Streaming Sleepers: Koichi Sakamoto’s BROKEN PATH Paves Way For Streaming Enjoyment On Plex
Koichi Sakamoto’s 2008 martial arts thriller, Broken Path, is currently streaming on Plex. The version available a cleaner cut of the film minus a few gory edits that are available in a more violent cut of the film, and is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, and also has a producer’s G-mail address popping in at some point, which says the platform wasn’t given a clean version of the film to distribute.
This continues to be one of the most painful reminders that Sakamoto’s last-known feature film directed on American soil remains one of the most undertreated in recent history, left wayward when it got South African distribution years ago and briefly landed on digital platforms in the years that passed. I first remember spotting it on Prime Video and Google Play, and I finally got to see MOST of the film on the latter platform when the copy I rented conked out after maybe an hour and some change.
It’s gotten so bad that it seems far from likely the film will ever get the kind of proper distribution fans might have wanted. The good news is that the film is finally streaming somewhere legitimate, albeit tentatively, until it disappears – after which who knows when it will pop up again.
It sucks, really, but in these times, I guess we have to take our wins where we find them. Broken Path has been a recurring stop on several occasions for martial arts and tokusatsu fans – namely for anyone keeping up with the goings-on of Sakamoto, actor Johnny Yong Bosch, and the legendary wrecks and stylings of Alpha Stunts, the team behind all the glorified action and spectacle folks like me grew up seeing in Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and films like Steve Wang’s Guyver: Dark Hero and Drive, Isaac Florentine’s High Voltage and Cold Harvest, and Makoto Yokoyama’s Shadow Fury and TV Tokyo’s “Garo” series.
Far from being a cinematic masterpiece, Broken Path (as it stands along with its various titles in the world depending on where you look) delivers – in its own right, a masterclass on low-budget filmmaking under grueling conditions, with a production focused largely on its strongest selling-point: bloody, brutal, white-knuckle martial arts choreography and performance.
Additionally, seeing as Bosch is inbound with upcoming action crime thriller, Spades, I figure making Broken Path relevant again would be a good way to help with the momentum. Grab some eats, turn on Plex, mind the frills and watch Sakamoto and his people cook.
