Gary Daniels has one of the best DTV martial arts movie careers and I think this is one of the highlights ... A half-American and half-Japanese production, shot in a combination of both Japanese and English.
All the action scenes are terrific, Daniels gets to do what he does best but we get the extra element of swordplay. Kiyoshi Nakajoe kind of steals the show with his performance, a super-cool Yakuza character who seems to control the space around him. What I liked about the film was how the dueling narratives of both men intertwined... Cop and criminal that may have more in common than they realise.
I have no idea why this film has bad reviews on IMDB, I think its well worth tracking down and watching if this is your genre. Its very much an above average DTV martial arts film in terms of craft (the often pastel colours give a nice aesthetic feeling) and the action is mostly superb. Would be a good double-feature with White Tiger or one of Gary's PM entertainment flicks.
