Lone Samurai arrives on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD beginning March 17 from Well Go USA.
I’ve been drawn to Josh C. Waller ever since Raze and Camino. I’ve yet to catch up with McCanick or some of his other work, but he’s usually pretty good and drawing audiences into dark and murky worlds, and I love a solid martial arts tangent. With his contribution to the previously-titled “Lone,” I was immediately interested, and having seen the since-titled Lone Samurai, arriving soon on disc from Well Go USA, my curiousity is more than satisfied.
Waller’s period adventure combines wistful escapism and luster with dark and brooding allure, exploring the duality of a lost swordsman (Shogen) beached after a deadly storm strands him on a mysterious island. We follow our protagonist on his quest from this point on, although wounded and largely resigned to peace instead of mere survival. His journey borders on tortuous for a good deal of the way as he fights for his sanity, trudging through memories of his family, and prose in thought and scripture to realign himself.
He efforts to heal and create a temporary sanctuary and ultimately manages to build a small makeshift prayer shrine midway into the film before attempting his final ritual of seppuku. What he fails to realize, however, is that he’s not alone. Desolate, yes, but far from unaccompanied, having been violently captured by a tribe of cannibals who have him third in line on their current menu with two prisoners already awaiting their grim fate. Forced to bear witness to the awful, our swordsman – resigned to an honorable death – regains his footing once more in a daring escape to fight his way out, and shape his own destiny.
Waller’s Lone Samurai captures these aspects on a great scale, providing a stunning audiovisual illustration of his vision. Dialogue is minimal apart from the film’s initial narration, in addition to the featured cast, including Sumire Ashina whose character as our protagonist’s wife takes shape in the form of flashbacks, as well as seeming hallucinations. Headlining the swordsman’s captors is Indonesian stunt and screenfighting talent, actor Rama Ramadhan who plays the newly minuted leader of the tribe. He is joined by Yayan Ruhian who plays the tribe’s shaman whose own skills in combat are touted as legendary, a plot point established as the film’s climatic action finale hits its precipice.
The action is prefaced at the very top, darkly lit and presented as an intro to Shogen’s character before treading into its deeper, atmospheric narrative. It’s not until well into the second half that Shogen’s character is able to let loose on the tribal goons as he covertly gets the upperhand, taking the fight to the tribe and using guerilla tactics and what the land provides him as his cover from one amuse-bouche to the next. There’s a line that Ruhian’s character says when he’s confronted by the tribal leader that really sets the tone for what lies ahead, and really kind of nudging the John Wick crowd a bit there. Shameless, but totally accepted.
If you haven’t seen Shogen in action before, he’s got multiple credits like bit roles in the HiGH&LOW franchise, along with major dramatic performances in films like Anshul Chalhan’s December and Indonesian thriller The Redemption of Sin, and boxing biopic Gensan Punch. His performance in 2014’s Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist sets one of his earlier precedents as a physically capable actor, and needless to say, Shogen’s aptitude in these facets continues to showcase excellently in Waller’s work. There’s also the use of a broken sword in the film that serves as both a major plot piece, as well as development anchor that compliment’s his character right down to the finale.
It all reflects the kinds of palatable themes you’ve seen in other films where characters are trapped deep in inescapable voids, and left to the designs of their own thoughts as a testament to whether or not they can endure to the other end. You’re not wrong for questioning the topic of faith there. Life is hard, and painful, but there is satisfaction in acknowledging these things, and the possibility of surpassing these obstacles if you can hold out long enough. If that tickles your appeal enough to want to see Lone Samurai, or if you’re simply in it to watch a cool period jidaigeki with a swordsman battling man-eating troglodytes to the death in a movie that ain’t for the squeamish, then you’re probably not alone either way.
