American Samurai is a martial-arts action film, starring David Bradley

David Bradley (American actor)

David Bradley is an American actor and martial artist, known for starring in numerous low-budget action movies beginning in the late 1980s. His best-known films are the American Ninja sequels.-Filmography:-External links:...

 and Mark Dacascos

Mark Dacascos

Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and various styles of kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18....

 and produced by Cannon Films. The movie was filmed in Israel and released in the U.S. in 1992. This movie represents the first major role for actor Mark Alan Dacascos.

Plot

After a plane crash in the Japanese mountains, its only survivor—a baby named Andrew—is adopted by a samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 master. Andrew, along with the samurai's son, Kenjiro, are trained in the warrior’s way. Andrew excels in his training and soon surpasses his stepbrother’s skills. Kenjiro's jealousy pushes him to join the Yakuza, where he takes the Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 oath and forsakes the moral values of the samurai’s code. He leaves his father’s home, swearing to one day take revenge on his brother.
Ten years later, Andrew works in L.A. as a journalist. He and a photographer track down an opium

Opium

Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

-smuggling operation in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Andrew is forced to enter a deadly martial-arts tournament ruled by illegal gamblers whose greatest champion is the lethal Kenjiro.

DVD and versions

The DVD is available in Region 1. However, it is based on the edited R-rated cut. This version has subtitles added to the days of the tournament (i.e. "Day 2", "Day 3", etc.) Additionally, many scenes of violence or injury are zoomed in on, poorly cropped, or deleted altogether to avoid explicit details. The unrated cut has different dialogue in some scenes, no subtitles, and all of the violence is onscreen and considerably more graphic. This version is not available in the U.S. but can be found in other regions. There is an uncut Belgian DVD and the British version has approximately one second of footage cut.http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AVV104991

Cast

• David Bradley as Andrew 'Drew' Collins
• Mark Dacascos
  Mark Dacascos
  Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and various styles of kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18....
  
  as Kenjiro Sanga
• Valarie Trapp as Janet Ward
• Rex Ryon as Ed Harrison
• Melissa Hellman as Samantha
• John Fujioka as Tatsuya Sanga
• Douvi Cohen as Stephane
• Mark Warren as Turk in Disco / Lars
• Koby Azarly as Turk in Disco
• Shalom Avitan as Turk in Disco
• Baruch Berkin as Hotel Clerk
• Arie Moscuna as Announcer
• Michael Morim as Police Chief
• Misha Gal as Body Guard
• John Slater as Body Guard