Red Sun

A film set in the American West and turning on a Japanese sword. A Japanese embassy party is travelling to Washington by train. With them is a gift for the American president: a samurai sword with a gold hilt. The train is robbed. The gang takes the loot and one of its leaders betrays his partner and keeps the sword. Kuroda, the escort of the party, is given the task of bringing it back, and a limit: seven days. If the time runs out he will take his own life. Link, the bandit left behind, has been betrayed and wants to settle his own account. The two set out together. One is bound by rules, disciplined and says little; the other is disorderly, cunning and talks constantly. The road passes with each testing the other. The idea is to join two genres: the western and the samurai film meet in the same desert, and the combination was tried several more times in the 1970s. Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress are in the cast. Terence Young directed. It was shot in Spain, like many westerns of the period. An entertaining production for anyone curious about where the western crosses East Asian cinema. For a viewer expecting a sober samurai film, the narrative takes both genres lightly.