The Hunted | 
| Director: J.f. Lawton
Actors: Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, Yoko Shimada
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $6.43
You Save: $8.55 (57%)
New (36) Used (14) from $5.77
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 27008
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 111 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.6
MPN: D20443D
ISBN: 0783230362
UPC: 025192044328
EAN: 9780783230368
ASIN: 0783230362
Theatrical Release Date: February 24, 1995
Release Date: December 15, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
Product Description
Lambert is paul racine a high-powered american business executive in japan. After he and his sexy companion chen are the targets of assassins racine is catapulted into a maze of danger and fascinating intrigue. His attacker is the ruthless kinjo. Bonus features: talent bios deleted scenes and more. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Christopher Lambert John Lone Run time: 111 minutes Rating: R Director: J. F. Lawton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 The Hunted June 3, 2009
Arthur P. Leible (USA SW)
DVD and case good to excellent, service fast, return information provided. Thats all I need.
 Underappreciated action movie February 19, 2009
Darren B. O'Connor (Norfolk, Virginia United States)
I saw this film when it debuted in theaters, and I quite liked it, despite its flaws. It's premise is a fascinating one: the survival of an ancient ninja cult in modern Japan. This cult is led by a ninja of legendary skill and power called Kinjo. To create balance, this ninja cult must, of course, have an enemy, and in Japan, that enemy could only be samurai. So Takeda, scion of an ancient samurai family, and seemingly the protector of Paul Racine (the hapless French-American businessman who has stumbled into the midst of this conflict) appears to be one of the good guys. But alas, appearances can be deceiving. Takeda is not as noble as he seems. At first Takeda does genuinely seem to be one of the good guys. He conveys Racine to his island home, ostensibly to protect him from the Kinjo, who will be coming after him because Racine saw his face. It is eventually revealed that somewhere along the line, in his quest for the glory he will achieve by defeating Kinjo, Takeda has broken his moral compass. All others, even his own students are nothing more than fodder for his ambition to destroy Kinjo, and are considered by Takeda to be utterly expendable. Once Racine is safely ensconced within the samurai's island fortress, Takeda can barely conceal his contempt for the man (who unwittingly offered him insult by handling his katana -- the samurai's weapon that no other man is permitted to touch), and it quickly becomes apparent to Racine that not only is he not free to leave, but Takeda would probably kill him if he didn't need him to as bait for Kinjo. Worse, it turns out that Takeda coldly and deliberately endangered a train full of innocent commuters, many of whom were killed at the hands of Kinjo's forces. Watching all this unfold is Takeda's wife, well played by Yoko Shimada (whom American audiences will remember for her part in the miniseries "Shogun"). And viewers can see her growing alarm at her husband's increasingly obsessive and frankly evil behavior, but her loyalty keeps her by his side right to the end. I like this aspect of the film, and I like it that one of the seeming good guys turns out to be anything but -- it just goes to show that the enemy of one's enemy is not always one's friend.
The movie is a well paced, reasonably smart action/thriller, with good acting, great fight scenes, and a good premise. It's biggest flaw is a plot hole big enough to sail the battleship Yamato through. I refer to the slaughter on the bullet train. If scores of people in a modern, developed, highly industrialized country were systematically butchered by a small cadre of sword-wielding ninja assassins, working their way methodically back from the front of the train, it would make BIG headlines all over the world. This kind of attention is not the sort of thing any organization dedicated to stealth and secrecy would ever want to attract to itself in a million years. Still, apart from this glaring flaw, it was a highly entertaining movie, and well worth a look.
 Sent DVD with wrong region code February 2, 2009
Neil Davie (Lara. Victoria. Australia)
I recently purchased this DVD from Amazon. Obviously I am in Australia, so one would assume that Amazon would send a DVD with the correct region code for Australia, instead region code on DVD is for US and Canada. Consequently it does not work in my $500.00 LG DVD player. Tried changing region code in player under setup, but even then id did not work. Cannot return it as it has been opened and inserted and ejected a dozen or so times so it has minute scratches from insert eject process. Not impressed.
Neil Davie
Lots of swordplay October 6, 2008
nekko50 (Seattle)
An enjoyable movie but too bad John Lone's immitation of a Japanese wasn't very good. You would think that there were suitable Japanese actors available to fill that roll. I guess they were looking for some name recognition rather than anything more authentic. At least Joan Chen didn't try to speak Japanese.
The Real Reasons to See It. March 22, 2008
E. Campbell
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Christopher Lambert as much as the next person. His choices in movie roles make for some fun films to watch. But with this film, I have to tip my hat to Yoshio Harada who plays Takeda Sensei, the descendant of Samurai Family Lineage. In most Martial Art movies we see the insanity of running along walls, amazing flips and impossible battles that leave you gawking. Aside from one instance when Takeda deflects incoming Shuriken with his Katana, the fight scenes in this movie are brutal and are much more "realistic" than you might be used to seeing. This coupled with the power of Kodo, a Taiko drum group that adds to the films soundtrack, and you find your blood boiling with every subtle pause that follows a series of graceful sword strikes.
It is a lost movie, because it is hard to find martial art films where the fight scene makes your pulse rise to the point where you feel your heart is in tune with the small steps taken by the swordsmen who pace around each other.
The downside? Well, the movie get slightly cheesy in some points. This is is mostly due to Christopher Lambert, but I don't feel it detracts from the film in whole. In truth, I feel Lambert's performance is much more on Par than Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai and we can certainly empathize with his character: An ignorant westerner thrown into an exotic world of life and death. All he can do, is his best.
It's a fun film, and definitely worth the price you would pay by ordering from Amazon.
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