You can barely turn around these days without bumping into a comic book adaptation of some description, which by extension causes many to fall through the cracks from the second they’re released. Even though it only arrived in August of 2021, who honestly knows or remembers anything about Yakuza Princess?
Based on Danilo Beyruth’s Samurai Shino, there collection of talent on either side of the screen was eclectic and unexpected enough to drive perhaps a little interest, but the end result came and went without anybody really noticing at all. While the source material is obviously inspired by Japanese culture, many of the core creative team hail from Brazil, while singer Masumi made her feature-length acting debut in the lead role of Akemi, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is also there for unexplained reasons.
The story finds the heiress to the titular crime syndicate standing to inherit half of an empire, but the old guard obviously wants to put a stop to such things. When she encounters Rhys Meyers’ amnesiac stranger, though, things take a somewhat fantastical turn when it transpires their destinies may be intertwined by a legendary sword that has bound their fates together.
From there, much hacking and slashing ensues in a film that could only rustle up Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings of 34 and 37 percent from critics and crowds, but Yakuza Princess has at least been unleashing its vengeance on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, the already-forgotten flick has become one of the top-viewed titles on Starz this weekend, because any comic book caper worth its salt is always going to find some kind of audience somewhere.