Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie Review

Is your food fighting you?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 28, 2014

What do you look for in any given martial arts extravaganza? Do you want a lot of character development, so that you have at least an inkling of why the combatants are going at each other with fists and feet flying? Or do you prefer a minimum of background noise distracting you from the main event—namely, the fights themselves. How you answer that question, along with a perhaps simultaneous query about how feel about food (more about that in a moment), will determine how much you enjoy Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles, a virtually plotless tale that sees a Japanese student taking on a series of nemeses. It might be more accurate to state "a Japanese student who has already taken on a series of nemeses," for most of Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is told as a series of flashbacks that acolyte Toramaru (Mitsuki Koga) relates to his Gensai (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi), a mentor who has tasked Toramaru with mastering various fighting techniques and bringing back proof of that mastery via a series of scrolls offered up as surrender certificates from combatants Toramaru has faced. Right off the bat, this very plot device may give away the fact that Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is not really going to work up much dramatic momentum, let alone suspense, for it's inherently obvious that Toramaru has already prevailed in his battles. Perhaps for that reason, writer-director Takanori Tsujimoto opts for a late developing coda of sorts that at least seems to put Toramaru at risk in "real time", so to speak, though the film's denouement ends up being just the latest in a string of martial arts vignettes.

Bushido is a term relating to the samurai lifestyle, but Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is a little circumspect in its early going, seeming to depict a feudal warrior returning to his dojo kind of like the hero in Harakiri, though in an early surprise it's revealed that the film is actually taking place in contemporary 21st century time. But in fact in a way Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles ends up playing like an improbably lighthearted version of the Harakiri despite their timeframe differences, at least from a structural standpoint, as a series of flashbacks helps illuminate the samurai’s story. Of course Harakiri turns out to be almost breathtakingly emotional, while there’s little on Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles’ mind or heart here, and frankly perhaps more on its stomach courtesy of an odd but somehow endearing subplot that unites each form of battle Toramaru engages in with a certain kind of meal.

It turns out that the Gensai's philosophy revolves around understanding one's enemy by eating their food. That sets up a smorgasbord of sequences where Toramaru is seen eating various things like noodle soups or dumplings before heading off to battle. There may be some deep, hidden meaning in how the food relates to each fighting style, but it's not really overtly examined in the film. Instead we're offered a series of battles that include such stalwarts as kung-fu and nunchaku, along with stick fighting (bojutsu), sword fighting, knife fighting, and just for good measure some good old fashioned guns. The film becomes more and more improbable as it goes along, first offering unlikely but relatively believable bits like a blind swordsman, but soon moving on to some almost surreal combatants, something that makes the film play increasingly like a live action cartoon.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is admittedly pretty brainless, but it turns out to be surprisingly engaging, zigzagging through its anecdotal reminiscences with a fair amount of flair and style. The combatants are mostly very athletic and Action Director Kensuke Sonomura has staged the battles with both aggression and nuance. There’s also a kind of Looney Tunes ambience to some of the fight scenes, to the point where you might be half expecting an Acme anvil to land on the nemesis’ head. While there are supposedly “deep” philosophical lessons being learned by Toramaru along the way, they’re basically appendages that don’t end up mattering in the long run, since there is absolutely no question where the trajectory of the story is going.

As mentioned above, Tsujimoto does add one final showdown that probably anyone worth their salt will see coming from the get go, but it also has a rather distinctive additional element in the form of the Gensai’s cute as a button assistant Denko (Ema). The lunacy of this section of the film almost comes close to some of the Sushi Typhoon outings (maybe appropriately, given the fact that that imprint has a food in its title). But of course the madness is simply to teach Toramaru another valuable lesson (and the word “madness” may be particularly apropos). Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles never really amounts to all that much, but it’s good, brainless fun for most of the ride. Koga makes an appealing hero, even if the character ends up being not much more than those aforementioned flying fists and feet.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. For such a comparatively recent vintage film, Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles is often surprisingly soft looking, an issue that is exacerbated by intentionally high contrast that does things like make whites slightly bloom (clearly visible in some of the screenshots accompanying this review). That said, fine detail can be excellent in normal lighting and contrast situations when Tsujimoto utilizes extreme close-ups (see screenshot 3 for a good example). There's little if any overt color grading done here, aside from perhaps some saffron hues added to some lovely sunny outdoor scenes, and so the palette here is quite accurate looking, with nicely saturated hues.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Three audio options are offered on the Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray. The original Japanese language track is presented via LPCM 2.0 and an English dub is presented in both LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. If you're opting for a stereo track, you'll probably want to stick with the original language choice, though it must be said that the English dub is actually fairly good, with little of the hyperkinetic, portentous quality that sometimes happens with this fare. For those wanting a surround experience, the 5.1 track rather artfully remixes the battle sounds to provide consistent immersion, and some of the sound effects acquire a much more distinctive low end in this mix as well. All three tracks sport excellent fidelity, with no problems to discuss.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Bushido Man: From the Fantasia Film Festival (1080i; 11:17) offers some behind the scenes footage of participants arriving in Montreal, and then has a Q&A session.

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The famed pianist Liberace used to state without even a hint of irony that what he did in his concert performances was to "take all the boring parts" out of classical music warhorses and simply give audiences the "big hit" tunes from any given piece. That same insouciant quality might be attributed to Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles as well. The film plays like a "greatest hits" compilation of various fighting styles, all wrapped around an admittedly paper thin story that really does little more than get hero Toramaru from Column A to Column B on his ever increasing menu of food items and combat techniques. Those who don't mind an absence of "character arc" and traditional plotting will nonetheless find a lot to enjoy here, for the film has a deliberately off kilter sense of humor which really helps to invigorate its odd assortment of vignettes. The video quality here leaves a little bit to be desired, and there isn't a glut of supplements, but the audio is good, and Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles comes Recommended.