THE PLOT THUS FAR
A deep-frozen 400-year-old samurai is shipped to Los Angeles, where he comes back to life.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Yoshimitsu (Fujioka) is a Samurai in 1500′s Japan. A duel goes awry and he falls into a frozen lake. When some skiers discover his frozen body in the 1980s, Yoshi is shipped to L.A. supposedly for an autopsy at the California Institute For Cryptosurgical Research. The building is inexplicably gigantic. Dr. Richards (John Calvin) decides to revive him and it actually works.
Yoshi is helped by Chris Welles (Julian), a scientist who speaks some Japanese. She befriends him, but when a greedy orderly tries to steal Yoshi’s swords, the orderly is killed and Yoshi escapes into the go-go 80s.
What will happen to this ancient warrior in the modern world? Yoshi sees a helpless old man being menaced by a gang of 50 year old punks and, true to his samurai code of honor, decides to intervene. The guns and knives of the AARP punks can’t compete with Yoshi’s top quality samurai swords.
The DVD comes with no special features. But, you still get the same level of commitment from the MGM Archive towards preserving original aspect ratio on DVD-R discs. The audio is supportive, but it keeps in the grindhouse vibe of the feature. I just wish we could’ve gotten something else in terms of supplemental material. I love this stuff and I wanted to watch more. This is a must-buy.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
