Rotten   - (English)  Affected by rot, decaying, corrupt, unsound. 

Deshi     -  (Japanese)   A student of a martial arts master.

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Feature film: Streaming or prestige theatrical release.

Writer / director: Xandy Sahla

Producers: Tom Harwood - Xandy Sahla

Genre: Martial-Arts Thriller, Neo-Noir, Gangsta-Action, Drama.

Certificate: 15 - violence, drug misuse, sex, injury detail

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Period: Modern day

 

Tagline:

To master the sword, he must confront the chaos within.

 

Longline:  

After fleeing a broken life in London, a young man finds purpose in a Japanese kendo dojo and arrives in Tokyo with an over-romanticised view of Bushido—the samurai code. As he falls for a captivating bar girl and is lured into the yakuza underworld, he becomes torn between the discipline of the sword and the seduction of power, forced to confront who he is before the path he chooses cuts too deep to come back from.

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Core Themes:

Duality of the sword: Katsujinken vs. Satsujinken.

The life-giving sword vs the life-taking sword.

​Father figures: A young man torn between two powerful mentors—one a noble sensei, the other a charismatic yakuza boss.