OK first of all if you are a Seagal fan you will love this movie. Secondly, if you are a martial artist you should enjoy this film. Now for the rest of the potential viewers. I feel that as a whole Seagal's quality like Van damme has got worse over the past five years. This is obviously because of the fact that as an actor he has a limited realm and correct me if I am wrong but America has practically black listed him since he decided to increase his ' healthiness' shall we say!
Compare it now to the old 'Under Siege', 'Marked for Death' and 'Out for Justice' days and its probably not as good, but I don't think you can compare this film with those. I actually prefer the fact that this film is set in Tokyo, having some very real elements to it and it maintains a lot of the traditional elements of the Japanese (e.g. traditional ceremonies like private remembrance service, Yakuza ceremony). If you have any appreciation of Asia and specifically Japan, and if you have visited Tokyo you will enjoy this film from the point of view that you will recognize a lot of the venues. Tsukiji fish market, O-daiba, Roppongi and Asakusa. That in itself is refreshing because most movies just use a standard studio or set to film in.
I also believe that there is a prejudice against Asian cinema's and directors. To be quite honest I think Seagal has taken some real risks with his choice of directors (multiple Asian countries) in the past five years or so because of his exclusion from the USA, but then good on him I say. If he still has fans and he still wants to make films why should the US movie industry control this ability for him to make films, Stuff 'em !
I short I think this movie has gone ' a little way' in restoring his credibility as an action hero again, based purely on the martial arts sequences and the more 'real life ' based scenario than some of his recent 'unbelievable' story lines.
I did also like the way they tried to bring in a Chinese gangland element into it as well which goes to show that Chinese and Japanese can actually work together in film. This is quite rare to see in modern day action cinema. Notably also the mix of Asian producers used in the film shows that Seagal is actually building up a good network for acting across Asia and giving the opportunity for Asian producers and Directors to use an American 'big name' where most other American actors wouldn't even go near Asia with a bargepole. This show promise that he will continue to pump out films via Asia, I just hope they remain good enough quality!
Compare it now to the old 'Under Siege', 'Marked for Death' and 'Out for Justice' days and its probably not as good, but I don't think you can compare this film with those. I actually prefer the fact that this film is set in Tokyo, having some very real elements to it and it maintains a lot of the traditional elements of the Japanese (e.g. traditional ceremonies like private remembrance service, Yakuza ceremony). If you have any appreciation of Asia and specifically Japan, and if you have visited Tokyo you will enjoy this film from the point of view that you will recognize a lot of the venues. Tsukiji fish market, O-daiba, Roppongi and Asakusa. That in itself is refreshing because most movies just use a standard studio or set to film in.
I also believe that there is a prejudice against Asian cinema's and directors. To be quite honest I think Seagal has taken some real risks with his choice of directors (multiple Asian countries) in the past five years or so because of his exclusion from the USA, but then good on him I say. If he still has fans and he still wants to make films why should the US movie industry control this ability for him to make films, Stuff 'em !
I short I think this movie has gone ' a little way' in restoring his credibility as an action hero again, based purely on the martial arts sequences and the more 'real life ' based scenario than some of his recent 'unbelievable' story lines.
I did also like the way they tried to bring in a Chinese gangland element into it as well which goes to show that Chinese and Japanese can actually work together in film. This is quite rare to see in modern day action cinema. Notably also the mix of Asian producers used in the film shows that Seagal is actually building up a good network for acting across Asia and giving the opportunity for Asian producers and Directors to use an American 'big name' where most other American actors wouldn't even go near Asia with a bargepole. This show promise that he will continue to pump out films via Asia, I just hope they remain good enough quality!