An amusing video of two ninja robot warriors Snake-Eyes (black) and Snowstorm (white) who jive talk around racial stereotypes opens Qui Nguyen's hyperkinetic Soul Samurai. Their tongue-in-cheek banter splendidly sets the tone for Nguyen's delicious spoof on the 1970's blaxploitation genre with a 1990's updating of hip-hop and Tae Kwon Do.
Set in a neo-future New York City, the city has disintegrated into a chain of tribal fiefdoms ruled over by three main shoguns (calling to mind many of Kurosawa's early films; its one of the numerous film references that Nguyen evokes). Dewdrop (a dynamic Maureen Sebastian) and her chubby trash-talking ("talkin' smack is the best part") sidekick Cert (a show-stealing Paco Tolson) are out for blood ---literally. It's a revenge killing for Dewdrop's white lesbian lover Sally December (tough talking Bonnie Sherman; she refers to the Asian Dewdrop as my 'yellow girl') who was shot in a drug deal gone wrong. Behind Sally's death are Brooklyn's shogun, Boss 2K (a super pimped-up Jon Hoche) and his terrorizing gang the Long Tooths. As in many a film noir, behind every caper gone wrong is a woman.
From here it's one hell of a roller coaster ride from Coney Island to Flushing to the Lower East Side and back. While the martial arts scenes (also created by Nguyen for his company Vampire Cowboys) that fuel the show are terrific, the actors' sense of commitment to the hip, pop cultural plot is laudable. All the performers infuse their characters with enough sincerity to make us sympathetic to their fates while keeping the humorous irony of the script intact (we even get a little emotional for the Dewdrop/Sally backstory). In addition to Tolson, Hoche displays great comic timing and his fabulous Super Fly fur coat is a highlight of costume designers Sarah Lux and Jessica Wegener pastiche of designs (from TV's Mod Squad to Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Director Robert Ross Parker's relentless, high octane direction keeps the action churning even at the sake of clarity. Together with set and lighting designer Nick Francone, he has enough stylistic elements to fill a Hollywood back lot. Among the clever conceits we get are a puppet show, Chinese semaphore, a chase scene involving an 18 Wheeler (great effect), video interludes and a girl on girl love scene than would make Quentin Tarantino proud. Nguyen's script vibrates with the pulse of the street and the over the top violence and profanity make for a combustible mix. The interludes which involve either backstory (a character named Marcus with self-esteem issues) or a metaphoric take on the proceedings tend to slow the action down (one in particular concerning the ancient rivalry between samurai and ninja nearly knocks the show off track). The piece is also a little to long to sustain itself and ones energy tends to wane going into the second hour. Still, the play has the wonderful retro feel of an old Saturday afternoon serial and produced in collaboration with the Obie winning Ma-Yi Theater Company a certain multi-cultural flavor adds zest to the show down. As Cert will tell ya, "Get ready for some action, yo. I'm gonna get my man on. Gonna show em what's the what's up".
