The Hunted
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Movie Reviews of The Hunted
Movie Review: Christopher Lambert is The Hunted
Summary: 5 Stars
One of Mr. Lambert's best films, The Hunted finds Paul Racine (Lambert), a New Yorker on business in Japan, who meets the lovely Kirina (Joan Chen) in a bar late one evening and goes back to her place for a night of passion. But when Paul wants to continue seeing her, Kirina sadly tells him that he can never see her again. Unknown to Paul, Kirina is marked for death by the boss, Nemura (James Saito) who hires the cunning and ruthless ninja, Kinjo (John Lone), to carry out his deeds. But a mistake in door keys causes Paul to return to her apartment only to witness her demise at the hands of Kinjo, who fatally wounds Paul, who sees him without his mask (he took it off at the request of Kirina to show her the face of her assassin). Rushed to a hospital, Paul recovers while having reacurring dreams about Kirina (in lovely black and white w/Kirina in color). He is later approached by Takeda (Yoshio Harada), a master Samurai and his wife, Mieko (Yoko Shimada (James Clavell's Shogun)), who both urge him to move as quickly as possible, as Kinjo will surely come back to finish him off. Several hours (and dead cops) later, Paul leaves the hospital and attempts to meet up with Tekeda and Mieko at the train station to escape Kinjo. After evading the ninjas (in a fairly believable way), Paul makes it to the train while still being persued by the ninjas sent by Kinjo to kill him. Many dead and bloodied ninjas later (at the hands of Takeda), Paul is taken to a school, owned by Takeda, to hide out until the threat is over. With a satisfying climax, this film not only has plenty of action to satisfy all, but the added bonus of fine acting by the cast (Lambert, Lone, Chen, Harada, Shimada) which makes it a most enjoyable film to watch again and again. Plus you can't beat the music, which adds another layar all by itself. I really loved this film, seeing it in the movie theater, buying the video, laserdisc and finally the DVD, which includes Cast and Crew Bios for Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen, Director J.F. Lawton, Production Notes, Universal Web Links, and the Original Theatrical Trailer. Enhanced in the Widescreen Format (1:85.1), The Hunted is the perfect East meets West action movie.Movie Review: Manhunt in Tokyo: Bloody sword-play!
Summary: 5 Stars
After a night with a mysterious lady, New York businessman, Mr. Racine, found himself in the middle of a Tokyo under-world assassination. The assassin: none other than the fanatical Kinjo, leader of a radical cult of Ninja assassins. The trouble began when Mr. Racine saw Kinjo's face, and Kinjo's henchmen failed to kill Mr. Racine.
The hunt is on! Racine finds he is now the target of the assassin cult, but uses his wits to evade them until he is taken in by a modern Samurai, Takeda, who is equally fanatical about hunting Kinjo to settle a multi-generational feud. Takeda cares nothing about Racine, he is merely useful as a means to identify Kinjo. The chase through Tokyo climaxes in a savage and bloody assault on the Shinkansen commuter train, where Takeda and his wife dispatch the murderous cult-members in classic Samurai style!
Temporarily safe in Takeda's fortress, Racine befriends the clan swordsmith, Oshima, (played by a real-life famous Karate instructor, Tak Kubota) a clownish, heavy-drinking, but highly-skilled craftsman of weapons.
The final battle ensues, when Kinjo launches an all-out assault on Takeda's island fortress...and the the vendetta is settled by a duel.
Ignore the negative reviews. Its just an action-movie! Although it follows many common themes in a martial-arts film, this one is slightly different from the norm. Of course, real Ninjutsu and Bujutsu is far more interesting and complex than the stereotypes seen in most movies of this category. But again, its just an action-movie! I believe this is Christopher Lambert's best film since The Highlander!
Movie Review: One of my favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't be fooled by the premise that Christopher Lambert is the "star" of the movie nor that the creator of the movie also created Under Siege, The Hunted is a movie that does an excellent job of portraying the beauty of sword play, the bitterness of revenge, and beauty of justice.Paul Racine (Christopher Lambert) is an American on a business trip in Japan and ends up meeting Kirina (Joan Chen) at a bar at his hotel. His wonderful night with the beautiful Kirina ends with her life being taken by Kinjo (John Lone), the leader of a ninja clan that is thought to only exist in tales to scare children, and Paul is critically injured, but not killed, in the process.
Paul, unfortunately, is still hunted by the ninjas and is taken under the protection of Takeda (Yoshio Harada), a master swordsman. The movie flows through beautiful and semi-realistic sword play while the truth behind Takeda's true intentions and Kinjo's obsession with killing Paul (in order to relieve himself of the images of Kirina that are haunting him) are revealed gradually and lead to the final battle.
The movie portrays beautiful and realistic (except for a scene where Takeda deflects two throwing-stars with his sword) fighting scenes mixed with an almost classic ideaology of samurai and ninja conflict.
The DVD has basic bonus features, including cast and production notes and offers the movie in spoken french and english and sub-titled in spanish and english. Even if you are not interested in the bonus features, I would suggest at least purchasing the VHS of The Hunted.
Movie Review: BUY THIS MOVIE
Summary: 5 Stars
Holy moly... I can't begin to tell you how pleasantly surprised I was after watching this movie. Don't let the boring DVD cover or leading man fool you. Christopher Lambert is just an ordinary business man visiting Japan. John Lone & Yoshio Harada make the flick. Tak Kubota as Oshima gave the movie a bit of comic relief as well. The fight scenes are absolutely astounding. I watched this movie dog tired & was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I had to recommend it to all of my friends the very next day. I'm watching it AGAIN as I am typing this review. Two words... "Train Scene." If you want to know what I'm talking about, BUY THE MOVIE. Have you ever watched a flick that was so good, with the main characters being so ruthless & believable that you couldn't help but get goosebumps? Well, here's an excerpt from the film that will give nothing away but a brief foreshadowing of just how good the Samurai was:
Paul Racine: What do we do if he loses?
Meiko: Takeda will not lose...
Have you got goosebumps yet? Those of you expecting a cheesy movie w/ horrible acting, CGI & impossible stunts done with cables, turn the other way. I bought this movie site unseen & without any recommendation from anyone except the plethora of 5 star reviews from Amazon. It was well worth the money & you will not be disappointed.
Movie Review: A completely underrated movie.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautifully made picture, full of smooth action scenes, breathtaking scenery, and a little romance mixed in to boot. I won't go on with an overview of the plot; you can read that above, I'd like to focus on the DVD. The movie is displayed in a widescreen ratio, and is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Special feature wise the movie is lacking, it only contains a theatrical trailer and some production notes. I personally would have loved to see a nice featurette on the choreography but I'm afraid not this time. The movie itself is not some B or C movie as you would expect from a movie with as little exposure as this one got. That's right folks, no cheese, excellent cast, excellent acting. Furthermore the film is historically correct, as far as I can tell, everything right down to the Takeda family crest; with the exception of the ferocity of the ninja, they wouldn't just kill to kill. Anybody who loves the Eastern culture and martial art films will love this movie, but it is not completely "chop saki" using the story as an excuse to start the next fight. This is most definitely a DVD to add to the collection.