Longtime actor Shane Kosugi (Pray For Death, Black Eagle) managed to land on my radar a few times in the last few years or so. He’s an associate producer on the latest two installments of Maria Tran’s Echo 8 trilogy which are in post-production, and he’s also producer on Barashi Fight, writer/director Yutaka Kainuma’s 2023 debut.
Kosugi, who will next appear later this year in Louis Mandylor’s Prisoner Of War from Well Go USA, is also ramping up screenings for his own directorial debut with ninja thriller, Seek, which reunites him with Barashi Fight co-star, actor Kansuke Asano. The project is born from a shortfilm the two crafted before screening to festivals, including the first edition of TACFEST in Spain where Asano won Best Action Actor, and Kosugi scored Best Action Coordinator.
Fast forward to 2025 and with the proliferation of Kosugi’s own proof of concept now comes the production, and forthcoming release of his feature directoral debut, with a cast that joins Asano opposite Kosugi’s own familial screen talent, Kane Kosugi (Bloat, Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear, Blood Heat). Seek is now poised for a premiere at the upcoming third edition of the International Motion Picture Film Festival which will be held at the Smodcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, and Film Combat Syndicate is fortunate this week to get its hands on the official trailer.
Kyohei Aizawa (Kansuke Asano), an assassin for a covert non-governmental espionage group in Japan called “SEEK”, is grieving over the loss of his girlfriend from a tragic plane accident. The leader of “SEEK”, Ryo Mikumo (Nahara), contacts him for an emergency mission; save a fellow agent, recover a new highly explosive liquid called “RDX@”, stop a ruthless Yakuza leader, Sojiro Kotsuki (Kane Kosugi), and his gang before they take over Japan. Although the Ninjas were thought to have disappeared…the new breed of assassins live on helping to protect Japan and all that is right; the Ninjas are coming soon.
The director himself has also spoken publicly in the last few months of a sequel he is planning to shoot this summer, so that sounds enticing. I first learned about Seek last year but I definitely didn’t know enough to do any proper coverage on it. Nowadays, I’m happy I’m able to do that.
Seek also stars Mikako Yoshida and Masaki Miura. Check out the trailer below, and follow Shane Kosugi on Instagram for more updates.
