Martial arts film star currently on a shoot falls for Japanese extra who is secretly on the run from the Yakuza. He has to fight for her and her daughter in real life…

This is “The Bodyguard” turned on its head.  Instead of a film star (Whitney Huston) hiring a 'samurai' to protect her (Kevin Costner), a martial arts film star (“samurai”) ends up having to fight in real-life for a Japanese extra he has fallen for.

SYNOPSIS:

RICK MASTON is a martial arts film star. He is currently shooting a movie called Bad Judgment, a film about a DEA (anti-drugs) officer sent to Asia to fight the heroin trade only to find himself betrayed on all fronts by corrupt fellow officers. Bad Judgment is in its final weeks of shooting.

Maston becomes involved with a Japanese extra on the shoot, MIDORI. Unknown to him, she has a dangerous past - and present. She and her child, YASMIN, are on the run from the Yakuza. A very senior person in the Yakuza, TAISO MUSASHI, is prepared to go to any lengths to get them back.

This only emerges when Maston’s LA mansion is penetrated by three ninjas sent to kidnap Midori and her daughter.

Maston prevails in the fight but the daughter is kidnapped by the third ninja.

Midori was drugged as part of the attempted kidnapping and is put into hospital. They have to transfer her to another hospital but, en route, she is kidnapped by the Yakuza… Or apparently so. It turns out that they Yakuza actually kidnapped a corpse that Maston has had a Hollywood make-up expert alter to look like Midori. The body was tracked which leads to the first confrontation between the head Yakuza guy (who has flown from Japan) and Maston. But the Yakuza bad guy still escapes with the daughter.

Midori goes into hiding. The Yakuza then try to kidnap Maston to flush her out… but they fail as Maston prevails against his wannabe kidnappers.

Going behind Maston’s and the police’s backs, Midori surrenders herself to the Yakuza so she can be reunited with her daughter. Maston has to come up with a plan to get them back before they are spirited out of LA. This leads to a final confrontation between the Yakuza and Maston… and a twist is revealed about the relationship between Midori and the head of the Yakuza.

Amidst all this, Maston is still shooting the final scenes for his new film. This interleaving of ‘real life’ and ‘the film shoot’ allows for more martial arts scenes. Indeed, in his ‘real life’ fights, Maston sometimes uses his acting skill to gain a tactical edge.

NIGHT FOR NIGHT is the ‘Day for Night’ of the martial arts genre.

While the script is currently set in L.A., it could be easily set in an Asian country (e.g., Thailand.)

"Hats off to Ren Lexander! It is difficult to come up with a fresh spin on the martial arts genre, but he’s done it... NIGHT FOR NIGHT does not dismiss the elements and formula the audience expects, but has freshened it up considerably with a movie star protagonist... NIGHT FOR NIGHT should be considered not just a single film, but the first in a series of films about Rick Maston. He’s a terrific character who can easily be serialized." (NYU scriptwriting teacher commissioned by then agent to give independent opinion.)