The creative part of this international genre hybrid was assembling its dynamite all-star cast. The concept is unbeatable: what kid doesn’t want to see Toshiro Mifune as a samurai, fighting to redeem his honor in the Old West?  He tangles with outlaws Charles Bronson and Alain Delon, with Honeychile Ryder Ursula Andress thrown in for good measure. It’s almost perfect: all it needed was a good script. Arrow’s punchy 4K remaster improves the color over earlier discs, adding considerable spirit to the proceedings.

Red Sun
4K Ultra-HD
Arrow Video
1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 114 min. / Street Date July 14, 2026 / Soleil Rouge / Available from Arrow Video / 49.00
Starring: Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress, Alain Delon, Capucine, Anthony Dawson, Luc Merenda, Satoshi/Tetsu Nakamura, Mario De Barros, John Landis, Ricardo Palacios
Cinematography: Henri Alekan
Set Decorator: Enrique Alarcón
Costume Design: Tony Pueo
Supervising Film Editor: Lou Lombardo
Film Editor: Johnny Dwyre
Composer: Maurice Jarre
Screenplay by Laird Koenig story by Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts, Lawrence Roman dialogue by Gerald Devriès
Executive Producer Robert Dorfmann
Produced by Ted Richmond
Directed by Terence Young

In my first weeks as an usher in Westwood we saw trailers for three western-themed pictures come through the National Theater. Audiences seemed suspicious of Steve McQueen in  Junior Bonner … where were the guns?  They laughed at the jokes in the trailer for Leone’s  Duck, You Sucker but also laughed at the title itself, which seemed a little stupid. But they laughed all the way through the too-serious trailer for Red Sun. The show certainly had star power, but the gimmick of sticking Toshiro Mifune as a samurai Out of Water in the Old West felt like a Campy gimmick. The trailer gave no indication that any brains were behind the movie; it was almost the same reaction as when we first saw John Belushi’s samurai schtick on Saturday Night Live, several years later.

The movie itself plays as a standard Euro western. Fans certainly like the idea of Red Sun, and cheered every time Toshiro Mifune carved up another bandit villain. Publicity implied that the movie was based on a true incident, which would be interesting to know more about if true. Toshiro Mifune was aboard for the concept several years before, when it might have co-starred Clint Eastwood. It didn’t break box office records in the states but was a huge hit overseas, where Charles Bronson had joined Alain Delon in superstar status. Bronson would not conquer America for another three years, in  Death Wish.

Samurai lore was not as familiar to U.S. audiences were not yet versed on samurai films in 1971. The  fifth James Bond film had treated the tradition as exotic flavor, not something to really engage with. Toshiro Mifune was a fan of the western genre; two of his Kurosawa costume picture classics had been adapted for directors John Sturges and Sergio Leone. Japanese swordfighting thrillers were heavily influenced by the Eurowestern, upping their levels of gore and cynicsm.

Red Sun’s story ought to be unbreakable. It is 1870. After a long sea voyage, the Japanese ambassador Sakaguchi (Tetsu Nakamura) is on the new intercontinental railway to Washington, to meet the President. But the train is robbed by a large gang led by the New Orleans gambler-gunslinger Gauche (Alain Delon) and the freebooting bandit Link Stuart (Charles Bronson). The emissary’s retainers surrender their gold, but one samurai guard is killed when Gauche decides to steal a fancy ceremonial sword intended as a gift to the United States. The surviving guard, Kuroda Jubei (Toshiro Mifune) takes the humiiation, but vows to recover the sword and kill Gauche. The ambassador gives him one week to accomplish his mission.

Link has been double-crossed by Gauche and left for dead. When he awakens unharmed, Kuroda forces him to aid in going after the sword. They cross the desert together, arguing between themselves and fighting other foes as a team. The key to finding Gauche is Cristina (Ursula Andress), a prostitute in the brothel hotel of Pogo and Pepita (Ricardo Palacious & Capucine). Link and Kuroda kidnap Cristina, knowing that Gauche will negotiate to get her back. The first problem is that Link wants Kuroda to hold off killing Gauche, until Link can get the robbery loot he feels he’s owed. The second is that the combatants must join together to fend off a big attack by Comanche raiders.

We don’t expect a Spaghetti western thriller to treat the East-meets-West exchanges with great wit or insight … but Red Sun offers nothing particularly inventive or adventurous. Kuroda beats Link in wrestling, in endurance, in taking punishment. Link pokes through the food he’s offered by Kuroda: “This stuff stinks!” Kuroda speaks and understands excellent English, and pauses to explain bits of Bushido lore to his scruffy companion … something that feels like quite a stretch for a high-ranking samurai bred not accept a worthless gaijin as an equal.

Instead, the noble samurai is quickly ‘corrupted’ into becoming just another violent, smart-mouthed character in a standard Euro western. Kuroda follows Link’s lead when they fight, and snaps back with pithy remarks of his own. When they get to the hotel with the women, Kuroda takes to the prostitutes as easily as would any cheap gunslinger. Of course, the samurai directs his mate for the night to undress and wash him first. The episode is less a case of ‘brothels are the same world-wide’, than ‘Kuroda’s honor doesn’t have to extend toward women.’

We also don’t expect female emancipation, but the only women in the film are labeled as whores, and behave as if they like it. Capucine and Ursula Andress really don’t fit any imagining of what a rent woman would be like in an out-of-the-way town, so the misogyny is just a lazy fallback position: Pepita is crazy to sleep with Link, Cristina is crazy to sleep with Gauche. Is this what a movie like this must do to flatter the egos of the male stars?  Pay attention, kids: abusing women is proof of masculinity.

