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Bushido Man
(aka Seven Deadly Battles)
2013; directed by Takanori Tsujimoto

Those of you out there who are both foodies and martial arts movie fans will find a lot to like with Bushido Man, a low-budget Japanese release that has the canny gimmick of a warrior named Tomaramu (played by Mitsuki Koga) on a quest to defeat the world's greatest fighters who learns how to defeat his opponents by eating their favorite meals.

Bushido Man    Bushido Man

Bushido Man's formula is pretty simple. Tomaramu talks with his sensei (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) about his next opponent and the meal he ate beforehand, and then we see the battle. Each of the fighters Tomaramu takes on is versed in a different art, and every battle is in many ways also an homage to a classic movie. For instance, the blind swordsman Tomaramu takes on is a very obvious nod to the Zaitochi films.

Bushido Man    Bushido Man

This style could have the potential to wear out quickly, but director Takanori Tsujimoto keeps things moving along, giving each segment a different look and feel, which goes a long way to keeping the audience interested. And that's a very important factor, since, honestly, there is not much of a story here. This is more of a collection of scenes, rather than a tightly-woven tale, but not every movie has to have a Tarantino-esque dense story structure, and here we can forgive some of the shortcomings, including a weird detour into cyberpunk style science fiction that doesn't quite fit into place in what most would consider "traditional" martial arts.

Bushido Man    Bushido Man

For what it is, Bushido Man is very enjoyable. Though it lacks the emotional investment that gives the best martial arts films the most impact, the fights are done well enough, providing variety and excitement, tinged with some humor and gore. Sure, Bushido Man isn't the most polished production around, but it's a unique take on martial arts and never boring, which makes it stand favorably apart from all the bloated "epics" coming out nowadays.

RATING: 7

Bushido Man

Blu-Ray Information

Shout! Factory's Blu-ray runs approximately 88 minutes, and is presented via a 1080P picture at a 1.78:1 ratio. Audiowise, there are Japanese and English-dubbed tracks available, which are encoded in DTS-HD 5.1, with English subtitles. Where this release falters is with the extras. The lone selection is a 11-minute featurette about the film's premiere at the Fantasia film festival. The subtitles here run a couple of minutes ahead of the of the Japanese dialogue, making this very hard to follow. This is not an issue with the DVD release.

The Blu-ray and DVD are available directly from Shout! Factory.

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