Director John Hyams transplants Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo to the mean streets of New Orleans to tell the tale of a mysterious martial artist who pits two vicious street gangs against one another before setting his sights on the true cause of the community's problems -- the corrupt local sheriff. Rival crime bosses have turned the mean streets of the Big Easy into an all out war zone where no citizen is safe when Ryan Hong (Cung Le) drifts into town using the lessons of his master Tianto (Jean-Claude Van Damme) to clean up the city. Meanwhile, local Police Chief Mr. V (Peter Weller) gains a grudging respect for Hong's formidable fighting skills, but begins to see him as a growing threat to his grip on power. But when the two gangs unite to conquer a common enemy, it soon becomes apparent that Mr. V's corrupt regime is about to topple.