Attack of the Yakuza (2008) User Reviews

a mixed bag...

[paluszko · 6/10 · 15 January 2013]

i've stumbled upon this movie in a martial-arts themed forum and i couldn't find much about this movie online, so i decided to give it a try.

Storywise there's not much to talk about. It's really bare-boned and that's being incredibly lenient. The writing's pretty much as cliché as it gets: Guy with dark past starts a new life, founds a family, but eventually his past comes back to haunt him. This is where the movie starts off. Aside from a silly twist at the end that's it. If you're looking for a solid storyline you've come to the wrong place. To be fair, 90% of the movie is fighting.

Some of the acting is terrible, at times even downright goofy, especially when the mask-wearing goons are involved. The worst performance is delivered by the "daughter". I don't want to give anything away, but she does not convey much emotion. She's cute though, I have to admit. The protagonist and his wife fare much better when it comes to acting. Nothing special, but fairly decent.

The best aspect of the movie is by far the fast paced action. The fight scene are nicely choreographed and occasionally made me wince. The physical prowess of the actors is surprisingly well showcased. In this department I don't have much to complain about. It really is better than I expected. What bothered me are the scenes where he's down and about to bite the dust, when suddenly he hears his wife screaming. All of a sudden his rage enables him to withstand anything, grants him more strength and skill than he displayed before (although he is heavily wounded). This is fine as long as it happens once, maybe twice. In this movie you stop counting... Maybe that's a personal preference.

There is some gore in this movie! It comes rather unexpected, because it's really graphic, but I enjoyed it's silliness.

To conclude: The story is horrible and cliché. Some of the acting is decent, some is really goofy and some is just terrible. The fighting is good, but not perfect. If you're a fan of fast paced action packed martial-arts flicks, give it a watch. There's not much besides fighting anyways.

Wall-to-wall fighting action

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 4 November 2022]

BROKEN FIST turns out to be pretty good for what it is - which is a very low budget martial arts B-movie that takes place entirely on a ranch in rural Texas. There's virtually no story here, just a random guy protecting his wife from an onslaught of masked, martial arts-fighting goons, and the acting and characterisation certainly leave something to be desired too. However, what this does contain is constant, wall-to-wall fighting action, directed by an experienced Japanese POWER RANGERS director of all people! It does get repetitive and long-winded at times, but the choreography is generally decent and it generally held my interest to the end.

Cannot believe some of the reviews

[david-bilsland · 1/10 · 19 February 2012]

I have to say that the only reason that I watched this film, was because of the 7.0 out of 10 rating that it has on IMDb. I've read a review on here that rates it as good as Drive (with Ryan Gosling) I've read another review that rated this movie 10/10. I can honestly say that in my opinion, this film falls way way short of the reviews I've mentioned. To rate it as good as Drive, is to rate Dame Edna Everage as good looking as Jessica Alba....absolutely ludicrous! To rate it 10/10 is to rate it as high as The Godfather 1&2, The French Connection 1&2, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Kill List, Face Off....I could carry on believe me. The acting is some of the worst I've ever seen, no better than the worst soap operas on television at the moment and to say that the action scenes are pathetic is being kind. I would honestly rather sit and watch paint dry than this god awful movie.

What a pile of absolute rubbish

[missismiggins · 1/10 · 21 February 2012]

Sorry, but I cannot for the likes of me understand how this piece of garbage can have a 7.0 rating here! It makes a mockery of the rating system.

Rarely have I ever came across such a terrible piece of rubbish as this so called "Movie" It is 90 minutes of pathetic kicking and bitch slapping, that is all it is - nothing more, so if you like to sit for 1 1/2 hours watching a bunch of ham actors grunting slapping kicking (cuddling a teddy bear) then I feel sorry for you.

I just cannot understand how it got its rating of 7, if it had made 2 it was doing well.

The only redeeming feature about this movie is when it finally ends, and that should have happened after about 2 minutes.

Absolute garbage.

Broken. Just broken.

[grandmastersik · 1/10 · 17 June 2014]

Renamed as Broken Fist in the £1 shop where I found this, I can state with absolute honesty that I wasted my money.

Starting out as a serious film, night falls and preparing for bed, a couple is suddenly attacked by a masked man with a knife diving at them from across the room. Another masked man who apparently had no lines throughout the film (I couldn't make it to anywhere close to the end so can't say), then pops up to grope the wife and constantly - very annoyingly - heckle.

Anyway, the former Power Rangers dude seems like he's been killed when he spits copious amounts of blood after having his chest stamped on, but instead of more stomps ensuring his end, they imbue him with super-human endurance and the film turns into a cuss-version of the aforementioned kids' programme, as men are kicked and somersault through the air on impact.

