Best known as the director of the first and the fourth James Bond movies, Terence Young eventually moved to "Spaghetti Westerns". He greets that genre with 1971's Red Sun.

In 1870, a Japanese Ambassador Sakaguchi (Satoshi Nakamura) travels across the US west to meet with President Ulysses S. Grant. He brings with him a ceremonial sword intended as a gift for President Grant.

Led by Link Stuart (Charles Bronson), a gang of outlaws robs the train and nabs this object. Samurai bodyguard Kuroda Jubei (Toshirō Mifune) leads the attempts to recover the present, a task aided by a Link after his colleague Gauche (Alain Delon) betrays him.

As a genre that probably extends back centuries, I wouldn’t hazard a guess at where the “mismatched partners on a joint mission” concept originated. By 1971, however, clearly many tales of this sort already existed.

Does Sun bring anything new to the concept? Not really, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie.

Indeed, Sun manages to offer a fairly frisky production, albeit one that follows easily anticipated paths. Of course, the union of American outlaw Link and Japanese samurai Kuroda means the usual “east meets west” tension and comedy.

The differing ethics of the two leads also ensures conflict. Kuroda operates on a strict code whereas Link clearly just does what he needs to survive and profit.

Inevitably, the two butt heads at the start. Inevitably, they bond along the way and eventually find grudging respect.

Unoriginal as all this seems, Young makes Sun move at a pretty brisk pace and he ensures the clichés go down easily. The actors help as well.

Mifune and Bronson display fairly good chemistry. Neither breaks a sweat, as their roles stick in their respective wheelhouses, but they blend in a positive manner.

As our primary villain, Delon gobbles scenery and turns Gauche into a delight. We don’t see a ton of him but the French actor clearly enjoys his “heel turn” and he allows the role to become highly entertaining.

While I find nothing about Sun that allows it to rise above its genre, I still think it works. We find a predictable but enjoyable mix of action and comedy.

Red Sun appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie held up well after 55 years.

Overall sharpness worked fine. Some soft shots emerged during a few interiors but the film usually looked detailed and concise.

I witnessed no issues with jaggies or shimmering, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt light and natural, and no source flaws appeared.

Unsurprisingly, the film’s palette leaned toward a sandy tone, with a smattering of more vibrant hues. These worked fine and reproduced the source well.

Blacks felt deep and rich, while shadows appeared smooth and clear other than a few “day for night” moments. Outside of the occasional soft shot, this became an appealing presentation.

The movie’s LPCM monaural soundtrack held up fine over the last 55 years. Dialogue appeared fairly natural and concise.

Effects showed acceptable accuracy and failed to present prominent distortion. Music followed suit, as the score offered adequate range but never came across as particularly dynamic. Given the audio’s age and origins, the soundtrack worked fine.

We get a mix of extras that begin with an audio commentary from film historians C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, genre domains, general production areas and their thoughts about the film.

As a “film historian” track, this doesn’t become tremendously informative, at least in terms of information about Red Sun itself. Joyner and Parke offer a fairly general look at related domains and do enough to make this a moderately informative chat, albeit one that drags at times and doesn’t give us much about the movie in question.

Three new video programs ensue, and A Global Western goes for 31 minutes, 54 seconds. It brings info from film scholar Jose Arroyo.

Billed as an “appreciation”, “Global” looks at general aspects of the production and Arroyo's thoughts about it. Arroyo offers a decent view of the film and gives us a good dissection of a few scenes but I can't claim this turns into a particularly engaging piece.

The Ghosts of the Samurai lasts 31 minutes, 12 seconds. Here we find notes from film professor Daisuke Miyao.

A “visual essay”, this one digs into Japanese culture and history as well as film genre elements and thoughts directly related to Sun. Miyao brings us a solid little summary.

Another “appreciation”, The Man with the Gold Tooth spans 14 minutes, 56 seconds. We locate remarks from film professor Mark Gallagher.

“Tooth” focuses on actor Alain Delon's career, with an emphasis on Red Sun. This turns into a pretty useful examination of Delon's style.

Next we get two archival reels, and Pour le Cinéma runs eight minutes, 27 seconds as it brings remarks from the set with director Terence Young and actors Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress and Alain Delon. They don’t really tell us anything of substance but we get a decent look at the shoot.

Un Journal du Cinéma occupies two minutes, three seconds and features comments from Mifune, Fisher and actor Keiko Kishi at a celebration of Japanese cinema. While vaguely interesting as an archival piece, it doesn’t deliver much informational value.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get an Image Gallery with 45 frames that display publicity elements and ads. It becomes a mediocre compilation.

While nothing remarkable, Red Sun provides a largely entertaining mix of the ‘mismatched partners’ and ‘Spaghetti Western’ genres. Despite ups and downs, it keeps us with it and ensures we enjoy it. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture, acceptable audio and a mix of supplements. This turns into a likable action/comedy diversion.