vicente Amorim, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Brazilian filmmaker Vicente Amorim (Motorrad) delivers a thriller with lots of martial arts action set in the streets of São Paulo’s Japanese district that are drenched in neon signs.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Vikings) and newcomer Masumi team up in this intense adaption of the acclaimed graphic novel Samurai Shiro by Danilo Beyruth.
It follows Akemi (Japanese-American singer Masumi) an orphan who discovers that she is, in fact, the heiress to a Yakuza crime syndicate.
She has the vocation to become a true warrior, but to fulfill it, “you and your sword must become one”. Akemi refuses to be buried by a past that isn’t her own. Reluctant to embrace her destiny, she forges an uneasy alliance with a stranger (with memory loss), who believes that an ancient sword binds their two fates.
However, when rival gangs arrive to ensure Akemi never returns to Japan, she must unleash war against the other half of the syndicate who wants her dead. She is thrust into an epic battle that will reveal the stranger’s past … and determine her future.
Two protagonists seek information about their respective pasts: Akemi wants to learn more about her grandfather, a now-dead crime boss; and Shiro (Meyers) is an amnesiac. People are after a very ancient sword and they are going to pay a lot of money for this blade. Shiro wants to know more about it, and a connection to the yakuza is evident.
These two stories eventually come together, but only after Akemi and Shiro meet up, discover that Shiro’s sword belonged to Akemi’s grandfather and also learn of a conspiracy to find and kill Akemi.
There are some trendy shootouts and striking swordplay, but it’s short of vibrant characters and the required story-telling confidence.
