Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21519 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-02-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Running time: 111 minutes

From Amazon.com
Christopher Lambert, the imposing French actor with the nasal whine best known to American audiences as Scottish swordsman Highlander, plays a rank amateur in The Hunted. He's an American businessman in Japan who lucks into a one-night stand with slinky Joan Chen and winds up a witness to her murder by a mysterious band of black-clad ninjas. Escaping not one but two attempts on his life by a little quick thinking and a lot of dumb luck, he winds up on a harrowing bullet train ride. As swarms of masked assassins decimate passengers in search of the elusive eyewitness, Lambert's laconic protector, rough-edged samurai Yoshio Harada, unleashes a martial arts frenzy of flashing swords in close quarters. His savior is not as altruistic as he seems, however. He just wants to lure mysterious ninja overlord John Lone out of hiding and into a fight to the death on Harada's island fortress, and Lambert is little more than live bait. Though it made few ripples at the box office, The Hunted is a slick and surprisingly smart thriller. Lone and Harada cut striking figures as the warriors following ancient codes in the modern world, and writer-director J.F. Lawton (screenwriter of Pretty Woman and Under Siege) gives them almost as much screen time as ostensible hero Lambert. The action scenes are furious and fast paced, lacking the grace and precision of real Japanese samurai adventures but full of clever flourishes. --Sean Axmaker

On the DVD
Production notes
Cast & filmmakers bios
Film highlights
Theatrical trailer
Web links

Synopsis
In this international action thriller, Paul Racine (Christopher Lambert) is an American salesman with a computer firm who is in Japan on business. While spending an evening in a bar, he meets Kirina (Joan Chen), a beautiful but mysterious woman. Paul buys Kirina a drink, one thing leads to another, and he ends up spending the night with her. However, when Paul returns to her room to retrieve a set of keys he left behind, he discovers that Kirina is being murdered by Kinjo (John Lone), the master of a cult of bloodthirsty ninjas. Kinjo informs Karina that no one has ever seen his face and lived, so when Paul witnesses Kirina's execution and the face Kinjo hides behind his mask, he's a marked man. With the help of Takeda (Yoshio Harada), an experienced ninja fighter, Paul learns how to defend himself against his new adversaries as he plots a final showdown with the deadly Kinjo. The Hunted represented something of a reunion for John Lone and Joan Chen, who previously starred together in The Last Emperor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

A good movie , DVD Special Feature ???
I like this movie a lot !!.

But the only complain is that on the DVD Cover said Special Feature : Spanish subtitules, Scenes, etccc..... and there is none of this, no subtitules, no menu , nothing at all !!! The movie star right away ...........

The worst ninja movie ever
I'm surprised Japan didn't commit a second Pearl Harbor after this movie. I'm even more shocked that it has 4.5/5 stars as an Amazon score.

What is good about this movie: one character named Takeda, who is an excellent Japanese swordsman and a very likable guy. His personality is smooth and clever. However, he's not the main character.

As usual, any American movie made in an Asian country needs a white man to lead the title role. Christopher Lambert's character is a doof who has sex with a hot Asian girl only because she's about to be killed by ninjas and doesn't want to die a virgin...so she picks the first dumb clod in the bar. Unfortunately Chris goes back to her room after the ninjas up 'n kill her, so now he has ninjas on his head.

He's eventually put in a hospital with a police guard, but the ninjas kill all the police men. This is because the police men RUN INTO THE NINJAS! Thats right, instead of pulling out their guns and dropping a big black thing standing in the middle of a hospital room, they just run up and get stabbed.

It gets better. Mainly, lots of more needless carnage. The ninjas take decide to kill every one in a train to get to Christopher Lambert. Then the final showdown on Takeda's island, which has lots of more needless violence.

Takeda is taken out in a very cheap, dumb way. Why do they do this? So Christopher Lambert, who has had only three days of sword training, can take out Japan's top ninja. I guess since he's a white guy, taking out a weak Asian man is easy. At least that's what I get from the script.

This movie left me with such aggravation at how BAD it was - not only from the bad storyline, but the constantly needless violence and cliches - that I don't understand why there exist people that like this movie. I wouldn't suggest any one watch this film unless you greatly desire to feel your brain slowly ooze out of your ears.

Great Movie!
My wife and I saw this at the theater when it first came with not a whole lot of fan fare or pre-movie hype. We saw it because at the time there wasn't much else out that deserved the inflated theater ticket prices !
We were definitely surprised and delightfully pleased to learn this movie was well worth the sticker price and will warrant the outlay of an additional 20-30 bucks to add to our DVD collection. Do not listen to the negative publicity they are just trying to get a rise from the rest of us that are giving it good reviews.
I have always been a big Lambert fan, especialy for his portrayal
of Lord Greystoke, as well as Highlander. You have to set aside your knowledge that Christopher is already well versed in sword play because in this movie he has to be a regular Joe who learns from the beginning how to wield a sword and by the time he needs that ability his experience is clearly able to shine !
So I am happy to give this one 5 stars for a job well done !