I saw Broken Path at the Phantasmagoria film festival this weekend and was very excited indeed. Johnny Yong Bosch gives a terrific account of himself here, as does Dan Southworth (a favourite performer of mine since the awesome US Seals 2), Motoko Nagino, and the other tremendous action performers in the film. The film is virtually one long non-stop fight from about 20 minutes in, after establishing Johnny's family life with his wife and young daughter. The action is outstanding, especially the final showdown between Johnny and Dan which really has to be seen to be believed, and the action scenes with Motoko Nagino kick ass, she is a tremendous performer, exhibiting some terrific fighting and stunt skills, and being a great actress as well. There a re a few criticisms such as the fact that every person in the film receives numerous injuries that would kill anyone instantly and then carry on fighting which just feels a bit silly. If the film was an animated Japanese film then you'd probably not bat an eyelid but some of it really was ridiculous. However the action scenes themselves were just terrific viewing and I think I could watch any of the set-pieces again and again. You can see what the cast had to go through making the film, and I'd love to see an outtake reel. In short if you love films like Drive, Wicked Game and so forth you will get a serious kick out of Broken Path, just don't expect any kind of realism per se.
Review of Attack of the Yakuza
