Der Samurai


2014 crime drama

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A policeman searches the night for a cross-dressing guy with a samurai sword who is terrorizing a town.

This unfolds so sneakily that it becomes haunting. It's a weird premise, and the homoerotic subtext is so obvious that it actually becomes more surface-level than the man vs. man conflict that is supposed to be on the surface. There's some ultraviolence, all filmed with an artsy-fartsy eye, and there's a great performance by the wonderfully-named actor Pit Bukowski who plays the katana-wielding, gown-wearing stalker with a Kinski-esque ferocity. The story and interactions between the characters are tense enough, although they won't come close to satisfying anybody looking for a typical crime drama. Of course, when the cop and the bad guy are really two sides of the same individual, that's bound to confuse most people looking for a typical crime drama.


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