High Octane
Summary
Despite a bit of a slow start, One Percent Warrior is Tak Sakaguchi at his best with some amazing fight scenes and a wonderfully brisk runtime making this well worth checking out.
Plot: A legendary, aging action film star is drawn into the real world of violence when feuding yakuza gangs infiltrate the set of his latest feature. Caught in the middle of a chaotic battle and increasing body count, will his martial arts training be enough to save him?
Review: Tak Sakaguchi stars in this meta-action movie where he plays an action movie actor who wants to bring back “real action” and he finds the perfect opportunity when criminals invade the set of his latest picture.
It takes a little while for the action to kick into gear with a slow opening 30 minutes, but it’s worth the build up as we witness Tak destroying his enemies with ease… until a climactic showdown which is arguably the highlight of the entire film.
I’ve said before that Tak Sakaguchi is one of my favourite on-screen fighters and he brings the kind of stoicism and quiet confidence we don’t see much these days. His “wave” style of fighting is unique and stands out from other martial artists.
On this Blu-ray there is a detailed interview with Tak and he talks about where he learned his impressive skills from and also mentions how one of the scenes is a parody of Ruroni Kenshin and it’s obvious when you watch the movie.
One Percent Warrior or 1%er as it was also known is a blissful 85 minutes long, so despite the mildly slow start once the action begins it doesn’t let up for the rest of the movie.
I’m not sure how I felt about the ending which came out of left field and made me go… “huh”. Aside from that, this is one of the year’s best martial arts movies which does indeed show us “real” action.
Overall, One Percent Warrior takes a little while for the action to ramp up, but when it does it’s worth the wait delivering us some hard R fight scenes and Tak Sakaguchi at his stoic best.