Cowboy Vs ninja

Ruwini Jayawardana

With a visually rich but much hackneyed plot director Sngmoo Lee’s maiden movie The Warrior’s Way embodies a cowboy Vs ninja theme. This assassins-from-the-East-meet-cowboys-from-the-west flick includes a lot of clichés: Korean\Chinese\Japanese martial art experts with words of wisdom, the suffering party ultimately taking revenge, the warrior training another to excel in sword fighting and the predictable victory over injustice.

The story follows Yang, an Asian assassin who fails to complete a mission by killing a baby girl of a rival clan. With the rest of his members out for his blood, Yang takes refuge in a western town amid a circus with the orphaned baby, April. There he meets Lynne who wishes to train as a knife thrower in the circus and Ron, a drunkard who used to be a sharpshooter. Both have a tragic past.

Working in a laundry Yang strikes a friendship with the ringmaster Eighth Ball and helps Lynne gain confidence in her knife throwing act. He gets used to the normal day to day activities and begins to be quite at home in his new surroundings till the return of the villainous Colonel.

Yang is forced to unsheathe his sword again when Lynne sets off to seek revenge from the Colonel and soon his mentor, Saddest Flute and his team of cloaked martial arts assassins tracks him down.

Many cinematic plots of the past few years have been built on the theme of how humans who undeniably possess hidden potentials for martial arts are made to bring their talents to the fore through combat training. One such movie is the 2008 production The Forbidden Kingdom where a South Boston teenager engages on a venture to free the Monkey King after being transformed into a stone statue by Jade Warlord. Korean star Jang Dong Gun who portrays Yang’s role does justice to his character.

Though Yang has only a few words to say his silence and actions speak volumes. Kate Bosworth may look sassy in the movie but her western accent fails miserably.

Tony Cox is well suited to his characters and provides light entertainment.

Danny Huston pulls off his evil act with grace.

The pros of the movie include its intense battle sequences and digital effects.

This may not be surprising because it has been dubbed a film by the producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However fans might be sadly disappointed because the film fails to retain the success of the former.