I said that the former Black Ranger got super-human endurance and it's true, because for the next 10 minutes I managed to watch, he fights tirelessly against a growing number of assailants with a vigour unmatched by professional sporting athletes! Hmm, obviously, it's because he's a ninja.

There is a wafer-thin plot (which fails to explain why the night suddenly turned into the middle of the day when they go outside), but the sheer ridiculous fights - and I'm a HUGE kung-fu film fan - woeful acting and tone that said the director had absolutely no idea what feel he wanted for the film, were too huge an obstacle to over-come.

This film will doubtless change it's name to Broken... something else in an effort to hide from the fact that it's an appalling bag of shite, but it shall forever be Broken and you'd be better off saving your pound for a McCheeseburger... which I'm sure you could at least get through.

Outstanding Martial Arts Action

[rossboyask · 8/10 · 13 July 2008]

I saw Broken Path at the Phantasmagoria film festival this weekend and was very excited indeed. Johnny Yong Bosch gives a terrific account of himself here, as does Dan Southworth (a favourite performer of mine since the awesome US Seals 2), Motoko Nagino, and the other tremendous action performers in the film. The film is virtually one long non-stop fight from about 20 minutes in, after establishing Johnny's family life with his wife and young daughter. The action is outstanding, especially the final showdown between Johnny and Dan which really has to be seen to be believed, and the action scenes with Motoko Nagino kick ass, she is a tremendous performer, exhibiting some terrific fighting and stunt skills, and being a great actress as well. There a re a few criticisms such as the fact that every person in the film receives numerous injuries that would kill anyone instantly and then carry on fighting which just feels a bit silly. If the film was an animated Japanese film then you'd probably not bat an eyelid but some of it really was ridiculous. However the action scenes themselves were just terrific viewing and I think I could watch any of the set-pieces again and again. You can see what the cast had to go through making the film, and I'd love to see an outtake reel. In short if you love films like Drive, Wicked Game and so forth you will get a serious kick out of Broken Path, just don't expect any kind of realism per se.

one of the best action movies of the last 10 years

[fabiane66 · 9/10 · 20 February 2012]

hello everyone it has been a while since i wrote about a movie, almost two years, i think, well i seen many many many many many movies, and many more, and many more, i think you get the point, well here is another review, broken path a movie, that you should know better ( i am guessing that you love kick a$% action movies), but i will bet 10.00 or more you don't know this movie called broken path, you might think my the title that it is a western or something like that. No this movie is one of the most enjoyable action movies i have seen in a long time, and i watch a a lot of films, too many but what the heck i love them all.

back to the movie broken path, ah yes broken path, a movie that was made in the year 2008 yeah 2008 why is it now just getting a real release on DVD about a week ago in 2012, why why!!!!!!!!! why on earth we have three transformers movies, (yeah i said three or wait they are making a fourth one holy &&&&) yeah but it took 4 years to get on DVD, wow, i will get the review soon, but i needed to get this off my chest, broken path starts with a abduction of a child and moves up 20 years or so, and so we start the movie with a family having a family gathering, with Johnny Yong Bosch and Pamela Walworth as a married couple throwing a picnic for the whole family, they have a daughter, and they live in a small farm, as the party draws to a close the daughter get sent off with the other family member, and the couple have a night alone together, we soon find out that they have moved many times in the last couple of years, but why.... all of sudden the couple is attacked buy four crazy mother *******$$* with masks and knives and what to kill johnny and his wife (lovely) wife pamela, and they have to fight FIGHT i say for there lives, well that is the whole movie.

it is one of the most entertaining movies yeah i said movies i have seen in a long time, in the 90 minutes we get action drama action drama action action action action gore action gore action gore action, i think you get the point, the performances are actually good , yeah i know a action movie with good performances, yeah crazy both johnny and pamela are good and believable as a couple, and to get to the point why and i am asking very nicely is Johnny Yong Bosch not a bigger star yeah i know he got his start with power rangers but so what, he could be one of the brightest action stars if given the right material, and this one is it baby, he fights like a son of *********, and lets not forget about Dan Southworth who turns up late in game and plays johnny "friend" who tries to help him, he puts in a great physical performance, and a good performance, why these two are not better know i sure as heck don't know.

