Lone Samurai
“Lone Samurai” begins as one thing and transforms into another thing. While I greatly love the film as a whole, it’s likely that you, as the audience, will have one part of the film you enjoy more than another. That is definitely the case with me, though I greatly appreciate the full experience that writer-director Josh C. Waller gives us. He’s looking to meld this film into an examination of a life lived, regrets contained, and redemption earned that also kind of kicks ass. I feel like he succeeds.
At the center of the story is Riku (Shogen), a 13th Century samurai who finds himself shipwrecked on an island. He contemplates ritual suicide, and has memories of his life before he turned to violence. He begins to find his center again, and builds a life. One day, he finds that this island is not uninhabited, and the indigenous tribe is a blood cult that resorts to cannibalism. To continue his life, he will have to fight his way through them.
If you’ve paid attention over the years, I think one can probably deduce which section of “Lone Samurai” I love most. There’s something about the contemplation a character like Riku goes through as they are at a low ebb in their life that I always find compelling. Waller allows Shogen to go through that journey largely without dialogue- it’s his actions and body language that tell the story. But with a movie such as “Lone Samurai,” conflict is going to be necessary for Riku’s journey, and seeing how he is as challenged by the tribe makes the second half of the film- where Waller delivers in terms of action- it’s great to see how he builds this film to where the action matters beyond simply Riku fighting for his survival. Though contextually very different, I found myself thinking about Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” during the second half of the film- it’s basically one man against a civilization, and it is where the film turns into a riveting thriller, even though escape to home is not in the cards for Riku. The action throughout the second half of the film is exciting to watch and brutal, and in the end, all roads lead back to Riku’s personal journey. “Lone Samurai” looks at the isolation of a life, along with the emotional journey one samurai must take to feel like his life has meaning. It was an exciting, gripping exercise in genre filmmaking.
