The Warrior’s Way is a very strange film. Not just because it is campy, stylistic and ridiculous but also because it is the sort of movie that will massively divide audiences and while I loved it I have a very hard time recommending it to people who don’t have a very particular taste.

Mixing the classic Western genre with Anime style ninja action, The Warrior’s Way tells a fairly conventional tale in a very unconventional way. When tasked with wiping out the last remaining members of a rival ninja clan, Yang (Dong-gung Jang), the greatest swordsman alive, finds that he has a difficult time delivering the death blow to a baby girl. Electing instead to let the princess live, Yang finds himself the number one enemy of his own clan and is forced to flee to America and go into hiding. He chooses to hide in a run down western town where an old friend lives. When he arrives he finds that the town is all but empty and his friend Smiley, who ran the town laundry, is dead. The only people left are the members of a traveling carnival who are hoping to set up a permanent attraction, an old drunk (Geoffery Rush) and a girl (Kate Bosworth)who is trying to be a knife thrower but doesn’t quite fit in. Yang tries to leave his past behind after sealing his katana in its sheath so his clan can’t hear the cries of the souls he’s taken but the dark past of the town rears its ugly head and soon enough we are treated to a cowboy vs ninja showdown that you have to see to believe.

The story itself, if you take away the ninjas, is pretty standard western fare. Lone drifter wanders into town to start a new life but gets drawn back into a world of violence against his will. It is nothing new. Neither is the structure of the story which is pretty straightforward and archetypal following familiar and predictable beats that anyone who has ever seen a western, or really any movie, will know backwards and forwards. There aren’t many surprises here as far as story is concerned but that is okay. By using a well worn story and structure the film manages to ground itself enough to get away with everything else it does. Or, if you aren’t inclined to like this sort of thing, not so much.

From style to substance, the Warrior’s Way recalls the 2007 Takashi Miike film Sukiyaki Western Django, a western/samurai hybrid film based off the general structure and story of A Fistfull of Dollars which was in turn based on  Yojimbo  and the whole thing comes back around to meet itself again. That film had a lot of the same sorts of melodrama and hyper stylized backgrounds, sets and action as we see here. One of the big differences, however, is that Sukiyaki Western Django mixed samurai and cowboys together so you had them all running around with guns and swords. Here, ninjas are very different than the cowboys and the showdown between the two is pretty badass. It is kind of like if the series Kung Fu had some balls and was on pay cable.

The style of action you see here is very heavy in effects, wire work and slow motion. If you are the sort of person who hates slow motion and thinks that Zack Snyder over did it in 300, you aren’t going to find much to like here. The action is very heavy on poses and artistic and stylized camera work and special effects. If you like this kind of thing, then you will find it to be beautiful and impressive and if you don’t then again you will find little to like here.

The performances are all very over the top and campy except for Jang who plays it pretty stoic. Bosworth may very well be trying to channel Toy Story’s Jessie and villain Danny Huston chews so much scenery that I am not surprised that it seems like most of the background was projected on the wall of the sound stage. The performances are massively over the top and the accents used are as cliched and hammy across the board.

Pretty much everything in the movie contributes to a level of melodrama that would make Spanish telenovellas look understated. It may sound like a criticism but given that every bit of silliness is intentional and whats more is artistically and expertly done, it is high praise. This movie is ridiculous and very tongue in cheek not so much by making gags and goofy slapstick but rather by just owning up to its inherent ridiculousness and reveling in it. It wouldn’t have worked any other way.

All that being said, those expecting the non-stop action of a movie like Ninja Assassin are not going to be happy with a long middle section in which Yang tries to integrate into the town’s society which involves planting a garden and a fair amount of cute baby material. It is well done and sweet in its way and sets up a sense of affection with some of the characters that comes in handy on an emotional tip when all hell breaks loose later and the blood starts spraying.

While it has that longish dramatic section in the middle, when the action starts it is non-stop and absolutely badass especially if your thing is watching limbs get severed left and right and Gatling guns cutting through ninjas like it was their job (which I suppose it was although I am not sure how many ninjas Gatling guns can really claim). The bloodshed in the third act is a thing of beauty and I found myself giggling at how over the top it all was and how completely satisfying it manged to be. It is a long wait for this stuff to happen but it is absolutely worth the wait.

Conclusion [8.5 out of 10 if you are into over-the-top, campy action movies. If you aren’t, don’t bother]

The Warrior’s Way is absolutely not for everyone but for the people who are plugged into this kind of movie it is great. It drags just a touch and could have done more interesting things in the story but it delivers its quirky violence and hammy melodrama in spades. I spent much more of the film with a wide grin than with a frown and I found it to be consistently entertaining. But again, I like this kind of movie a lot. If you don’t? Steer very, very clear.