Leofwine_draca A muddled but amiable international adventure yarn, taking in Japan, Spain, and Morocco along the way, never the sum of its parts. The problem with this movie is that it literally tries to throw in elements of all genres - there's romantic intrigue, action and adventure, war, historical drama, and plenty more besides. The film is episodic in feel, sometimes contrived, and the story never feels anything less than shallow. But despite all this, the cast of familiar faces is nice - despite the fact that all actors merely go through the motions, aside from David Essex - the action sequences are well-staged and exciting, and the characters interesting.The budget is used to the film's advantage, with some fine locations and backdrops for the plot to play out on. The action ranges from cool ship battles to one-on-one sword fights to scenes of war, with a definite feel of Indiana Jones to them. There are some nice stunts but things never get too bloody, this being a PG-13 film and all, so there's an element of unrealism there. There are about three climaxes in the film, each more exciting than the last, even if all are predictable sword-fighting stuff. Gordon Hessler's direction is capable but never fantastic, and there's always a distance between the audience and actors.Sho Kosugi re-teams with son Kane after BLACK EAGLE and the pair are pretty good as the Shogun warriors, whose pride comes before everything. Be sure to check out the supporting cast, which includes Norman Lloyd as a crooked man of the cloth; David Essex (who overacts completely) as a wicked Spanish Duke; Christopher Lee (in what amounts to a cameo appearance) as the King of Spain; John Rhys-Davies as the crooked El Zaiden, of Morocco; Ronald Pickup as a pirate; Toshiro Mifune (another cameo) as a Japanese warlord, and finally the lovely Polly Walker as Cecilia, the film's romantic interest. SHOGUN WARRIOR is a watchable, entertaining movie, nothing you won't have seen before, but at least it looks good.

Veles24 It tries to be the epic adventure of the century. And with a cast like Shô Kasugi, Christopher Lee and John-Rhys Davies it really is the perfect B-adventure of all time. It's actually is a pretty fun, swashbuckling adventure that, even with it's flaws, captures your interest. It must have felt as the biggest movie ever for the people who made it. Even if it's made in the 90s, it doesn't have a modern feel. It more has the same feeling that a old Errol Flynn movie had. Big adventure movie are again the big thing in Hollywood but I'm afraid that the feeling in them will never be the same as these old movies had. This on the other hand, just has the real feeling. You just can't hate it. I think it's an okay adventure movie. And I really love the soundtrack. Damn, I want the theme song.

AwesomeWolf Oh my, I think this may be the single cheesiest movie I've ever seen. I'm serious, this is one of the ultimate b-movies. The first proof is that it isn't a $5 DVD. Oh no, that's too mainstream for this. I got this on VHS, from a bin full of ex-rental videos at my local video store.If I may quote the blurb: "In 17th Century Japan, there lived a samurai who would set the standard for the ages. His name was Mayeda. He is sent on an epic journey across the world to acquire 5,000 muscats from the King of Spain. Whilst at sea a violent storm swallows their precious gold intended to buy the weapons and almost takes their lives. Mayeda must battle all odds to survive and the secure the fate of his beloved Japan." It then goes on to say "A multi million dollar action adventure epic set across three continents"I must have seen a different movie. This was no epic, and it certainly wasn't a multi million dollar anything. No, 'Shogun Mayeda' is really just the crazy adventures of the Engrish-speaking Mayeda (Sho Kosugi). He isn't even a Shogun really, but thats not important. What is important, is that he does a really cool impression of John Cleese's repeated charging of the one castle in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', and his ability to go from serious scenes to showing off his samurai mind powers. Awesome.The greatest thing about this movie is Sho Kosugi's Engrish accent. The movie may lack nearly everything that makes a good movie, but makes up for it with some of the cheesiest lines ever, delivered by the coolest Engrish accent ever. And honestly, do you really want anything else? You could fast forward 'Shogun Mayeda' to the end, and replay Kosugi's final line over and over. The tape will probably wear out before you get tired of that one line. Awesome.2/10 - So very very cheesy.

The Reverend Eli Jenkins This was a really cool movie. It just goes to prove that you don't need silly litle things like continuity and scripts to make a movie. It traverses continents in seconds, people get shot and nothing happens to them, swords set on fire, samuari fight on sinking galleons, David Essex is the epitome of slimey villainy and John Rhys Davies is just the dude. I enjoyed this movie but I like s**t movies, this is the perfect example of a very s**t movie that just KICKS ASS. If you like Battlefield Earth you'll love this film, its swashbuckling, its fast, its silly, its samuaraitastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!It also looks as if it was made in 1972