Yakuza Princess is a Brazillian action thriller from director, Vicente Amorim, and writers, Fernando Toste and Kimi Lee, based on Danilo Beyruth’s graphic novel, Samurai Shiro. It follows a young woman named Akemi (Masumi), who was orphaned at as a young girl when her family was attacked and brutally murdered. She lives out in Sao Paulo, Brazil now, trying to live her life when suddenly, a bug-eyed strange with amnesia (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) enters her life in possession of a seemingly important katana while she also gets pursued by the crime syndicate that was responsible for the murder of her family.
While it might seem strange to have such a Japanese-centric story take place in Brazil, the film itself lets you know that Sao Paulo features the largest community of Japanese outside of their native country. The film doesn’t really dig into how that came to be, but it certainly does provide a culturally interesting and unique backdrop for what is by and large a fairly typical and by-the-numbers samurai/yakuza action movie. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there is often plenty of fun to be had in even a fairly basic movie of this particular genre, and in moments, Yakuza Princess can be fun.
However, it takes a while to get to the good stuff. The film opens with a bang, quite literally. We see the brutal murder of a young Akemi’s family, with the killer not even sparing her older kid brother. After that, we’re introduced to a Meyer’s mysterious character waking up in a hospital, not knowing anything or who he is, there’s even a sudden full-frontal moment, in case you wanted to know. And then we get a glimpse of some of Akemi’s day-to-day life before it eventually gets interrupted by folks who really want her gone.
The problem is the journey getting to these sequences. The film takes its time, and it is certainly fine to do so, but Amorim and his writers don’t quite get that balance to strike where these more mundane or expository elements keep you invested. Instead, it becomes a bit tedious since many of these moments don’t add much to either the story or general atmosphere. Sometimes, it’s fine to linger, it doesn’t need to be all action, but at times, it becomes a test of patience, and there were points where I began to lose my investment in the story and the characters.
When it does get to the action, it is appropriately bloody, though there are some distracting CG blood at several points, some moments integrate the effect better than others, though it does seem like the artifice was a deliberate choice at times. It was a little hard to determine intentionality on that front. The choreography itself is fast, engaging, and even thrilling at times. The actors handle themselves well during these sequences, especially Masumi, and it’s clear that Amorim has an affinity for samurai movies because he draws a lot from some of the classics with the way he puts some of these moments together.
Once it was all said and done, I would say that Yakuza Princess ultimately falters due to its awkward pacing, which really hinders the film’s energy, but there are moments of pulpy goodness sprinkled throughout here. The film has a slick look, it’s got a grimy yet vibrant look that reflects the grunginess of the city that surrounds our characters. I haven’t read the graphic novel, so I don’t know how this compares as an adaptation, but as its own little pastice of samurai and yakuza movies, it does a solid enough job of tapping into the tropes of many of the classics, but I think we are at a point with these movies that if we hear the word “honor” one more time, people are gonna start pulling their hair. I’m glad I checked out the film, I think Masumi has potential as an action lead going forward, but it’s unfortunately not one I would want to revisit. Frankly, it sets up a more interesting movie than the one we got.
Yakuza Princess is now out in select theaters and VOD platforms.