Review of American Yakuza (1993) by Claus J — 22 Oct 2010

A well made b-movie which has impressive action scenes, great performances, unique camera shots and good music. It's more than just a run of the mill action movie as it has an intriguing plot. Viggo Mortensen makes for a decent hero, he plays things low key and cool and keeps the audience on his side.

Ryo Ishibashi is perhaps the most entertaining performance, mainly because its so great to see a classic style Yakuza performance in a movie from the West. Robert Forster is underused as Mortensen's boss, while Michael Nouri does good work as the mob leader.

This is definitely an appealing movie and far better than most of this sort of fare, it just isn't quite hard hitting or innovative enough. Still, worth a look for action fans or fans of the main stars.