The Hunted (1995)

An American businessman visiting Nagoya, Japan, meets a woman in a hotel bar. Returning to her room, 3 ninjas kill her and wound him, but he sees the ninja boss' face. Now, he's the prime target of a dangerous ninja cult.

Director:

J.F. Lawton

Writer:

J.F. Lawton

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Lambert	...	Paul Racine
John Lone	...	Kinjo
Joan Chen	...	Kirina
Yoshio Harada	...	Takeda Sensei
Yôko Shimada	...	Mieko Takeda
Mari Natsuki	...	Junko
Tak Kubota	...	Oshima
Masumi Okada	...	Lt. Wadakura
Tatsuya Irie	...	Hiryu
Michael Warren	...	Chase
Bart Anderson	...	John
James Saito	...	Nemura
Seth Sakai	...	Dr. Otozo Yamura
Toshishiro Obata	...	Ryuma
Ken Kensei	...	Sujin

Storyline

Paul is on a business trips to Nagoya, as a computer-chip executive from New York, when he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman. Later, he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, inadvertently interrupting an assassination by a feared Ninja-cult. As he is now the only man to have seen the face of the cult's warrior-leader and lived, he soon realizes that he is facing a markedly foreshortened life-expectancy. Teaming up with a friendly samurai couple, on a two-centuries-old blood-feud with the Ninja, he struggles to survive. Finally, recuperating on an island-fortress, he learns swordsmanship, and perhaps, a little about courage, honor, love, and loyalty. The requisite final confrontation is rife with bloody swordplay and spectacular martial-arts action sequences.

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Plot Keywords:

ninja | samurai | assassin | bullet train | ninja clan | 

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Taglines:

He's trapped in a world where killing is an art and revenge is an obsession

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody ninja violence and some sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Exterior shots of the hotel at the beginning of the film is the Sandman Signature Hotel located at 10251 St Edwards Dr, Richmond, BC, however at the time it was a Delta Hotel.

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Goofs

In the Opening scene where Racine is walking with his business partners talking about "selling ice to Eskimos", Racine enters the taxi-cab with his trench coat on. When he arrives at the hotel, he gets out of the cab without the trench coat. He leaves the hotel on a stretcher, still without the coat, but it appears again when he puts it on as he tries to leave the hospital.

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Quotes

[Paul Racine, still injured, is carrying two buckets of coal]
Racine: [puffing] I wish I knew Japanese so I could tell this guy, I am not a donkey.

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Crazy Credits

Pre-credits title: "One who is a samurai must before all things keep constantly in mind, by day & by night ... the fact that he has to die."

• Daidoji Yuzan

16th century

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Alternate Versions

The 1996 UK video version was cut by 12 secs to remove all footage of Japanese throwing stars. The cuts were waived in 2001.

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Connections

References Highlander (1986)

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Soundtracks

I'm Just Thirty Blues
Written and Performed by Yoshinori Monta
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Inc.

User Reviews

American confrontation...

Christopher Lambert stars as a businessman who witnesses the slaying of a woman (Joan Chen) who he had just slept with, when the ninja (John Lone) is spotted face and all, the ninja stops at nothing to kill Lambert and it's only a rival ninja clan which teaches Lambert how to defend himself and win in a sword fight, Sean Connery of course is nowhere to be found this time. Lambert has a weird charisma about him, he really isn't that strong of an actor but for some reason he is able to get us to watch him and his screen presence almost always makes his hero generally more interesting than a musclebound action star who projects little sympathy. Lambert comes off rather vulnerable and the villains he's up against are no slouches either. They are ruthless SOBs, for instance they actually slaughter a train of innocent by standers all because they don't want any witnesses. This includes old people, children, mothers you name it they bit the big one. In theaters this was an experience which shocked a lot of us and the crowd I was with, were prepared for brutal action. The Hunted works as a Ninja actioner and is generally better polished than almost anything made in the 80's. It's slick, brutal and overall a fast paced actioner which in the end, is all we ask for.

* * * out of 4-(Good)

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

24 February 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Hunted

Filming Locations:

Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,723,495, 26 February 1995

Gross USA:

$6,609,661

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$6,609,661

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Davis Entertainment, Bregman/Baer Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1