The Warrior and the Sorceress
The Warrior and the Sorceress is a 1984 Argentine-American fantasy action film directed by John C. Broderick and starring David Carradine, María Socas and Luke Askew. It was written by Broderick (story and screenplay) and William Stout (story). "The Warrior and the Sorceress" is a version of the classic Kurosawa film "Yojimbo". The film is noted chiefly for containing extensive nudity and violence and for being one of the more extreme examples of the sword-and-sorcery genre. It is also considered by some to be a cult classic. "The Warrior and the Sorceress  was the second entry in a series of ten films that Roger Corman produced in Argentina during the 1980s, the first one being Deathstalker". Synopsis. In a distant galaxy lies the desert planet of Ura, which has two suns. There, two rival warlords, Zeg and Bal Caz, constantly fight against each other in a battle over the village's only wellspring. The mercenary warrior Kain emerges and announces that his skills are for hire to the highest bidder. Naja, a beautiful sorceress that has been taken captive by Zeg, changes Kain's original purpose of taking the well for himself  to saving Naja and the village people. Kain starts to tangle the situation, taking advantage of the ongoing feud while seeking to debilitate the rival warlords and defeat them. Production. The film was originally known as "Kain of the Desert Planet". Corman developed it for Millennium Pictures, the company he formed after he sold New World Pictures. Millennium was subsequently renamed "New Horizons". The exterior shots were made in Ischigualasto Provincial Park in San Juan, also known as Valle de la Luna ("Valley of the Moon", due to its otherworldly appearance). Most of the film was shot inside Estudios Baires  Film S.A. and Campo de Mayo, in Buenos Aires Province. Before production started and during an argument with his girlfriend, David Carradine punched a wall and fractured his right hand. To conceal the plaster for the hand, Carradine used a pointed black glove on his right arm while filming. As a result Carradine, who was right-handed, was trained by Anthony De Longis (who was the action and stunts coordinator, and also played the villain Kief) to learn swordfighting with his left hand; in Carradine's memoirs the actor states he broke his hand three days into filming, but he  doesn't say how. The outfit that Carradine uses for his character of Kain is the same he wore for the B movie/post-apocalyptic action film "Dune Warriors" (1991). In a rather obvious coincidence, Luke Askew again played the antagonist/villain role in the latter film. Carradine says the director "was obsessed by the body of the actress who played the priestess [María Socas] so he costumed her in a topless outfit. Everywhere you looked there was this barebreasted woman." Carradine liked the movie because of its sword play and the fighting style he helped design but says "do n't expect a great movie" because the director quit during editing after a fight with Corman (which erupted because he had gone two weeks over schedule), meaning the editing was finished by two teams in two different countries. "It's a little uneven", said Carradine of the film. Similarities with "Yojimbo". According to David Carradine's book "Spirit of Shaolin", it was clear before production started that the film was going to be a version of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 Samurai film "Yojimbo", and Carradine talked about it with executive producer Roger Corman: "The Warrior and the Sorceress") was essentially  a remake of "Yojimbo", the samurai movie by the great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. I called up Roger and told him I loved the script; but what about the "Yojimbo" factor. Roger said, "Yes, it is rather like "Yojimbo"." I said, "It's not like "Yojimbo". It is "Yojimbo"." Roger said, "Let me tell you a story. When "Fistful of Dollars" opened in Tokyo, Kurosawa's friends called him up and said 'You must see this picture.' Kurosawa said, 'Yes, I understand it is rather like "Yojimbo".' 'No, it's not like "Yojimbo", it is "Yojimbo". You have to sue  these people.' 'I can't sue them', he responded. 'Why not?' 'Because' -Kurosawa confessed-, "'Yojimbo" is Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest".'" I went for it. The story however appears to be apocryphal, as Kurosawa and Toho Studios did in fact successfully sue Sergio Leone. Reception. "The Philadelphia Inquirer" called it "an unashamedly sordid rehashing - and retrashing - of Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic Yojimbo, via Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, with a little Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian tossed in for good measure." The "Los Angeles Times" also noted the similarities to "Yojimbo" and said the film had  awkward action, a general air of determined viciousness and (Carradine excepted) so much overacting that it sometimes seems that a new dramatic style is being forged. Footage of the film later turned up in "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II".