One-Percent Warrior - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

One-Percent Warrior



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
While Japanese action cinema has sort of waned from it’s heyday back in the 50s-80s where it DOMINATED the Samurai film landscape (and gave birth to a thousand knockoffs of the Seven Samurai motif that they created), but they’re still alive and kicking right behind Hong Kong and South Korea in terms of heavy duty action content. Sadly the Japanese tend to live on a shoe string budget compared to the other Asian nations, thus they tend to do better with grindhouse Yakuza flicks, or hidden camera style samurai pictures rather than giant blockbusters. BUUUUUUT, I was more than willing to take a look at One-Percent Warrior when I saw that it was reuniting Yudai Yamaguchi with martial arts legend Tak Sakaguchi for the first time since 2016’s Reborn (which is an awesome film, well worth checking out for hard style martial arts fans). Not to mention it was rumored to be a semi satirical meta take on action film making. Unfortunately there’s some bad mixed in with all that hype as One-Percent Warrior has trouble keeping the film both an action film AND a super satirical meta take on the industry, combined with an ending that feels like it was taken from a previous iteration of the script and the film ends up just being “awkward”

The film starts out VERY meta, with the viewer watching a series of documentary/interview like film clips about legendary action star Takuma Toshiro (Tak Sakaguchi) who is basically the Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan of his era. He’s so devoted to making action movies that he’s mastered several forms of combat and is adamant that he’s going to make a film that is pure action, no “fake” dancing choreography, or camera tricks. Fast forward 10 years and Toshiro has gone through he meat grinder that is the film world, having been relegated to a has been stunt performer who is doing low grade side villains for the younger and more arrogant new breed of action heroes.

Desperate to make his “real action” film that he set out to complete over a decade ago, Toshiro and his one remaining student Akira (Kohei Fukuyama) set out to make the film themselves. After heading out to a broken down metal refinery out on an island, he and Akira find out that they’re not alone out there. A family of Yakuza members who are all fighting to find the treasure of their recently departed leader are on the island as well. Instead of getting captured or hiding, Toshiro gets the brilliant idea to engage the Yakuza members with his impressive array of martial arts skills and have Akira film from the side lines so that they can clear out the gangsters AND make their movie at the same time.

The first 30 minutes of the movie is downright hilariously meta, with both Yamaguchi and Sakaguchi both winking and nodding to the audience as they put forth a biting commentary on how action stars can get off a little too much on sniffing their own ego farts, as well as the sad state that an aging action stuntman has to deal with after the initial fame is past. The idea of Toshiro using the Yakuza members as fodder for his action film is downright brilliant in it’s setup, but it’s AFTER that moment where he declares his intentions that things get weird. It seems like Yamaguchi has a hard time blending the satire with the action, as he goes full bore into a brutal action movie with Sakaguchi’s unique blending of martial arts allows him to kick some serious butt (including one scene which utilizes one of the most creative uses of a flashlight as a weapon that I’ve ever seen). The rest of the film settles into that old trope of the ex-commando touch guy taking out guys from the shadows, and the meta and satire aspects of the film are barely even mentioned again. That is until the last 10 minutes of the film where they pull a twist out of nowhere that doesn’t make sense on first viewing, and after viewing it a 2nd and 3rd time, holds up to scrutiny even less.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

As is the case with 99% of these foreign films that Well Go USA picks up, I haven’t been able to find any definitive information on the cameras used, nor the resolution used for the master. I would be surprised if it was anything more than a 2K DI considering the visual aesthetic and budget for the film, but anyone’s guess is as good as mine. That being said, this is a VERY Japanese looking film, with grindhouse esque blue/gray overtones and heavy emphasis on that sort of dark, grungy gray look that Japan really seems to like. Fine details are very good for the most part, but the blacks show heavy banding (especially that kind that turns blacks a smearing purple at times) and crush due to the blue/gray grungy Battlestar Galactica dingy tone the film maintains. Overall a solid looking transfer (with daytime shots showing the only real primary color splashes), but one that highly stylized and leaning towards a low budget grindhouse flick in it’s presentation.









Audio:

Showcasing both a Japanese and English DTS-HD MA lossless track (with a 2.0 downmix in Dolby Digital for night listening), the two tracks sound almost identical. Outside of the English dubbing from the voice actors, the amplitude and range of the tracks are sonically identical from what I can hear. Both mixes are punchy and surround heavy, with Toshiro’s fight scenes in the middle of the metal refinery sounding brash and heavy on both bass and immersive capabilities. I did notice that the first act of the movie was very front heavy and rather weak on the surrounds and low end, but once we get to the factory on the island things kick up in a MAJOR way.












Extras:

• Making Of
• Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:
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Probably the highlight of the film is watching Sakaguchi lay waste to a hundred Yakuza flunkies, and is made better by his final fight between his Japanese variant on Tai Chi/Krav Maga and Jeet Kune Do grand master Togo Ishi (which is a freaking phenomenal fight scene). Personally I really loved the setup for the film with the whole meta look at action films and the satirical take on action movies, but that setup just gets lost in a straight forward action movie for the rest of the time (and of course that head scratcher of an ending that feels like it came from a previous write up of the script rather than something that fits within the universe). But at the same time I really liked how this sort of acts as a foil to Jackie Chan’s Ride On, tackling the same subject matter, just with a darker and more morose outcome than Chan’s take on it. The Blu-ray itself is very solid with good video (for a Japanese film), good audio, and the typical anemic Well Go USA extras. I hate to say “watch it” or “skip it” as this is going to appeal to a very niche audience of action lovers, but for those who really enjoy martial arts films with a twist, it’s definitely worth at least checking out.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Sho Aoyagi, Itsuji Itao
Directed by: Yudai Yamaguchi
Written by: Yudai Yamaguchi
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Japanese: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Japanese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 85 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: March 12th, 2024

Recommendation: Interesting Watch