One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 12, 2024

There are "meta" levels abounding from the get go with One-Percent Warrior, a film which reunites writer-director Yûdai Yamaguchi with star Tak Sakaguchi and which initially at least might seem like a slightly fictionalized version of what Yamaguchi and Sakaguchi have "brought" to the Japanese action film. Sakaguchi portrays Takuma Toshiro, a once famous actor and filmmaker who hit the big time with his first feature, Birth, but who has since languished for a decade or so in what is the modern day Japanese equivalent of age old show business stories of "one hit wonders". Toshiro is an advocate for "real action", as opposed to overly choreographed fight sequences, which he in fact dismissively compares to dancing. That puts him at odds with younger Japanese action filmmakers as the actor is consigned to a supporting role where he is nonetheless still remembered as "that guy who made Birth". There's some nicely comic material here surrounding the production of a Japanese martial arts "spectacular", aided and abetted by Sakaguchi's doleful eyes and almost expressionless delivery as he's confronted with one indignity after another.

This opening sequence, which delays the credits for almost twelve minutes, is fascinating on several levels, and includes some supposed "broadcast material" documenting Toshiro's history including not just Birth but experience in the military (in a thinly disguised attempt at an early info dump which provides context for Toshiro's butt kicking proclivities later in the story). But then there's a rather abrupt turn as Toshiro and Akira (Kohei Fukuyama), an assistant who more or less appears out of nowhere, decide to forge ahead with their own "real action" film, one which Toshiro has supposedly had in his head for the last decade. They evidently have a hard time finding funding, though that aspect is somewhat elided, ending with a "pitch" with a distracted producer who finally relents as long as they film the thing where he says. Which leads to the next turn as Toshiro and Akira find themselves on a supposedly abandoned zinc mining island, where they are in fact not alone and suddenly find themselves in the middle of a yakuza war.

With Akira trying to film the ensuing mayhem with his phone, Toshiro takes on a patently insane number of combatants as the story kind of settles down into a more straightforward series of "one against many" fight scenes. But then things suddenly go pretty gonzo again in a late "reveal" that owes more than a tip of the cranium to A Beautiful Mind, and which tries fitfully to shock, but which may only really end up confusing if it's thought about too much.

One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

One-Percent Warrior is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to find any authoritative technical information on the shoot, and the IMDb has nothing as of the writing of this review, but the Making Of supplement has some fleeting glimpses of digital cameras, which may be Alexas, though logos are hard to see. One way or the other, this is a competent capture which has a few passing issues with noise in some very low light material (which tends to predominate as the story progresses). Otherwise, though, detail levels are often quite impressive, especially in the repeated use of extreme close-ups of various characters. There is some interesting grading and lighting throughout the film, including some teal to green interior moments, and a kind of cool orange tinted showdown toward the end.

One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One-Percent Warrior features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in either Japanese or English. In toggling between the two surround tracks, I noticed no discernable differences in amplitude and/or mix other than the voice work, and so the choice probably comes down to whether reading subtitles is an issue or not. I stuck with the Japanese track for the bulk of the film, and it provides a nicely immersive listening experience, though with the "showiest" surround activity understandably accompanying some of the fight scenes. Once things move to the island, the sound design becomes much more aggressive, and there is both recurrent discrete channelization of individual sound effects, but some good ambient environmental background "wash" in some of the outdoor moments in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (HD; 25:22) is a more in depth piece than typically accompanies a lot of Well Go USA fare, and it has its own meta aspects, as in Sakaguchi's opening interview where he more or less repeats some of his dialogue in what is supposed to be a promotional interview for Birth.


• Trailer (HD; 2:01)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Making Of is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

One-Percent Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One-Percent Warrior starts out with an almost Charlie Kaufman-esque layering, and I kept wishing it had maintained that deftness, but once Toshiro and Akira get to the not really all that abandoned island, things become at least relatively more rote. There are some dashes of ultra black humor here that I found quite appealing, and there are other just flat out weird moments (what's up with the metallic bug seen in screenshot 9?). Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.