Hawaiian indie filmmaker Aaron Yamasato follows up his ultra low-budget movie BLOOD OF THE SAMURAI with this six-episode television series that continues the story of two chambara-loving buddies, who become crime-fighting samurai after inheriting the supernatural power of possessed swords. The series is a modest step up in storytelling ambition, quantity of fighting action and casting, with the noted addition of KIKAIDA RINGU star Ban Daisuke and 2003 Miss Hawaii Alicia Michioka Jones. That said, there is still much room for improvement.

Having previously found a pair of katanas possessed by the souls of two long-dead samurai, pals Trent (Bryan Yamasaki) and Rob (Michael Ng) had discovered that the swords imbued the wielder with enhanced fighting power equal to that of a master samurai. The only problem was that the souls also possessed the wielder’s mind. After discovering a way to suppress this nasty side effect, the two fought and defeated a killer from a shadowy criminal organization known as the Syndicate.

Now, Trent and Rob have become sword-wielding crime fighters by night, while they train with their new sensei (Ban Daisuke) in a mountain hideaway by day. Backing them up is their always supportive girlfriends Brooke (Colleen Fujioka) and Roxy (Stephanie Sanchez), who have begun learning a few fighting moves of their own.

As the foursome continue their battle against agents of the Syndicate, a new threat rears its ugly head in the form of an ancient cult that is abducting people for some dark purpose. With dangerous enemies to fight on two fronts, Trent and Rob team up with Yuki (Alicia Michioka Jones), a mysterious female ninja who is out to avenge her parents’ deaths.

Structurally, this series has a lot going for it as a sort of live-action anime project. It has modern-day samurai heroes constantly engaged in martial arts fights with Syndicate gangsters and hooded cultists. A story arc adds character development and expands the world that Yamasato has created. There’s romantic angst between the troubled Trent and his gal pal Brooke. Rob and Roxy are the more well-adjusted couple, who provide comedy by quoting genre movies. Then there’s the sexy ninja assassin Yuki providing something for the male audience to ogle at. With all of this the series should be a big improvement over the original movie, but it isn’t.

Yamasato basically turns a grindhouse flick into a martial arts soap opera. Gone are most of the gore and horror/thriller elements and in place is a lot of filler dialogue and insubstantial emotional wrangling. The acting is uniformly bad, a similar aspect of the movie that didn’t seem to matter as much before, but now is glaring. And while the four leads chat up a storm, supporting cast are left mostly mute and undeveloped, with the partial exception of Jones and Ban Daisuke.

Daisuke plays your run-of-the-mill martial arts master and lacks even an ounce of personality. There is a definite disconnect between master and students that’s amplified by the fact that he only speaks in Japanese, while his students only use English. There is an assumption that both parties know what the other is saying, but prefer to speak in their first language. This does happen a lot in Asian-American culture, but can still be disconcerting to watch onscreen. Daisuke is still welcome in the series, as even with his colorless role he’s still the best actor out of the bunch.

The large amount of martial arts action is negated by jerky editing, bland camera angles and amateur stunt acting performances. The choreography is decent for what action director Leroy Bartlett has to work with, but it gets tiresome really fast. With the exception of one of the anonymous Syndicate members, who dishes out some challenging spinning kicks, none of the cast members show any more than rudimentary proficiency when it comes to screen fighting. Jones may be a foxy lady in her tight-fitting black garb, but she’s slow as molasses and displays the power of an anemic elderly woman in her death throes. Her climatic fight with the laughable cult leader is terrible and reminds me of my childhood days of carelessly sparring with a wooden sword like it was a meat tenderizer. Yamasaki and Ng are a tad better, with Ng’s discotheque pole brawl being the only fight worthy of a casual mention.

This series isn’t all bad. Somewhere hidden amid low-grade production values, cheesy dialogue, bad acting, clunky action, and jumbled editing is a wacky genre story with the potential to please. But like the BLOOD OF THE SAMURAI movie, Yamasato’s series is quite rough around the edges, particularly in the areas that count. Unfortunately, this aspect is less forgivable the second time around.

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