| American Samurai | |
| Director: | Sam Firstenberg |
| Starring: | David Bradley Mark Dacascos |
| Studio: | Global Pictures |
| Distributor: | Cannon Films |
| Released: | November 3, 1993 (Japan) |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
American Samurai is a martial-arts action film directed by Sam Firstenberg and starring David Bradley and Mark Dacascos and produced by Cannon Films. Filmed in Turkey, it was released in the United States in 1992.[1]
After a plane crash in the Japanese mountains, its only survivor—a baby named Andrew Collins—is adopted by Tatsuya Sanga, a samurai master. Andrew, along with the samurai's son, Kenjiro, are trained in the warrior’s way. Andrew excels in his training and soon surpasses his stepbrother’s skills. Kenjiro's jealousy pushes him to join the Yakuza, where he takes the Yakuza oath and forsakes the moral values of the samurai’s code. He leaves his father’s home, swearing to one day take revenge on his brother.Ten years later, Andrew works in L.A. as a journalist. He and a female photographer track down an opium-smuggling operation in Turkey. Soon, the drug dealers kidnapped the girl, forcing Andrew to enter a deadly weapons based martial-arts tournament ruled by illegal gamblers whose greatest champion is the lethal Kenjiro.
The DVD is available in Region 1. However, it is based on the edited R-rated cut. This version has subtitles added to the days of the tournament (i.e. "Day 2", "Day 3", etc.) Additionally, many scenes of violence or injury are zoomed in on, poorly cropped, or deleted altogether to avoid explicit details. The unrated cut has different dialogue in some scenes, no subtitles, and all of the violence is onscreen and considerably more graphic. This version is not available in the United States but can be found in other regions. There is an uncut Belgian bootleg DVD and the British version has approximately one second of footage cut.[2]