Most Christian films are sadly corny, cheesy, and to be frank poorly made. Its rare also that a Christian film conveys deep truths of our faith. Masterless is none of these failures, it is a flawless film that combines spiritual warefare, Samurai, and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
The word Samurai means “to serve,” which fits nicely with our own namesake from Christ, “But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves,” (Luke 22:26), and, “Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:8-12)
The Lord tells us to be servants, which in Japan would have translated Samurai.
This is obviously the premise the director went with. He tells the story of Kane, who is a salesman married to a Japanese Wife. Kane was raises by missionary parents, and he lived as boy in Asia and other parts of the world, but his parents divorced and he wants nothing to do with Christianity. His wife is an avid Christian battling cancer. Kane in the spirit world that interrupts his day to day life is in feudal Japan. He is dressed as a Ronin, a Samurai with no Master (Shogun). Immediately he is pursued by Shinobis (Ninjas) who are governed by the dark lord, a Samurai with a white mask that seeks Kane to submit to him. Early on we see the dark lord as Satan, and the Ninjas, Ashigaru (foot soldiers) and Archers are demonic powers. At first I must confess that I wasn’t sure this mix of feudal Japan spiritual world, and modern world back and forth was going to work, but it does. Never have I seen spiritual warfare depicted so artfully and accurately as Masterless.
Kane rejects the dark lord’s offer, and seeks another path. He hears of a Master beneath a Tree who can fill his hunger, and receives a white handled Daito (Katana, Samurai Sword) from an old man who says, “I have come to inform, not inspire.” Kane sets out on his journey in Pilgrim Progress fashion to find the Master Beneath the Tree, while the dark lord pursues him. We see in the modern world, every moment is connected to this spiritual plane. The dark lord has a demon ninja use a poison blade on Kane in the spiritual world and in the modern world right then Kane’s wife collapses into a coma. I love this connecting the spiritual and the physical world! It shows that the war in the unseen realm is commented to the seen realm, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Kane in the spiritual world meets another pilgrim who is enigmatic and offers to be his body guard. He helps Kane slay some demoninjas to prove he is able. Kane accepts his help as they both hunger and seek the Master beneath the Tree who is said to be able to feed their hunger forever. This is obviously a spiritual craving, not literal. From then on the dark lord sends agents against Kane who battles to stay on the path. At one point the other pilgrim convinces Kane to go off the path, where there is a woman in kimono who offers food and drink, and Kane gets drunk. In the modern world he becomes a workaholic, ignoring his wife at the hospital, and his spiritual seeking on the internet, and in the Bible. It becomes clear to Kane in the spirit world this woman is evil, and the dark lord appears to help her end Kane, as Kane’s wife in the modern world dies. Here Kane is faced with the final test, as he has pills to commit suicide (sokken). The dark lord is sure Kane is finished, but Kane opens the Bible and instead rises from the dust. Kane returns to the path, finds the other pilgrim who turns out to be the dark lord in disguise and who reveals he is not the dark lord or Satan, but Kane, the flesh, the dark side of himself. The two duel and Kane prevails finding the Tree and the Master whose cloak is white and feet are clsde in sandals, which is obviously Jesus. Kane swears to serve Him as Master and we see in Modern World that Kane is going to Church and is friends with Father Cray.
The film is a masterpiece for Christian cinema. I found using Samurai imagery works better for describing the Christian spiritual war than European styles; chiefly because the concept of Christian thought “to serve,” is what Jesus taught, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45) and is already present in that Samurai are sworn to serve. I also found that the demonic designs of Samurai helms that did exist works great for the dark lord and demons. The dark lord or dark Kane mask it is so creepy and he is able to deliver great emotion through the mask like Darth Vader, whose own mask and design was based on a Samurai of black armor in Akirasawa’s Seven Samurai.
Kane is a likable protagonist, his struggle is not cheesy, but realistic. I found that because he came from religious, even Christian background and yet wasn’t a believer was very convincing, showing that Jesus Christ saves not religion. The back and forth between the spirit world of Feudal Japan and the Modern world is seamless and you are never confused at what is happening; this is helped by the spirit world being in a brown tinted black and white.
My biggest issue with the film is the reveal that the dark lord is really Kane’s sinful self, his dark side. I preferred when you saw the creepy white masked dark lord as Satan seeking to destroy him. It even caused continuity issues earlier in the film when the dark lord offered his table and power to Kane just as Satan did to Jesus in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). The only way this could be fixed is if you view that the dark lord is Satan and that he is connected to our sinful self, because it was Satan that tricked our ancestors to choose sin, and the apostle Paul says, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.” (Ephesians 2:1-3). We see the verse connects sin to the devil, and the dark lord in the film commands unseen powers making it clear he’s the devil.
Overall, the film is a breath of fresh air in a rather cluttered and cheesy field of Christian films that known nothing about subtlety. The quality is also remarkable, the cinematography, specifically in the Fuedal Spiritual World is flawless. It made me wish this director would do a black and white Samurai epic, perhaps the Shimbara Rebellion, where the Christian Samurai defended Christian villagers from Emperor’s declaration that Christianity must be destroyed, that would make an epic film!
I highly recommend this film. Its not a A movie, more of B+ budget one, but definitely a cut above all the other Christian films out there these days on Pureflix. It is the only film I’ve seen that tackles spiritual warefare realistically and Scripturally, showing that if we cling to Christ as our Master we will prevail! Amen.
You can watch Masterless on Amazon Prime (with membership) or rent it.
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