Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance

• (Also titled Revenge of the Samurai Cop)
• Directed and Co-Written by Gregory Hatanaka
• October 9, 2015

Detective Frank Washington must team up again with his estranged partner Joe “Samurai Cop” Marshall to investigate a series of assassinations. Or something. Not sure what is going on here.

When I heard there was a sequel to the accidental cult classic Samurai Cop, I had to check it out. Not because I necessarily thought it would be like the original film but more out of curiosity to see what they actually did. The original film was a poorly done movie that turned out perfectly. What they intended and what they actually accomplished were two different things. They certainly weren’t aiming for high art, but they weren’t attempting to craft the best bad movie of all time.

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (also titled Revenge of the Samurai Cop) is a bad movie, but unlike the original this doesn’t transcend its flaws to become good. It just remains bad. What makes it interesting to watch is the random nature of the casting as well as the weirdness of everything else. Gone is the Katana Drug Syndicate. It has been replaced by the Katana Corporation. And there’s some kind of prophecy about Joe Marshall (Mathew Karedas/Matt Hannon) destroying them.

Joe and Frank (Mark Frazer) partner again to take down the Katanas who are behind a series of political assassinations. How does the still active Frank know this? Gut instinct apparently and a medallion with more connection to Joe than the Katanas.

The character of Joe actually seems to be speaking Japanese. Can’t he is actually using Japanese but unlike the last film where he supposedly spoke it though never used it. And rather than whipping out a sword every now and then he actually engages in some martial arts. Karedas clearly cared about this movie as compared to what he did in the last one. That disinterest was an asset previously. It helped create unintentional comedy.

And the casting. It looks and feels like if somebody showed up to the casting office they got the part with no questions asked. We have the likes of Bai Ling, Kayden Kross, Tommy Wiseau, Laurene Landon, Mel Novak, Lexi Belle, Joe Estevez, and Mindy Robinson among others in parts with Cranston Komuro returning as Fuj Fujiyama. Sometimes porn actors in non-porn roles surprise you. Kayden Kross and Lexi Belle do not do that but quality is not a goal this deuce.

Tommy Wiseau is a man that is no stranger to cult cinema with The Room. Here he shows up as Linton Kitano who is the leader of the Shinjuku clan. They are a rival to Katana for…reasons. Kitano is supposed to be the nemesis of Joe but that doesn’t really become clear until the end and then the twist out of left field left me a little confused because either Tommy Wiseau looks very old for his age or they just decided who cares and pretended he was a kid back in 1991. Then again it is my understanding little is really known about Wiseau prior to his cult fame. I would like to describe Wiseau’s performance in this film but words do not exist in the English language to appropriately describe it. I can come closest by calling it Nick Cage but without the talent.

This is a legacy sequel that does a poor job of connecting itself to the original film. Whether they wanted to or not, they should’ve took a look at the original film and tried to on some level re-create all the wrong things they did there but as I surmised going into this writer/director Gregory Hatanaka was trying to do something closer to what they wanted to accomplish with the original. And that’s rather unfortunate. The original was a bad attempt meant to be good. This is a bad meant to be bad. All they had to do was play the story straight but do things wrong.

I am not 100% sure what the whole plot is. The original, as much of a mess as it was, had a plot that you could point towards. It was about a supercop brought in to bring down an Asian drug syndicate. This starts out with the murder of a senator (which would make it a federal crime I think) which is being handled by the police. There’s also prophecy. And it looks to be that there is a gang war going on. It is so many random ideas and plot points but there is not even a bad cohesion to it all.

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance is a legacy sequel that lacks the unintentional magic of the original. Why they didn’t try to emulate Samurai Cop more I don’t know. This is a curiosity to check out but not something that brought me the same level of enjoyment the original did. Ultimately I’m going to say check it out because of curiosity but don’t expect a good time.