The Warrior's Way

I know, this took a lot longer than I meant it too. Sorry about that.

So, a while back I saw the previews for The Warrior's Way on YouTube and TV etc, and I was instantly interested in seeing it. Geoffrey Rush is always a draw on me, Not to mention Kate Bosworth, Tony Cox doing what he does, and Danny Huston as a vile gunslinging villain and my interest is already piqued. Add to that Dong-Gun Jang, whose work I had not yet seen, but I had heard good things. As a fan of Sukiyaki Western Django, when I realized that the setting of the movie was the American Old West and the protagonist was an Asian Assassin on the run from his own clan, and I knew I was sold. Ninjas Vs. Cowboys? Yes Please!

So how did it hold up against my expectations? Overall, very well.

The story revolves around Yang (Dong-Gun Jang), an assassin of vague Asian origin. The film never comes right out and says where he is from. During the opening sequence, Yang faces off against a group of rival assassins, led by a man who is said to be the greatest swordsman in the world. After a frenzied fight with the lower minions, Yang dispatches their leader with a single stroke and claims the title of greatest swordsman for himself. Upon inspecting the package the assassins were defending, Yang discovers it contains a baby girl. This girl is revealed to be the last member of the rival clan Yang was sworn to destroy, but he can't bring himself to murder an innocent child. Instead, he peace bonds his sword, swears never to kill again, and flees to America to escape the wrath of his clan, taking the child with him.

When he arrives in the town a friend told him about, said friend is long gone, and his debts condemn Yang to running the Laundry business (ugh) he left behind. The town is also inhabited by the members of a circus, including Lynne (Kate Bosworth) the failed knife thrower with a tragic past who becomes the focus of the film in the second act, 8 Ball (Tony Cox) a little person Fixer who befriends Yang, and Ron (Geoffrey Rush) the town drunk who was once a feared sharpshooter.

Besides the opening action sequence establishing Yang's motivation, the first act is pretty dismal, to be honest. I was very worried that my interest had been misplaced when I heard Kate Bosworth's Annie Oakley delivery of her lines and realized that Yang was being portrayed as the Mysterious Asian Guy with only a few lines we've seen in so many other movies as well as the stilted dialogue, my enthusiasm for the film waned severely. One high point in the early parts of the movie comes when Yang teaches Lynne to throw knives and sword fight, as well as trusting in her own instinct and ability. Predictably, Lynne falls for the emotionally distant Yang, though he later reveals that he feels the same.

When we come around to the second act, we learn more about Lynne's past and we are introduced to our main antagonist, the leader of a gang of roving brigands known simply as the Colonel (Danny Houston). The Colonel is easily the most twisted, interesting character in the film. He and Lynne have a past, which earned him a scarred face he covers with a leather half mask. His bandits are little more than psychotic thugs who are more interested in tormenting the townsfolk than stealing goods. They take over the Inn and Saloon in town and further antagonize the townsfolk. During the second act Lynne infiltrates the inn by posing as a prostitute in order to get close to the Colonel. At the same time, Yang's vow of non-violence is tested as the barbarism of the Colonels men escalates, and he at last breaks it and the peace bond on his sword when news reaches him that Lynne was found out and captured by the colonel. The second act ends with a pretty spectacular action sequence of Yang driving out the Colonel and his men and organizing the townsfolk's resistance to their eventual return. This is when we learn of Ron's past as a gunfighter and sharpshooter who also vowed never to kill again. He sobers up and digs up his cache of firearms in the local grave yard to aid in the defense of the town.

Without spoiling anything, the third act sees the Colonel's men return. To complicate matters, Yang's past at last catches up to him. The last act is an unapologetic action fest with over the top sword fights and gun play that crosses into the realm of Ludicrously entertaining action movies like Versus, Death Trance (AKA Dir En Grey: the Movie!), and Dead or Alive. Towards the end, there is an insanely awesome bullet trick and a duel in classic Samurai movie style. In all the ending is very satisfying.

The Warriors Way is one of those movies that seems to start out with good intentions and some interesting Ideas, but suffers from the problem of trying to do too much in one movie. The majority of the first half of the movie could be easily skipped, and the end would still be entertaining, but for some reason the formulaic exposition of the characters eats up big chunks of time. This would be less of a problem if the characters were less interchangeable with action movie trope characters you get in all movies like this. Yang ends up coming off as "Stereotypical Asian Warrior" more than anything else. He is basically Grave from Death Trance, only not nearly as animated. Lynne becomes far more interesting when her revenge plot takes center stage, as she is a terribly accented tough Southern girl up till that point. The only character who really shines is Geoffrey Rush's Ron, mostly due to Rush's performance, but even he is the classic western gun fighter who swears not to fire a gun. A trope that is well worn in westerns. Yang, Lynne, and Ron all have lengthy Origin scenes, all of which could have been much better done in allusions and brief flashbacks throughout the opening acts. Honestly, the movie would have been much better off if Yang had simply wandered into the American town with a baby hanging from his sword in the opening minutes without any explanation. Revealing his back story in the opening scene gives him very little to do in the following acts besides "be mysterious." Lynne's back story served to demonstrate what a vile bastard the Colonel is and why she hates him, but it took too long to get going, her motivation was far from original, and by the time it's over, you forget what was going on in the movie proper. Ron's story is handled right, with only hints early on that he is anything but a drunk, then a brief exposition of why he stopped fighting and turned to the bottle. It's simple and compelling.

Visually, the film has some rough spots, mostly involving the CG. There are plenty of action scenes that scream "This is CG!" It is a minor annoyance that only really distracted from the cool factor of the scenes themselves a couple of times. The run-down western town setting of the film is pretty spectacular in my opinion, and the costuming and makeup is overall very good.

Sound is one of the strong points of the film. The soundtrack is very similar to that of Sukiyaki Western Django, with Spaghetti Western and Samurai Movie tones. If the soundtrack is available, I'd be tempted to pick it up.

Overall, I found the movie enjoyable. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it delivered some very entertaining action and a decent story in the second half of the film. And while the first half of the film is weighed down by poor pacing and mediocre humor, it isn't enough to prevent one from enjoying the much more interesting second half with a little patience.

Final Score: 7 Sliced Bullets out of 10.