FATAL BLADE (aka
GEDO) (2000)
Directed by: Talun
Hsu
Screenplay: Nao Sakai & Bill Zide
Starring: Gary Daniels, Kiyoshi Nakajo, Seiko Matsuda, Kentaro Shimizu & Victor Rivers
Screenplay: Nao Sakai & Bill Zide
Starring: Gary Daniels, Kiyoshi Nakajo, Seiko Matsuda, Kentaro Shimizu & Victor Rivers
Gary Daniels plays tough LA cop (well, obviously!) Richard
Fox who just doesn’t have the time to meet his girlfriend’s parents because,
you know, he’s busy doing tough cop stuff. This involves staking out some
nefarious crime lord called Bronson (Rivers) who when not hanging out with hot women
in their underwear (well, somebody’s got to!) is committing crime all over LA.
A local rival Yakuza gang want Bronson dead and send their top assassin from
Japan, Domoto (Nakajo), to kill him. However, it all goes pear-shaped when Fox
and his partner intervene which eventually leads to a high speed car chase
which (wouldn’t you know it!) ends with the death of Fox’s partner. Thinking
Domoto was the killer (he wasn’t, it was some other evil Yakuza type), Fox
naturally swears revenge and goes gunning for it all over LA. Meanwhile, Domoto
is injured, has a foxy female in tow (!), and now questions the motives of his
Yakuza employers. In addition, Bronson
is still alive and also looking for who tried to kill him, meaning there is a
whole lot more going on than usual for a late 90s low budget action flick
starring Gary Daniels.
Fatal Blade has
all the great traits of a 90s low budget American action film: Gary Daniels,
90’s fashions, bad guys rocking goatees, a dead partner, a hero who is just so
darn committed to his work, a surfeit of decent action and blink and you’ll
miss them cameos from stalwarts George Cheung, James Lew and, bizarrely, Cuba
Gooding Jr’s dad (ok, so Cuba Gooding Jr’s dad is not necessarily a 90s low budget
American action film trait but is certainly a bonus: I guess!). The whole film
has the look and feel of the time period and looks exactly like a million other
films that would have clogged up video stores in the 90s. Yet Fatal Blade does try to do something a
bit different, attempting to include a bit more story and character than is
usual for a straight-to-video action film. Daniels’ cop out for revenge is only
a small part of proceedings with just as much time given to the story of Domoto
and his blossoming relationship with the woman he has in tow. In fact there
might be a bit too much going on in Fatal
Blade, as there are at least 4 bad guys at one point and in the last act
focus switches again, this time to Rivers’ goateed Bronson. No doubt this was
probably a longer and more ambitious film, cut down to 90 minutes and unfortunately
means Daniel’s feels more like a co-star than the leading action man.
Still, the film is nicely played and while there isn’t near
enough action as one might be expecting what there is, is very good. While there
are only a couple of fights, they are crisply choreographed by Alpaha Stunts
alum Koichi Sakamoto and Akihiro Noguchi (Drive,
Guyver: Dark Hero) meaning Daniels get’s to cut loose and show his
impressive fight skills. He even gets that other well worn trait of having to
chase down some goons (unrelated to the rest of the plot) just so he can stop
in an alleyway and fight them so we know what a bad ass fighter he is: cool!
While it gets a little muddled and looses focus with its
various plot strands and their characters, Fatal
Blade nobly attempts to be more of a serious crime flick than an outright
trashy action film and often succeeds at this but thankfully remembers to also
bring some decent action and fights to the plate meaning one still gets to see
Daniels’ kick some ass.