koichi sakamoto is a famous action director who first got his star doing action stunts for many 90's movies staring Gary Daniels and jeff wincott, and then came his big break with action direction of guyber 2 and then drive the great action classic with Mark Dacascos , and then he started making action direction for power rangers, well this is his masterpiece, the direction is solid but the fight direction ( which is actually almost the whole movie is really solid hong kong style solid, heck better than most of hong kong stuff in the last 10 years or so solid yeah that good) is great. the fight scenes are long takes with hard falls i mean really hard falls and what seems like also full contact blows yeah wow all respects for everyone in the film, the fights are mixture of kung fu and kickboxing and other forms, look i am not a master of martial arts but i seen more movies than more then 90% of all humans so i know my stuff, everything is just excellent, know what puts the movie over for me at least is the violence the violence's is high through the whole film, i mean everyone gets there a77 kicked 5 ways to Sunday and keep going and keep going, and keep going, but like i said what puts the movie over the top fun for me is the gore almost nearly every kill is gore and maybe not George Romero in gore it is still gory with one moment, yeah you will know the moment near the end. A- for the film and A+ for action

The My Dinner with Andre of action cinema

[cg_regan · 10/10 · 14 July 2008]

That may seem like an odd comparison to make, but just like My Dinner with Andre about 30 minutes into Broken Path you realise that we're not changing location. Yes, this is essentially one long 90 minute fight and as a result feels much more like an experimental art film than an action film. Some people at the Phantasmagoria film festival where I saw the film this weekend found the superhuman resilience of the characters a bit unrealistic but I just saw it as live-action anime. The only problem I had was the character of the wife is pretty useless throughout the film, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it both a challenging and interesting take on a usually formulaic genre.

Excellent martial arts action and stunts outshine other weaker elements

[I_Ailurophile · 8/10 · 27 August 2023]

It's not exactly a first-rate action-thriller. Exposition and any quiet character moments are decidedly ham-handed, and plot development generally tends to be direct and forced. Maybe it's the cast, or maybe it's the particular skill set of filmmaker Koichi Sakamoto, but the acting as we see it is all-around variable in its strength. But then, these were obviously a lower priority in the first place, for 'Broken path - also known as 'Broken fist' or 'Attack of the yakuza' - is clearly and squarely focused on its action above all else, and the rest are just details to help flesh out the movie. Sakamoto himself boasts a stack of fine credits as director and stunt coordinator, and make no mistake, the stunts, effects, and fight choreography here are utterly fantastic. Following some character introductions in the first fifteen minutes, and aside from occasional instances of plot development to follow, the lion's share of these ninety minutes are naught but a panoply of fight scenes, and I'd be lying if I said they didn't look great. As the stars also have their own backgrounds in this capacity, namely Johnny Yong Bosch and Daniel Southworth, such sequences are only further bolstered.

It's safe to say that the strength of all other elements is less certain - not ever outright bad, but less consistent. The story is baseline satisfactory; the scene writing and dialogue are less self-assured, and the sequencing and editing trouble the viewing experience in a like manner. Subtitles are hard-coded into the presentation for instances in the first third when Japanese is spoken; curiously, this isn't always the case for the whole length. The film doesn't shy away from blood and gore, and while these perhaps don't meet the level of "horror flick extravaganza," they look terrific all the same. The costume design, hair, and makeup toe the line between "serviceable" and "well, that was a choice." Sometimes Clint Childers' cinematography is overly excitable, but on the other hand, the one thing that he and editor Jochen Fitzherbert do not do, I'm happy to say, is to chop up the proliferate action sequences in the all-too common manner of substituting zealous cuts and camerawork for actual strikes and blows. For the most part 'Broken path' lets us actually see the stunts and fight choreography, and the break from the routine approach of U. S. blockbusters is most welcome.

There's no missing the fact that the cast is very small, with only a select few antagonists assaulting our protagonists. Moreover, the entire narrative takes place within a single location. The production seems to have had fewer means at its disposal, though it's hard to say whether the budget shaped the screenplay or vice versa. Yet to whatever extent the resources here were limited it's not reflected in the final product; the indelicacies and subjective faults are questions only of the writing, direction, and acting. Above all, it's readily apparent that the available resources, and all creative energies, were poured first and foremost into the stunts, effects, and action sequences, for I can only repeat that these are superb - if anything, only ever increasing in their vitality - and earnestly thrilling and invigorating. Yes, it's a bit unfortunate that the other facets of the picture suffer from a lack of equal care, but the truth of the matter is that all involved knew exactly what they wanted this to be, and within that slant there is no pulling of punches. Honestly, the strength of the action far outshines any other considerations as far as I'm concerned.

No, it may not be a first-rate action-thriller - but for a second-rate action-thriller, this is probably just about as good as it gets. It may be a rough start, but once the violence picks up we see the value that the movie has to offer, and it's resplendent. I had mixed expectations at best, but when all is said and done I'm very pleased with just how entertaining and engaging this 2008 flick turned out to be. It may not wholly demand viewership, but if you're looking for a martial arts action romp, I'm happy to say that 'Broken path' is well worth checking out.