THE KING OF NOTHING

Trouble follows a cursed Japanese samurai sword that Rory Cairns brought home from the war—and left to his adventurer/detective friend Fiddler (Money Burns, etc.) on his abrupt demise. After the local yokels in Malahat, Washington, read Fiddler his Miranda rights, and he and his intimate ex Fiora (now struggling to break loose from the grind by selling off her securities firm, Pacific Rim, to big fish Roniko Nakamichi) wonder whether Rory was killed in mistake for Fiddler, buzzards begin to circle the sword: smooth-talking gallery owner Mark Oshima; rough-edged FBI agent Francis X. Claherty; an elderly Japanese mugger; and, inevitably, Nakamichi himself. Despite lots of bloodletting—most of the interesting characters, and quite a few of the boring ones, die in short order—and some good fishing sequences, nothing much happens in this laid-back battle of cunning half-wits. Fiddler shines as he struts his stuff, but too many yakuzas spoil the sushi.