It's more of a story of a conflict between urbane versus rednecks than a cliché of the East meets West story. A successful Japanese sarariman (salary-man) who lost his best friend from karo-shi (death from over-working) settled in a ranch in Montana to fulfill his growing up dream of becoming a cowboy. Undertaking several conflicts against local people he gathers a band of five including old cowboy (Robert Conrad), a female veterinarian (Catharine Mary Stewart), a Native American nerd (Byron Chief-Moon) and a Country Western singing African American barnstormer (Bradley M. Rapier) to transport a herd of the cattle to pay off the mortgage. What is so different here from regular East meets West stereotype is that the Japanese cowboy is portrayed as a rich smart-ass backed by the image of powerful economy of Japan rather than another poor and stupid Oriental martial-artists like Jacky Chan. And it is remarkably enough that this film is of as early as 1992's even in the 21st Century many movies still trapped with the old fashioned image of the mysterious Orient such as the costume of Princess Amidara in Star Wars trilogy or the shallow spiritual image that self-conscious Steven Segal always try to emit, to name a few. In terms of a low budget flick it still is pretty close to be paired with classic Western films like Howard Hawks' masterpiece Red River. The director Michael Keusch tried his best to show humorous conversations, some musical sequences (don't forget that Go is one of Japanese top pop music icons!) dangerous stunts and even real cattle transportation as a herd. Overall, its very entertaining while skillfully avoiding unnecessary stereotypes.
Review of Samurai Cowboy
