The Sensei

Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

In the year of 1993 The Minister (Keith David) and his niece are trying to get into their car in one of those underground parking lots when out of the blue they are attacked by some hateful skinheads. If you know skinheads like I know skinheads then you know full well that they are total haters. Fortunately for The Minister, young McClain Evans (Michael O’Laskey II) was in the vicinity and completely kicks their collective asses with his lethal kung-fu skills. The Minister wonders how this young man acquired these devastating martial arts skills and after making out with his boyfriend for a minute who has appeared on the scene, McClain has a story to tell and this movie ‘The Sensei’ is about to begin. Apparently the cops in this town are of the slow response variety so McClain and the Minister have 90 or so minutes to burn which is just enough time to squeeze in an entire movie via flashback.

So lets go back a few years where McClain was a misunderstood teenager in a small Colorado town around the mid-eighties. It is a bit vague but McClain’s good friend or maybe his lover had died in some way and McClain has received the brunt of the blame for this boys death, for whatever reason, plus everybody in town knows the boy is a homosexual which only adds to his many, many complications. Plus this is the mid-eighties when AIDS paranoia misinformation and homophobia had reached its apex. Since McClain is constantly picked on and beat up he would like to learn how to defend himself, but unfortunately the local family run dojo headed by the exceptionally angry Simon O’Neil (Tim Lounibos) repeatedly rejects his application.

Then two things occur that will redirect McClain’s path. The first would be the ass kicking that he would receive at school that is so brutal and so heinous it almost kills the boy and puts him in the hospital for an extended stay. The second event would be

the return of Karen O’Neil (director Diana Lee Inosanto) as the prodigal daughter has come back home. One of the reasons Karen left home was because she wasn’t getting the recognition she deserved from the family as an accomplished martial artists in her own right, and besides, she was assisting her fiancé Mark (Louis Mandylor) in his boxing career. Observe that Karen has come back home without a fiancé. Karen’s return has made her brother Simon angry. The wind blowing from east to west makes Simon angry.

Desperate to keep her son alive while his attackers await their assault trial McClain’s mother Annie (Gina Scalzi) begs Karen to teach her son how to protect himself. Karen is reticent at first due to the hostility she knows she will incur from her family should they find out, but she soon relents because she can relate to Simon’s plight on a number of levels. Now it’s Wax on / Wax off time as McClain absorbs Karen’s teachings like a sponge and not a moment to soon because the folks in this little town are nothing if not ignorant and violent. Plus Simon is angry again but now he has good reason to be pissed off, because now the people of this town have directed their ignorance towards him and the family, but don’t worry because he’s still plenty angry at Karen too. Karen has her own major, major issues and demons she is battling with the bulk of these issues stemming around her fiancé and the fact that he is no longer with us. And who does a girl have to bribe around here to get her Black Belt? Come on!

There is little fault I can wind with Diana Lee Inosanto’s moving and emotional film ‘The Sensei’ outside of the fact it exists as the longest flashback this side of ‘The English Patient’. Ms. Inosanto has made the transition from veteran stunt performer to leading lady / low budget film director almost seamlessly as she shows confidence as a film director and skill and power as an actress. The story that the director has written for her debut, while admittedly far more topical in the time period it exist in than in the here and now, is still an important story since it deals with the age old subjects of racism, hate and ignorance which unfortunately never seem to get old. She also adds elements of fantasy to go along with a couple of solidly choreographed fight sequences which raise the overall quality of the story, a story that also benefits from efficient and crisp editing because every scene is important to the films flow which means we weren't wasting time watching a movie filled superfluous nonsense filler.

The performances from the largely unknown cast in the majority of the major roles where uniformly solid, though star Michael O’Lasky II tended to error on the side of the overly melodramatic from time to time. Veterans Keith David and Tzi Ma were present in roles that were basically cameo appearances but their presence in the movie is appreciated and having Keith David somewhere in your movie can’t ever be a bad thing.

‘The Sensei’ was an impressive directorial debut for Diana Lee Inosanto as she has created a film that is important, emotional, felt very personal in addition to being entertaining which even the most veteran of filmmakers have difficulty accomplishing in this day an age.