If you want a short description, you might call it John Wick goes to Japan. It's a retelling of an old story with some Hollywood embellishments. Keano plays the half-breed child of white man and a Japanese peasant woman, as such he is an outcast. He is discovered at around age 15 lying in a creek by a local warlord who takes him in. So now he lives in a hut on the outskirts of the village. The warlord's daughter is attracted to him, possibly because he is a curiosity, but also because there aren't a lot of other people their age here. Anyway, they are the love story, but because of the strict rules of their society, their relationship is entirely chaste. I think she kisses him once towards the end.
When the bad man takes over the local warlord fiefdom, he sells Keano into slavery on the Dutch Island. The Dutch Island is a collection of dozens of big, fat sailing vessels, all moored cheek by jowl. We only see them at night when they are all lit up, probably using lamps that burned grease, and they burned it by the hogshead.
A year goes by, the daughter's period of mourning for her father is over and the bad guy intends to wed her. The 47 Ronin decide now is the time to get their revenge on the bad guy, so their head man heads to Dutch Island to get Keano. Keano has become a gladiator of sorts and is is the middle of dealing with a giant, ugly dude. He does and then he and the head Ronin fight their way free of a mess of Europeans.
The bad guy is aided by a witchy woman who transforms herself into a giant flowing scarf to get inside of places.
Reunited, our crew attempts to ambush the bad guy but the witchy woman foils their plans. They escape but they lose most of their weapons. So now Keano has to go visit the people he grew up with in the Tengo forest. Keano's mother abandoned him in the Tengo forest when he was a baby. These weird monk-like people raised him and taught him their secrets. Something about their teachings cut across his grain, which is what caused him to run away. But these guys have skills, and weapons. So Keano goes crawling back. Naturally, there are some tests that he must pass in order to receive their help, so we have a big fight scene where all Keano's buddies get killed. Turns out it was all an illusion and since they passed the test, they get the swords they need.
Now they sneak into the bad guy's castle. It doesn't take long before they are discovered and all hell breaks loose. Keano unleashes patented John Wick persona and mows the bad guys down in box lots. Eventually we get to the final showdown between the witchy woman and Keano. The witchy woman transforms herself into a giant snake like dragon of the Asian style when she gets into a fight with Keano. Keano has his hands full fighting the dragon while also protecting his girlfriend who cowers helplessly in the corner, as good damsel-in-distress ought to. Eventually Keano prevails.
So they rescued the girl and got their revenge on the bad guy and now they get their reward, which is to die an honorably death as opposed to being executed as common criminals. And so they all commit suicide. The end.
P. S. The Shogun, who was the top dog, above the bad guy, looked completely wrong for the part. He just wasn't convincing. Too ugly, maybe?
P. P. S. The Dutch Island seems to have been a real place:
The Portuguese had first arrived in Japan in 1543, so contacts between Japan and the Netherlands were not the oldest and longest Japan had enjoyed with a western country. Contacts with Asian countries such as Korea, China and Taiwan naturally went back to much earlier times. However, during the `sakoku-jidai`, the so-called seclusion period, Holland and China were the only countries permitted to trade and have limited contacts with Japan. It was a status which actually lasted over two centuries, from 1641 to 1853, and as the only western country with such privileges, Holland held a very special position. It was the door through which knowledge on science and medicine, and products and armaments from the Netherlands and Europe were imported into Japan through the Dutch settlement on Deshima, the man-made fan-shaped island in the Bay of Nagasaki. Simultaneously the Dutch generated great wealth exporting Japanese products and knowledge to the west. For both sides, Deshima was more than just a window on a new world.
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