When a renegade Japanese gang known as the Katana take control of the cocaine trade in Los Angeles, the LAPD transfer in a "samurai" policeman from the SDPD to help tackle the problem. Joe Marshall has been trained by the masters in Japan and “speaks fluent Japanese”, but dresses like a commoner.
An attempted bust meets with failure after a bizarre car chase leads to multiple deaths and the only witness burned and unable to testify. Katana boss Fuj Fujiyama orders the injured Katana member to be executed and his head displayed on a piano to remind all remaining Katana members of their code of silence. Joe and his partner Frank confront the Katana at the Carlos'n Charlie's restaurant on Sunset Boulevard and attempt to reprimand them into obeying the law. When that fails, Fujiyama's right-hand man Yamashita wages war in the parking lot, executing his own men who fail to subdue Joe and Frank, thus maintaining the code of silence.
Joe eventually seduces Fujiyama's girlfriend Jennifer and they become intimate while several of his police comrades are tortured and killed by the Katana gang who are looking for him, and Fujiyama kidnaps Jennifer out of revenge. Unable to contain his anger any longer, commanding officer Captain Rohmer sanctions an assassination of every single Katana gang member. Joe and Frank head to Fujiyama's compound and gun down every living person and a final sword battle between Joe and Yamashita ends the Katanas' reign of terror. At the end, Joe and Jennifer embrace again on the beach.
Cast
Mathew Karedas as Joe Marshall (credited as Matt Hannon)
The film moved swiftly into production, within a week of Amir Shervan and ex-Sylvester Stallone bodyguard[2] Matt Hannon's first meeting. Upon walking into Shervan's office for the first time, Matt Hannon was told that he was perfect and was immediately handed the full script to the film. Despite the film being titled Samurai Cop, Hannon had no experience with weapons training, and all of his formal practice would be classified as MMA. As a result of Hannon's lack of experience and Shervan's inability to direct, all of the combat scenes were choreographed by martial arts expert Gerald Okamura, or were planned out by the actors themselves, sometimes only fifteen minutes before the scene in question was filmed.
Filming took place over several months, starting in June 1990. When actor Hannon had considered shooting to be finished, he had his hair cut short, only to be told that further shooting was to be done. Director Shervan obtained a lady's wig for the actor, which can be seen in several close up shots throughout the film.[3] Lead actor Hannon stated that he and several other actors became frustrated with the dialogue in the film, while also expressing frustration at the lack of multiple takes. Hannon admitted to intentionally ruining takes due to his frustration, assuming that Shervan would not put them in the film, but these takes ended up in the film. A reflective Hannon was able to laugh at this, stating "so shame on me" in a 2014 interview with Red Letter Media. The shooting schedule was also poorly planned as Hannon and Mark Frazer both assumed the film was finished before Shervan called them in for reshoots in early 1991.
Amir Shervan could not afford lighting to shoot at night so the entire film is set during the day. Shervan also could only afford a handful of prop firearms (the same Ruger GP100 and Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolvers being extensively recycled by various actors). Actors also wore their own clothes and drove their own cars. Much of the film was shot without sound and done with single takes. Shervan had to dub voices months after production but could not get many of the bit part actors to return. Choosing to use his own voice, he warped it in post-production to sound different. His lack of ability to do this correctly resulted in ADR with a heavily robotic sound. Both lead actors, Hannon and Frazer, also supplied much of the voice over in the looping process. Hannon has stated in an interview with Red Letter Media that, "Amir did about 80% of the ADR voices."[4] During these ADR sessions, Amir would film much of the necessary pick up shots, all from within the office. This is why many of the inserts of Frazer and Hannon in the film seem to be shot from the same corner of an office, which doesn't match with the rest of the location for any given scene.
Release
Director/Producer Amir Shervan took the film to the American Film Market (AFM) in the hopes of finding a distributor to buy the final product and give it a proper release. The film was never given a proper theatrical release, however Polish distributor Demel International Corporation released it in Europe on VHS.[5][6] It was released on DVD by Media Blasters[7][8] in 2004 and on DVD in 2013 and Blu-ray in 2014 by Cinema Epoch.
There were rumors that the initial released cut of Samurai Cop was a print that had been found in a castle. Gregory Hatanaka, the founder of Cinema Epoch, and the one who owns the rights to the initial Samurai Cop film, claimed that this story was only partially true. The original 35mm print of the film was discovered by an employee of Hatanaka's in a vault that was specifically meant to store reels of film and preserve them. It was assumed that Shervan had stored the print for Samurai Cop as well as a few of his other films in this vault where they were happened upon by chance.
On March 25, 2016, Samurai Cop was released as a VOD title by RiffTrax.[9] The RiffTrax edition received a two-day theatrical release in April 2017, provided by Fathom Events.[10]
In August 2021, RiffTrax made the film officially available for free on their YouTube channel.[11]
Reception and legacy
The film gained a following and achieved cult classic status due to its unintentional humor.[3]
It was revealed in a Vice interview that the lead actor of Samurai Cop, Mathew Karedas, (who is credited as Matt Hannon) was believed by many fans of the cult hit to have been dead for two years.[12]
