Product Details

• Actors: Richard Boone, Toshirô Mifune, Mike Starr, Timothy Patrick Murphy, Frank Converse
• Directors: Tsugunobu Kotani
• Writers: William Overgard
• Producers: Arthur Rankin Jr., Benni Korzen, Jules Bass, Masaki Îzuka
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lance Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: July 12, 2005
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000714BO
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,614 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Bushido Blade" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's cheese-ball fun to this 1979 misfire, an American-Japanese coproduction made to cash in on Shogun-mania. Richard Boone (in his last role) plays the real-life Commodore Perry, who ended centuries of Japanese isolation by signing a treaty with a resolute shogun (Toshiro Mifune) in 1854. Against the historical backdrop is the fictional adventure of a Yankee officer (a stiff and stilted Frank Converse) who pits American gumption against samurai swordsmanship to recover the sacred Bushido Blade. Sonny Chiba's dynamic presence as a warrior prince helps energize the rudimentary fight choreography and the low budget shows through in undernourished set pieces. But the pace never lets up, and helping distract from Converse's crippling lack of charisma are the solid supporting cast, among them half-Japanese female samurai Laura Gemser, imprisoned sailor James Earl Jones, and Mike Starr as the burly bosun who bonds with a sumo wrestler in a tussle that bridges cultural and verbal barriers. --Sean Axmaker

From the Back Cover

In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry anchored his fleet in the shadow of Mount Fuji in Yokohama Bay. His arrival awoke Japan from a sleep of centuries. In a feudal society torn between those who wish to move into the modern world and the rebel clans sworn to the "old ways," Perry pushes for a treaty to open the country, which the Shogun agrees to sign. But before the signing can take place, a fanatical group of samurai abducts a gift from the Shogun intended for the U.S. President. It is a national treasure of sacred significance to the Japanese--the great sword known as the Bushido Blade. The treaty cannot be signed until the Blade is recovered. It is an urgent and dangerous quest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Samurai Film Ever, April 3, 2005

By	Jason Long (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a big fan of samurai films and Japanese cinema. Toshiro Mifune is my favorite actor. I own about sixty or so samurai and/or mifune movies. With that said, I purchased Bushido Blade in hopes that it would be tolerable. I was sadly mistaken. Don't let your curiousity get the better of you and your money. The plot is missing, the acting is terrible (except for Mifune, who speaks English in this film without understanding the language, yet he is dubbed anyway), and the quality is unbearable. In one part, a US naval officer beats a samurai in a sword fight. Give me a break!

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cheeseball is being kind, February 26, 2003

By	John S. Blair "siddo" (Shaker Heights, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This hackneyed excuse for a samurai film is an example of great actors (excluding Frank Converse) needing work. The action sequences are laughable and if you may not have noticed, this is an Arthur Rankin/Jules Bass production, famed American cartoon producers, Frosty the Snowman being one of their most well-known works. Someone should have told them to "thumpity, thump, thump" back to Saturday morning fare. This one reeks about as much as the scene where the sailors refuse to take baths. Shogun may have been melodramatic, but there isn't an ounce of drama used here. Buy this one at your own risk. Only thing of value is the plastic box it came in. You can use it for another DVD and the DVD as a frisbee.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably bad, November 7, 2004

A Kid's Review

Most American films about the Samurai culture showed a great deal of respect and interest that the real public had about their former-enemy's ethnic warrior culture. This one seems aimed at making the Japanese as ridiculous as possible. A waste of one of the greatest actors of all time, Toshiro Mifune, doesn't help. Richard Boone and James Earl Jones are also shamefully misused.

Now for the infamous fight scene. There was no way in HELL a US marine could best ANY samurai in sword to sword combat. The Last Samurai was an entertaining if flawed pic, and the scene where Tom Cruise expertly takes down serveral samurai on horse back with his Union Army sabre was quite laughable. Civil war-era soldiers where not often trained in swordsmanship, and the blades themselves where clumsy, poorly made and ineffectual weapons. The Bushido Blade, however, outdoes Tom Cruise's exaggerated fighting skills by displaying a know-nothing good ol' boy Marine dealing with particularly deadly samurai. Ethnocentrism anyone?