The lead henchman - Ando

What were your thoughts on the lead henchman for Hideo, Ando? Here are some comments and questions on him.

#1. Ando is one of those characters who are Americanized Japanese who who speaks perfect English, and he too advantage of that by cursing a whole lot. He's somewhat similar to Ishihara in Rising Son. Ando showed his cruelty when he sliced Toshio before dropping him from the van.

#2. The actor who played Ando, Calvin Jung, is actually an ethnic Chinese. That's one of many examples in which Asian actors play characters who are different than their ethnicity. In Robocop, he played a Vietnamese henchman Steve Minh.

#3. I criticize John Frankenheimer about how Ando acted just before he was slain as it was totally out of his character. Ando was always a loyal henchman who would listen to Hideo. Therefore, it was totally out of character for him to suddenly decide to shoot Yoshida in the back while he was in sword play with Hideo. Suppose Hideo was losing and was about to be killed by Yoshida, then that may have been more understandable. But it was essentially a fair fight so far so it cannot be explained why Ando would suddenly shoot Yoshida.

#4. One would wonder, what would have happened to Ando had he not interfered and Yoshida defeated Hideo. Since Yoshida wasn't certainly not interested in fame or fortune, he may have just let Ando go, and Ando may have inherited his fortune.

#5. Finally, while everyone comments about the head splitting scene in the end, I'd say the beheading of Ando was just as dramatic and gruesome. When I saw the movie, that scene actually was more memorable for me than Hideo's demise.