Red Sun

Red Sun (Soleil Rouge, 1971) is an adventure western directed by Terence Young, and you can watch it online on iFILM. The setup is irresistible: it's 1870, a Japanese ambassador is crossing the American West by train, carrying a ceremonial sword bound for the President as a gift from the Emperor. Bandits hit the train. One of them rides off with the sword. The samurai bodyguard has seven days to get it back — and his only guide to the gang is one of the robbers himself, a man his own crew just double-crossed.

Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson share the screen as the samurai and the outlaw — two men with entirely different codes who need each other and trust each other exactly as far as they have to. Alain Delon plays the villain, Ursula Andress plays the woman between them, and the film was shot in Spain standing in convincingly for the American Southwest.

What makes it work is less the action than the friction — two warriors from opposite traditions sizing each other up across every scene. A genuinely enjoyable piece of early-70s international cinema. Stream Red Sun (1971) online on iFILM.