There are very few actors who have re-defined the action movie like Keanu Reeves. The Matrix remains an impeccable blend of mind-bending visual effects and beautifully brutal fight scenes, and a true game changer for pop culture. Speed is the kind of white-knuckle thriller that’s rare to find these days. John Wick created an entirely new subgenre of action movies that lasts to this day. One of Reeves’ more underrated action movies is currently available to stream on Netflix, and it takes a fantasy-fueled approach to an iconic Japanese legend.
That movie is 47 Ronin, which made its debut all the way back in 2013. Adapting the story of Chūshingura, 47 Ronin takes place in the waning days of feudal-era Japan and follows Kai (Reeves), a half-Japanese, half-British swordsman. Kai is taken in by a prominent samurai, but when said samurai is killed by his rival, Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano), Kai joins forces with 47 of the samurai’s men to take their vengeance. Though it was critically panned upon release, 47 Ronin is at least worth a watch to see how certain legends can change based on the medium they’re in.
’47 Ronin’ Blends An Iconic Japanese Legend With Fantasy Elements
Keanu Reeves as Kai brandishing his samurai sword in 47 RoninImage by Universal
The tale of the 47 Ronin is surprisingly straightforward: after their master is slain, the titular warriors break into his killer’s house and exact vengeance, ultimately committing seppuku after they’re caught. While 47 Ronin keeps the same story beats, it shakes things up by introducing supernatural elements. Kai fights a massive golem in one scene that takes on the form of a samurai warrior. In another, he has to do battle with a massive, serpentine dragon. The ronin must also contend with Mizuki (Rinko Kikuchi), the malevolent witch who aids Kira in his goals. These fantasy elements caused most of the criticism, as some critics felt what should have been a simple samurai tale came off more like a Lord of the Rings ripoff.
47 Ronin became one of the biggest box-office bombs of 2013, with blame shifted to Universal Pictures for locking director Carl Rinsch out of the editing process and trying to beef up Reeves’ role in the narrative. 47 Ronin would eventually receive a sequel in the form of Blade of the 47 Ronin, where one of the ronin’s blades ends up at the center of yet another supernatural battle. It was even more off the wall than its predecessor, though it skipped theaters in favor of the VOD route. Carl Rinschwould later be tapped to helm the science fiction series White Horsefor Netflix, but that fell apart when the streamer sued him for misspending the funds.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Keanu Reeves Surprisingly Isn’t the Standout of ’47 Ronin’
Despite having top billing in 47 Ronin, Keanu Reeves has a very small role in the final movie. Part of that is due to the fact that Reeves was making his directorial debut in the martial arts movie Man of Tai Chi, but the fact is that the story already had a protagonist in the form of YoshioŌishi (Hiroyuki Sanada). In the original legend of the 47 Ronin, Ōishi serves as the leader of the other Ronin; Sanada brings a gravity to the scene that helps ground the story in actual emotion. Sanada also told Collider prior to 47 Ronin‘s release that the movie held a special meaning for him:
“It’s a very special movie for me. Not only a Samurai thing. Not only a Hollywood fantasy. It has a very special mixture between Japanese traditional culture and Western culture for the costume, set, story. Everything. I believe it will be a very special film that no one has ever seen.”
While 47 Ronin might not be among Keanu Reeves’ best movies, it’s definitely ambitious enough to warrant a watch. The mix of history and fantasy is the kind of bold swing you rarely see in Hollywood, and it proves Reeves still pushes the boundaries of what can be done in the action genre.
