American businessman Paul Racine (Christopher Lambert) is in Japan, where he meets a mysterious woman, Kirina (Joan Chen).  Later that night, Racine leaves her apartment, but then realises he's forgotten his keys.  When he returns, he finds a group of ninjas in the apartment - and Kirina is killed by their leader, Kinjo (John Lone).  Kinjo is part of the Makato clan of assassins, and apart from the Makato members, no one has ever seen his face and lived.

When Racine is discovered, the ninjas throw a poisoned shuriken at him, and leave him for dead.  However, Racine survives, and Kinjo vows to kill him because he has seen his face.  A samurai named Takeda (Yoshio Harada) and his wife (Yoko Shimada) protect Racine and take him to an island where the eventual showdown between Takeda and Kinjo will take place.

This movie comes from Under Siege scripter J. F. Lawton.  Surprisingly, the only part of this movie I had a problem with was the script!  The movie has a great music score, and well staged action scenes.  The swordplay is awesome and bloody, especially in one particular sequence - a duel between Takeda and several ninja on a speeding train - which is the highlight of the movie.  Unfortunately, just after this part, when Racine and the others arrive on the island, things take a turn for the worse, and the movie becomes increasingly sillier.  I actually thought the pace even slowed down here.  Some of the dialogues and situations look like they could have come right out of a comic book!

I still liked this movie, though, because of it's first half, which provided fast-paced excitement.  It's worth seeing for that train sequence alone, if not for anything else.

Running Time: 118 minutes | Country: US | Genre: Action