The Warrior's Way

Plot:  A warrior-assassin is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission.

Director:

Sngmoo Lee

Writer:

Sngmoo Lee

Stars:

Dong-gun Jang, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush

This movie poster is a little more dark and grim that the actual movie. Here would be a more accurate movie poster:

I'm not kidding.  The greatwest sword's man from the orient cannot bring himself to kill the last member of the clan that has opposed his own for over 1,000 years...because it is a baby.  He adopts the baby, escapes his own clan and relocates to the American Mid West.

It reminds me of Sukiyaki Western Django, but it's not nearly as violent and frantic.  There is one battle scene where things get rather gory, but otherwise it borders on being a comedy/drama.  It's a surreal movie, and the scenery and characters are used to create this sense of an unearthly environment.  There are actually a number of faces you would know in this movie and the films squeezes as much talent as they can out of each of the actors.  Kate Bosworth is in it (she plays opposite the hero (Jang)) and pretty much is the life force of the entire movie.  The movie is actually much less about the wandering warrior and much more about a girl trying to get revenge.

But I guess it doesn't make a very cool poster to have the girl in the middle, so they put the guy that looks most like a hero in the middle.  The movie flopped in the box office, but oh well, too late to fix things now.

I struggle to figure who to recommend this to.  It's a western-samuari mashup with wacky characters and rape threats.  If that appeals to you...go for it.

2/5 STARS