The movie is quite mediocre. Nothing special happens, the plot itself is not that much epic, the characters are two dimensional and too much ordinary. The story is about shogun warrior Mayeda who is also a personal bodyguard to emperor's son. After the tragic death of his family, his emperor sends him to Spain to do trading. On the way and in the Spain, the trouble follows, so Mayeda has to protect emperor's sun and to show Spanish king his worth and trust. First of all script and directing are boring and too much predictable, obvious and simple. Simple, not in a good way. Now, we have actors
This is one of the 90s appearances of Sho Kosugi in foreign films. But, here, I'll be honest, he tries hard to do some serious acting. He really does, and his character of Mayeda his one tough guy. Honorable and brave, the kind of character that you really enjoy. His son Kane Kosugi appears as emperor's sun Yorimune and I think he was not that bad and I think the character is pretty well written. A young and brash prince, who also holds high respect for Spanish king and bravery. Although, he is bonded by Japanese tradition
when it comes to the women, for example. The leading lady is Cecillia, played by Polly Walker. Polly was young and still has to learn about acting. Cecillia was nothing special, you could easily see that she was there only to fell in love with Mayeda. The leading villain is Don Pedro, played by David Essex. Pedro was funny and typical (spoiled and easily insulted) villain, full of boring pride. While David Essex didn't even try to act here. I was just not that convinced that he was Spanish. Now, for the serious stuff when it comes to the actors. We have John Rhys-Davies here. Yep, as a supporting Turkish villain. This is one of those times, when John started (perhaps) to appear in these low budget movies. We also have Toshiro Mifune, who plays Japanese emperor. He was OK
Mifune hardly fails in his performance. And we also have Christopher Lee as a Spanish king. What an excellent choice for the role, and to give a high ruling position in contrast to Mifune's Japanese emperor. That was just great. Lee was good, also hardly to fail. Although he looked kind of disinterested in his part. Other things as music, editing
well nothing special, as I said before
The movie also has a pretty interesting subplot about an evil plot that christians have with secret samurai clan to kill young prince. I could easily say, (maybe I am wrong) that this movie shows some evil Christian influence on high royals from that time. I don't necessarily recommend this film. But, if you are a fan of sword fighting, especially in this kind of film where Spanish swordsman fights a samurai
but who will win? For that, you need to see the movie.