Calling Richard Norton a martial arts legend in the action cinema will be fair to his name and talent. Of the dozens of famous kickass performances, literally, he also starred in some lesser-known movies like The Sword of Bushido (1990) directed by Adrian Carr.
Norton stars as a U.S. Navy reserve officer, Zac Connors, who decides to find out what happened to his grandfather, a soldier in WW2, who survived the war but went missing after his plane went down in Thailand. Related to his disappearance is an ancient sword with great ceremonial and cultural value in Japan. Zack’s trip to Thailand becomes an adventure full of peril as he finds his love interest, a rebellious young woman named Suay (Rochelle Ashana). The two fight for survival and the treasured sword.
The Sword of Bushido has the basic adventure flick ingredients: traveling to a remote island, the quest for the treasure (truth plus sword), and plodding through natural and human forces to fulfill the mission. Zac’s character is conveniently single with his heart wide open to flirting and romance (of course) and Suay’s friend and admirer Chai (Kowit Wattanakul) as his rival yet a friend in his war against the criminals who want the sword.
As given away by its title, The Sword of Bushido has the sword fights as the main attraction – nothing new to the martial arts movies – but only in select scenes, most notably in the final fight with the Japanese villain. For much of the movie, the fights are a combo of guns and martial arts. The fights are paced less dramatically and more realistically than the viewers know them from the Hong-Kong martial arts movies of the period, featuring cops and gangs.
One and perhaps the only good reason to watch The Sword of Bushido is Richard Norton, who passed away earlier this year. The name he earned out of his passion for martial arts outlives him.