The episodic storyline has our boys run into repetiive scenes of torture, slaughter and rape, elements that became boring four years before in pictures like  Navajo Joe. The universal nihilism seems to serve the same function as the women-beating, proving that Gauche and Link are not gay.

In between the predictable shoot outs and sword-slicing are too many wordless ‘walk through the desert’ scenes, accompanied by fancy orchestral compositions by Maurice Jarre. The music is really elegant, but doesn’t begin to connect with the visuals. We understand that the producers wanted to ‘Hire French’ where they could, but you’d think someone might have thought to hire an experimental composer … the French equivalent of Toru Takemitsu, maybe?

Director Terence Young had a big name from the 007 classics, but with the exception of the superb  Wait Until Dark, his post- Thunderball filmography starts to go slack. Red Sun alternates between competent dialogue scenes and generic action material, which we expect would be mostly assembled by the action experts. It’s filmed in good old Almeria locations, most of which look like each other … just hilly or flat. After a few minutes of nondescript walking scenes, we really miss the sharp compositions and focused direction of  Sergio Sollima, who made Lee Van Cleef shine like top-notch acting talent.

The plotting is a series of stand-offs and rescues, capped by big fire in a sugar cane field; the ‘ethical dilemma’ of who should kill who in the Link/Kuroda dispute is resolved in about 5 seconds. Yes, the conflicts in the Leone classics are ultimately resolved with gun-downs — but each Leone character has an interesting destiny to fulfill. Red Sun doesn’t do enough with the novelty of a samurai forced to play wild west cowboy.

None of the characters ‘develop,’ as they say, they just show off their unchanging personalities. It ought to be Toshiro Mifune’s movie, but Charles Bronson dominates. Link is on screen the most and has the most lines, but we have to take it on faith that he grows a conscience over his association with Kuroda. Until the last scene, Link doesn’t seem to care about anybody — and then he changes.

Alain Delon comes off great here, maybe because his Gauche has the least screen time. He tried years before to bust into Hollywood and got stuck playing lame ‘Frenchy’ characters in a few bad movies. Delon has fun playing his bandit as a nasty charmer, aided by a gold tooth that shines when he makes with a barracuda smile.

Ursula Andress delivers on the contract, contributing her name value and providing the expected flashes of topless skin art to meet commercial expectations. With the necessary $ to attract this kind of marquee bait, the casting director and producer must have had some interesting meetings: ‘let’s see, we need 5 yards of Bronson, 2 yards of Delon, and a lace trim from Andress — but she won’t do anything kinky. Toshiro is up for whatever’s needed. He’s ready to sing The Marseillaise if we ask him to.’  Each of the stars fulfill their part of the bargain.

Most of the other parts are just xtra bandits to be shot or stabbed. Anthony Dawson has some good moments as a Gauche gang member; his voice appears to be dubbed. The Japanese ambassador is played by Tetsu Nakamura, a familiar face from Kaiju classics like  Mothra and  The Mysterians. If I don’t say so, someone will correct me, so I’m officially noting that our own John Landis was an uncredited stunt player in Red Sun, reportedly as a bandit killed in the final Comanche battle.

↓  We were intrigued by this out-of-context portrait of the film’s four stars, posing as if to aid in the manufacture of action figure toys. There they are, kids — it’s the Whole Set!  Not only do they look good, they’re strategically chosen to boost marketability in every film market in the world.

Now, how does Charles Bronson look as tall as 5’10” Delon?  I know the IMDB puts Bronson at 5’8″, but when I handed him a parking lot stub in Westwood (in 1971!) he seemed at least 2 inches shorter than me, and I’m only 5’9″. I think Charlie is standing closer to the camera, and maybe on a box.

Arrow Video’s 4K Ultra-HD of Red Sun is the first iteration of this popular title that I think looks good … older transfers and scans couldn’t prevent the desert backgrounds from melting into the same shapeless brown. The shots of the sun understandably drift about in color — especially when combined in optical composites. And the many Day for Night shots are what they are, no camera awards there. But the rest of the movie is very attractive. Ms. Andress is made to look pretty at all times, in all conditions of distress, and the effects folk don’t spare the crimson blood when Mifune slings his sword about. The show has many loyal fans, and they’re going to like this disc.

C. Courtney Joyner knows his westerns and he knows the production history of this item, something also covered in Paul Talbot’s insert essay. Moya Luckett writes about Ursula Andress while Mark Gallegher wrangles a featurette about the French superstar.

We get an investigation of the samurai connection in Red Sun via the  highly qualified academic Daisuke Miyao. After witnessing how hands-on Toshiro Mifune was with his ‘submarine crew’ on ‘1941’, I can imagine the actor doing his best to see that samurai Kuroda Jubei was presented on screen to his satisfaction. Both Miyao’s piece and Jose Arroyo’s broader featurette assessment of Red Sun are over half an hour in duration, so fans are not likely to feel short-changed.

This 4K package is 4K-only; Blu-ray buyers will need to access a parallel Arrow Blu-ray release.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Red Sun
4K Ultra-HD rates:
Movie: Good + / –
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Commentary by C. Courtney Joyner & Henry Parke
New featurette A Global Western (32 min) with Jose Arroyo
New featurette The Ghosts of the Samurai (31 min) with Daisuke Miyao
New featurette The Man with the Gold Tooth (15 min) with Mark Gallagher
French TV promo Pour le cinema (9 min) with BTS footage
French TV promo Le Journal du cinema (2 min) with Terence Young and Toshiro Mifune
Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:32)
Image Gallery (HD)
26=page illustrated color insert booklet with essays by Paul Talbot and Moya Luckett.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra-HD in Keep case
Reviewed: July 16, 2026
(7549red)

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