Bad In A Good: Samurai Cop

• Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Amir Shervan
• 1991

When a Japanese gang takes control of the cocaine trade in Los Angeles, the LAPD transfer in Samurai Cop to help tackle the problem.

In the annals of cult films, Samurai Cop is one that probably should not have achieved such yet did. It is an unintentionally hilarious film done so poorly and so badly that it should not be watchable in any form. Yet here we are discussing it because since its release it has attained a cult following. It is cheaply done and poorly edited and terribly acted with a generic plot executed by individuals who either lacked experience or were doing serious drugs.

It somehow transcends its flaws to become unintentionally funny. There is a scene referred to currently as “The Horny Nurse” which made the rounds courtesy of the internet. It is a sight to behold and difficult to describe. I can sum it up best as a random nurse in a hospital with a dental office throwing herself at our hero. But that fails to do the moment justice. The scene even includes a cop played by an actor that is clearly high enough that performing his lines is seriously intense.

But the hilarity doesn’t end there. We have a female chopper pilot that hits on everybody. She throws out random propositions to whoever in the scene has not turned her down. And it has nothing to really do with anything in the plot. It is just awkwardly inappropriate and thus very funny.

Joe “Samurai Cop” Marshall (Mathew Karedas) is borrowed from the SFPD because of his martial arts training and mastery of the Japanese language (a language he never speaks in the film). And his use of martial arts amounts to mostly mediocre sword play. But he does have a sweet head of hair.

Joe is partnered with Frank Washington (Mark Frazer). The character of Frank is often relegated to bad racial jokes and reacting to the action of a scene (which are unintentionally hilarious facial expressions) before walking in after he would have been helpful.

Their boss Captain Rohmer (Dale Cummings) is an accidental mockery of the usual buddy cop action film police captain of the time. Rohmer has some of the wildest mood swings I have ever seen. In a single scene he can go from furious to begrudgingly laughing. And he runs his department more like a rival gang than a police force. Why do I say this? He orders Joe and Frank to turn the villain’s place into a bloodbath in his final scene.

Fuj Fujiyama (Cranston Komuro) and Yamashita (Robert Z’Dar) along with a redheaded woman (Cameron) that is never named but consistently present are our villains. Is she a high-ranking member of the Katana Drug Syndicate or Yamashita’s henchwoman? Depends on the needs of the scene though the biggest issue is that this woman who is important to the story never gets a name. Maybe that is why she never came under the sway of Joe’s manliness.

Some films have a very low budget. This one has no budget. I’ve heard that the actors often wore their own clothing (the aforementioned hospital cop for example) and I’m willing to even bet many of the vehicles used are the performer’s own cars.

The editing is haphazard, and at least, in one case I swear the lead up to a scene is interrupted by a scene elsewhere that both actors are in. Perhaps the best known and easily noticed error/issue is Joe’s changing hair. It changes from scene to scene or even within a scene. What apparently happened was when the actor thought filming was over the actor cut all of his hair off, but filming wasn’t over and he had to return to do additional footage. Rather than plop down some decent coin they bought a cheap woman’s wig and went with it. 

The performances are generally atrocious. The dialogue is clunky and awkward. Rousing speeches are just randomly interjected at points. There is one that they found a need to use to make it clear they weren’t painting all Japanese as criminals. This is just an awful, awful movie with ineptitude from start to finish.

Yet there is something endearing and watchable about this movie. Strangely though Samurai Cop is the best example of something so bad it’s good. You watch for the terrible nature and a good laugh. It’s unintentionally funny. It’s an accidental parody of so much of the time. From the super ass kicking cop to his screaming boss to the martial arts obsession many films had it mocks it all yet doesn’t intend to do so.

Because of that it becomes a quality film that is also not quality film in a way nobody involved intended it to be.  It’s fun to watch for the errors and just what bad things come next. And more often than not you will laugh to the point you’re crying. A dentist office in a hospital? A police captain ordering murder? Changing hair? Women engaging in a comedic level of sexual harassment? All funny stuff.

Samurai Cop is a cult film that certainly deserves its cult classic status. Normally I wouldn’t recommend a film this badly done but because it’s so entertaining in its poor quality I highly recommend it. I unabashedly love this movie as much now as I did then for all the reasons you should not love it. You won’t even feel guilty about watching it. You will want to watch it again because it’s such an enjoyable trip.