Customer Reviews

Fatal Blade

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gary Daniels is not my favorite action hero, but in this film he does a very commendable job as a cop out to avenge his partner's death. It seems the yakuza and a local L.A. gang are engaged in warfare when the Yakuza send a specialist to eliminate their problems in L.A. unfotunately a mistaken identity leads Daniel's to believe that the hitman rubbed out his friend when in fact the hitman is a consumate professional who only in his own words eliminates the target and not innocents.The action is fast and furious and there is a pretty good car chase scene to keep us entertained as a corruptpolice captain also adds to the confusion betweeen the gangs as an informant for the local gang. With a few plot twists about a Japenese girl whom engages the Yakuza hitman to avenge her sisters death from a drug overdose the storyline has a nice even flow to it that makes this movie good popcorn material on a rainy day. Not a bad flick for Daniel's who actually shows here that he has a personality with a little help on character development that he gets here

i bought this movie because of gary daniels. but there i like one good fight scene. the rest of the movie is whack

One of the more generic martial arts films released as of late, Fatal Blade is an uninspired and droll film that features Gary Daniels as another cliche renegade cop that plays outside the rules. Contrary to the movie's box art, Mr. Daniels hardly wields a katana in this flick, and the few action scenes which could have been somewhat gratifying are played in fast-forwards, making them appear cheesy and goofy, instead of exciting. If you're a fan of Gary Daniels (all three of you), check out some of his better performances, such as Fist of the North Star and stay away from this turkey.

The cover of the Region 2 release of "Fatal Blade" (aka "Gedo") doesn't feature leading man Gary Daniels at all, but rather co-star/pop singer Kiyoshi Nakajo; I consider this a more accurate representation than the North American cover, since this may very well be the first of Gary's starring movies wherein he has the film wholly stolen out from under him by another performer. Nevertheless, even though the promotional folks seemingly didn't have a sound understanding of the film, it's still a pretty good picture - a somewhat unbalanced one that doesn't have enough action scenes and doesn't encompass the complete Gary Daniels experience, but it's definitely better-than-average DTV fare.

The story: a vengeful Los Angeles cop (Daniels, Bloodmoon) and an imported Yakuza hitman (Nakajo) seek similar ends alongside eachother in the middle of an LA street war.

The plot follows two main threads: Gary attempting to track down the murderer of his partner (Eric Lutes, Caroline in the City) and Nakajo seeking to assassinate an underground kingpin (Victor Rivers, The Mask of Zorro) while kindling an unexpected love interest with a woman he saves from deportation (fellow Japanese pop artist Seiko Matsuda). The latter takes precedence, and while I'd usually be disappointed that Gary takes a backseat in his own vehicle, I can't fault it because the assassin's story is much more interesting than the cop's. Kiyoshi Nakajo does a very good job of portraying the archetypal Japanese antihero, and the romance angle is done artfully - you've seen it before, but that doesn't make the end tragedy any less weighty. By comparison, Gary comes across bland and the LA cops in general aren't folks you'd root for. This story clearly belongs to Kiyoshi.

...but the fight scenes belong to Gary. One of them isn't very good, but the other two feature smooth, inspired choreography (by Akihiro Noguchi, Black Belt) and impressive stuntwork. The first isn't very long and the final one is frequently interrupted by intercutting, but Gary's packing some undeniably cool moves in addition to his stellar kicking. Nakajo supplies some sword-swinging, but there's only one actual duel in the end (with Kentaro Shimizu, Kibakichi) and it's not very good. Some shootouts and a lengthy car chase aren't awful but aren't pulled off as well as their ambitious staging suggests they ought to have been. An extra two or three hand-to-hand battles with Gary would have bumped this one's rating up another star, but as things stand, the movie's meager action offering is my biggest complaint.

I love the abundance of Japanese dialogue, but the script and story still feature a number of goofy and/or disappointing things: Nakajo is introduced as a ninja-esque master assassin but still does stupid things like trying to drive on the wrong side of the road, (SPOILER) and the abrupt death of his girlfriend is a big let-down. The film features a rare onscreen appearance of Cuba Gooding's father, but Christopher Duncan (The Jamie Foxx Show) ends up being pretty useless after he's built up as a tough bodyguard. In the end, all of these things accumulate in a way that makes it easy to understand why many folks are divided on this film. I have my own complaints about it, but in the end, it comes together as acceptable for me, and probably will for you, too, if you're in the mood to see a DTV action movie about a Yakuza assassin in America who falls in love while pursued by an American policeman with a British accent.

Gary Daniels fights Yakuza gangsters and teams up with a Japanese killer. They look to take down a crazy crime boss.

The story is not bad, but the direction is very weak and doesn't get anything out of the actors. Slow pace is really taken to the extreme.

This certainly isn't one of the worst movies ever made, but is not recommended. It could have been good if the acting and dialogue were tolerable.

There are only 3 fight scenes. The first 2 are mildy enjoyable and very short. The final fight is more of the same. The main problem is that while Gary Daniels looks outstanding and the stuntwork is good, the editor seems to have even less of a clue on how to make movies then the director.

James Lew has a cameo but unfortunately doesn't fight, and in the credits I saw Cuba Gooding Sr. listed and it does seem to be Gooding's father. I wish I could explain what the heck he is doing in this movie, but I would be much more interested in finding out why James Lew just has a throw away role. Listed as a stuntman is J.J. Perry which is not surprising and explains why the stuntwork is so well done, but too bad about the editing.

1/5

The DVD from Platinum Disc has very good sound and picture quality.

SEIKO is a Japanese top star.
She has even a singer.
But, the best work is being done even if it is made an actress.
Such she is only out, and I think that it is the best work.
And, neither DVD nor video is on market in Japan to this work with being disappointing.
It is very envious of being on market in America.