a top spot among the best films in the “Predator” franchise. Telling a story that spans space and time, co-directors Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung have the Yautja taking on some of the deadliest warriors humanity has to offer. One in particular, though, has a history with the alien hunters that ended on a much darker note but as someone else entirely.
Sandwiched among Viking skirmishes and WWII air battles, the Predator race descends on feudal Japan as a struggle between a dedicated ninja named Kenji and his estranged brother, Lord Kyoshi unfolds. A member of the Yautja is watching it all from the shadows before getting involved, with only one of the dedicated warriors making it out alive. Coincidentally, both the Earth-based assassin and his target might sound familiar to some fans as they are both voiced by none other than Louis Ozawa, who went up against the “Predators” from 2010.
In the Nimrod Antal movie that stars Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne and Alice Braga, “Predators” plays now almost like a template for “Killer of Killers” with a small band of trained killers from Earth dropped on an unknown planet to fend for themselves against a group of off-world warriors. Ozawa plays Hanzo, a member of the Yakuza who uses a samurai sword in his last stand. What’s especially interesting about that character and the ones Ozawa voices in “Killer of Killers,” is that both of them apply similar tactics in bringing down their opponents, with only one being successful in their battle.
