Starring: Jim Kelly, Bill Roy, Roberto Contreras,
Marilyn Joi, Chia Essie Lin, Biff Yeager, Charles Grant, Jace Khan
Director: Al Adamson
Action Director: Jim Kelly, Jace Khan
Black Samurai has a negative reputation surrounding it, mainly because of its association with notorious crapmeister Al Adamson. Adamson made some of the cheapest and shoddiest films to hit the drive-in’s during the late 60s and early 70s, like Dracula vs. Frankenstein; Blood of Dracula’s Castle; and Blood of Ghastly Horror. While some of his films have a so-bad-they’re-good quality to them, usually the end result was that they were just bad. Black Samurai is actually one of Adamson’s better movies, in that it had a low budget (instead of no budget) and only descends into total ineptness a couple of times. It also serves as a pretty good example of what Hot Potato could have been had it stayed true to Black Belt Jones’ roots.
We open in Hong Kong, where a couple of non-Asian thugs kidnap the daughter of a politician, played by Chia Essie Lin of Return of the One-Armed Swordsman. The kidnappers work for a man named Janicot, who’s not only a drug dealer, but also a human-sacrificing Devil worshipper who calls himself “The Warlock.” Reason? The politician, whom we never see but whom the characters refer to as the most honorable samurai in Japan—note that the samurai class had essentially ceased to exist in the 1870s—is cracking down on the drug trade out of East Asia, which hurts Janicot’s business. Only one man can stop the Warlock: Robert Sand, the Black Samurai. Although Sand is on vacation—we get to see Kelly playing tennis, his other area of expertise—the fact that the girl, Toki Konuma, is Sand’s lover means that he’s willing to step back in the game and bring Janicot to justice. Cue lots of fights.
The story can be summed up as “hero gets in a series of fights until he finds the damsel in distress.” As such, Al Adamson does a fairly competent job at that. Jim Kelly does fine with the role, which mainly requires him to punch and kick people in the face. We don’t learn about the background of Robert Sand—I’m going to guess that Marc Olden’s novels gave him a lot more depth. The most we get about Sand’s character is a romantic montage flashback between him and Toki, and some vague hints that her father might have been Sand’s sensei.
The villain is interesting on paper, if not in practice. Obviously, things like devil cults were popular in the 1970s following the whole Nelson-Tate Murders at the hands of the Manson Family. So a villain who is a devil worshipper, cult leader and international drug dealer has the potential to be a particularly vicious character onscreen. Bill Roy, who also was in Al Adamson’s Nurse Sherri, plays him very milquetoast and genteel. He’s the sort of understated, “polite” villain you’d find in a Hammer film instead of a post-Manson era. You almost get the feeling that the whole Satanist angle is just a front he puts on to make himself scarier, rather than anything he might actually believe.
The action is mainly provided Jim Kelly, as nearly all of the action belongs to the Black Samurai character. Jace Khan is credited as the second action director, although this film serves as both his first and last credit, on both sides of the camera. Early in the film we see Kelly practicing with a katana and a nunchaku, which suggests that his action may be a bit more varied than it was in his previous films. Sadly, it’s the same old Jim Kelly kempo that we’ve seen in all his other films. If you enjoy it one movie, you’ll enjoy it here. But there is no actual weapons fighting. Even when Kelly manages to get his hands on a katana at the climax, he doesn’t actually use it. Why make a movie called Black Samurai about a hero who studied under a descendant of the samurai class, and then not have him use the samurai’s signature weapon? However, his kicks are a lot better here, especially since he’s fighting people his height now.
The plot and action are both serviceable, but does this movie have that classic Al Adamson ineptness to it? Sort of. The villain does employ an inordinate number of dwarves, including one who prances around wielding a bullwhip(!). Have your martial arts hero face-kicking dwarves is bound to give the film some kitsch, no matter how serious it’s played. There’s also a sleazy rape sequence involving the villain’s high priestess, played by Marilyn Joi, who was The Candy Tangerine Man and A Kentucky Fried Movie. Joi seemed to build a career on playing prostitutes and strippers, and is credited as the film’s costume designer, so I almost wonder if that was simply the woman’s actual profession.
The most inept moments come with the dialog. For some reason, Adamson decided to loop extra dialog into the movie. But he should have thought a little bit more about that first. There’s a definitely variation in sound quality between the two dialog tracks, which attentive viewers are sure to notice. Moreover, it’s pretty obvious that the man doing the extra dialog for Jim Kelly is not Jim Kelly. Even worse, Adamson inserted extra dialog into the final fight, despite the actors’ mouths not actually moving during the entire sequence. It’s so badly done that it makes old school kung fu movie dubbing look respectable in comparison. Black Samurai is a mostly-competent film with some decent fight sequences from one of the earliest martial arts stars in Hollywood. With adjusted expectations, you may actually enjoy this one.
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