An American soldier - on his way home from the Vietnam War - is left for dead and is saved by a pair of Japanese stragglers from WWII, who train him in the way of the samurai. This movie is also known as Deadly Force, The Force and The Black Samurai, as well as several other titles. It's a compound of blacksploitation and the kung fu genres, with some social commentary mixed in along the way.

I've always been fascinated by the Japanese soldiers who didn't surrender after World War II. Here, they help our hero Doug - James Iglehart, who was Randy Black from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - learn the ancient fighting skills he'll never to make it back home.

Turns out that Doug and his buddies - McGee (Leon Isaac Kennedy, Too Sweet from the Penitentiary) and Morelli (Carmen Argenziano, Grave of the Vampire) - have stolen gold on the way back from Vietnam for a crime boss. On the way back, they stab our hero, slash his throat and dump him off the boar. Luckily, those aforementioned Japanese soldiers are ready to teach him that violence really does solve issues.

McGee really wants Doug's wife Maria, who is played by Jayne Kennedy, who appeared on the cover of Playboy and was selected by Coca Cola USA as the Most Admired Black Woman in America. She was married to the actor playing McGee - Leon Isaac Kennedy - in real life. And back in the days before the internet, the two appeared in a celebrity tape so infamous, it's referenced in a Mr. Show sketch (it's at the beginning of the "Show Me Your Weenis!" episode where Wyckyd Sceptre gets caught on tape).

The soldiers that help our hero are played by Joe Mari Avellana, who was the Scourge in Wheels of Fire, and Joonee Gamboa, whose characters constantly bicker back and forth.

This movie has an amazing tagline: "She's in Playboy. He's out of Penitentiary. Jayne Kennedy and Leon Isaac in Fighting Mad." A bit misleading, as he's the villain, but what can you do?

Cirio H. Santiago is to blame - or praise - for this. He made more movies than we've probably reviewed on this site like Wheels of Fire, Demon of Paradise and Stryker.

If you can get past the cheesy look, stereotypical Japanese mangled English and the often unpleasant violence, you may find something to enjoy in this martial arts movie combined with a mafia plot. James Iglehart plays a Vietnam vet double-crossed on his way home, being nursed back to health and striving to get back to his wife (Jayne Kennedy) and the infant child (real life son James Monroe Iglehart) and seek revenge on the mobsters who tossed him off the boat. The family reunion sequences give an indication that this could have been a a bit better because they do show a teeny bit of heart underneath all of the bloodshed.

Kennedy's real life husband Leon Issac Kennedy is the bad guy in this film, completely deplorable. Young Inglehart went onto his own success decades later by stepping into Robin Williams' shoes to play the genie in "Aladdin", winning a Tony. Fortunately, all he has to do here is coo and look adorable, not hard considering he did the same thing on Broadway. But this film is strictly for the martial arts crowd, one of those grainy looking films that collected dust on video store shelves. The action sequences aren't bad, but cardboard characters makes this a chore to get through. I found myself laughing at inappropriate times, another indication that this was not my cup of Saki.

American soldier Doug Russell (a solid and likable performance by James Iglehart) gets betrayed and left for dead by his two buddies while stationed in the Philippines. After washing up on a remote island and being taught in the ways of the samurai by a Japanese soldier, Russell returns to America to exact a harsh revenge on the two guys who double crossed him.

Director Cirio H. Santiago, working from a tight and involving script by Howard R. Cohen, keeps the engrossing and enjoyable story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains a tough gritty tone throughout, stages the exciting action set pieces with skill and aplomb, delivers a few nice dollops of bloody gore, and caps everything off with a genuinely startling surprise bummer ending. Leon Isaac Kennedy as slick operator McGee and Carmen Argenziano as hard-nosed cynic Morelli make for perfectly hateful and ruthless villains, the ravishing Jayne Kennedy adds some real class as Russell's loyal singer wife Maria, and the ubiquitous Vic Diaz pops up in a nifty cameo as an oily Chinese hood. The get-down funky score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava and Eddie Villaneuva hits the right-on groovy spot. A worthwhile exploitation item.