The Challenge | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Frankenheimer |
Written by | Richard Maxwell [2] John Sayles [2] |
Produced by | Ron Beckman Robert L. Rosen |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Kôzô Okazaki |
Edited by | Jack Wheeler John W. Wheeler |
Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Embassy Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 109 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Japanese |
Box office | $3.6 million [3] |
The Challenge is a 1982 American action film directed by John Frankenheimer from a screenplay by John Sayles and Richard Maxwell, and starring Scott Glenn and Toshirō Mifune. [2] The plot follows a down-on-his-luck boxer (Glenn) who is hired to transport a valuable katana to Japan, where he becomes embroiled in a blood feud between two martial artist brothers. It was released by Embassy Pictures on July 23, 1982, and received mixed reviews.
A katana, one of a pair known as "The Equals", was an heirloom of the Yoshida family, passed down through the generations before being lost during World War II. It was finally tracked down and recovered in California by siblings Toshio and Akiko. Hoping to return the katana to its rightful owner, their father Toru, Toshio hires down-on-his luck prize fighter Rick Murphy to smuggle the sword back to Japan.
Upon their arrival, Murphy and Toshio are captured by thugs working for Toru's estranged brother Hideo, a well-connected kuromaku (or "black curtain" in English, a fixer who works behind the scenes for Yakuza). Toshio is murdered and Murphy is faced with the prospect of being killed by Hideo. Murphy learns that the sword is a fake and himself a decoy, intended to ward off potential thieves.
Murphy escapes Hideo's thugs and awakens in Akiko's family home and after a brief stay departs with his money. Hideo's thugs, led by his interpreter and bodyguard Ando, find Murphy and give him two choices: infiltrate Yoshida's martial arts school and obtain the sword, or be beheaded. He takes the infiltration option, yet finds himself being drawn into the ways of Japanese etiquette and tradition to the point where he returns the sword to Toru after having the perfect opportunity to escape with it. Murphy then humbly asks Toru if he can be forgiven and taken back in because he wants to learn the ways of Bushido. Toru agrees, but only if Murphy follows Toru's conditions.
Murphy continues to bumble his way through life at Toru's school until, after a treacherous and almost fatal attempt by one of the higher members of the school to steal the sword, he leaves and is found in a hotel in Kyoto by Toru's surviving child, his daughter Akiko. Finding romance, they go out to see the sights and sounds of the city, including watching a Shinto ceremony. During the hub-bub of the crowded parade, Murphy and Akiko get separated and Hideo's henchmen kidnap her and deliver her to her uncle. Toru, laden with ancient weaponry, ventures out to Hideo's industrial complex where he is shot and wounded by Ando. Ando is slain by Hideo for this, and Murphy – who has joined him in his quest – opts to fight Hideo to defend his sensei. Murphy manages to kill Hideo and present "The Equals" to Toru.
Richard Maxwell's original screenplay was set in China. John Sayles was brought in by John Frankenheimer to rework the script in only five days, most of which he spent holed up in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo with Frankenheimer and Toshiro Mifune. [4]
Mifune's Shōgun co-star Yoko Shimada was the first choice to play Akiko, but she was rejected by director John Frankenheimer because he wanted an actress fluent in English. The actress they eventually cast, Donna Kei Benz, did not speak Japanese and took a four-month crash course in language, etiquette, and martial arts. [5]
Japanese actor Atsuo Nakamura's English dialogue was dubbed was by an uncredited Paul Frees. Years earlier, Frees had done the same for Toshiro Mifune in the film Grand Prix and Midway.
Steven Seagal (credited as 'Steve Seagal') served as a martial arts coordinator, prior to the start of his own acting career. The sword fight sequences were choreographed by Ryû Kuze, a veteran Japanese swordmaster who had previously worked with Toshiro Mifune on Yojimbo and Sanjuro .
This was the final film of actress Miiko Taka, who worked as Mifune's interpreter. [6]
The film was shot almost entirely on-location in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan. [7] The Kyoto International Conference Center was used as the location of Hideo's headquarters. [2] The scenes of Yoshida's compound were shot at the Shōkoku-ji Buddhist temple. [2]
A re-edited version of the film entitled Sword of the Ninja was created for television. In this version, about ten minutes of footage are cut, some of the graphic violence of the original version is removed, and "fades" are added to make room for commercial breaks. [8]
Critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a C+ grade, calling it a "pointless", "low-level Chuck Norris flick". He enjoyed Frankenheimer's directing and Mifune's performance, questioning why they chose to make such a film. [9] Time Out wrote that the "elaborate combat will please fans", but that The Yakuza was a much better film in the genre. [10] Janet Maslin for The New York Times was unimpressed with the film's "regrettably vicious streak" and wrote that the film had unused potential. However, she praised Toshirō Mifune's performance as adding weight to the film. [11] Adam Lippe, writing for Examiner.com, had a better opinion of the film, calling it "grimy, off-putting, and just right for the moment". [12] On the last "Dogs of the Week" segment that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert ever did on their TV show, Siskel stated that he went to see the film in expectation that it would be a bad movie, but found it to be a smart and involving action film that he recommended viewers should see.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Challenge holds a rating of 53% from 17 reviews. [13]
Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. A leading figure in the Japanese film industry, he often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commanding screen presence.
Red Beard is a 1965 Japanese jidaigeki film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, Akahige Shinryōtan, the film takes place in Koishikawa, a district of Edo, towards the end of the Tokugawa period, and is about the relationship between a town doctor and his new trainee. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Humiliated and Insulted provided the source for a subplot about a young girl, Otoyo, who is rescued from a brothel.
Jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
The Bushido Blade is a 1981 film directed by Tom Kotani. Sonny Chiba, Toshiro Mifune, Mako, Laura Gemser, James Earl Jones and Richard Boone in his last film appearance appear in this film. It was filmed in 1978, but not released until 1981.
Kihachi Okamoto was a Japanese film director who worked in several different genres.
Shiroi Kyotō is a 1965 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1966 and then five times as a television series in 1967, 1978, 1990, 2003, and 2019. The 1966 film was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Silver Prize.
Samurai Assassin is a 1965 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshiro Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yūnosuke Itō, and Michiyo Aratama. It is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the position of the samurai class.
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (座頭市と用心棒) is a 1970 Japanese drama film directed by Kihachi Okamoto.
Paper Tiger is a 1975 British drama-adventure film starring David Niven and the child actor Kazuhito Ando, who later portrayed Teru Tendou in Ganbaron. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Jack Davies, who also wrote the screenplay.
The Fall of Ako Castle is a 1978 Japanese historical martial arts period film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It depicts the story of the forty-seven Ronin (Chūshingura). The film is one of a series of period films by Fukasaku starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, including Shogun's Samurai. The film received one nomination for the Award of the Japanese Academy for best cinematography.
Sukiyaki Western Django is a 2007 English-language Japanese Western film directed by Takashi Miike. The title of the film refers to the Japanese dish sukiyaki as well as Sergio Corbucci's Spaghetti Western film Django. The film was produced by Sedic International, Geneon Universal Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dentsu, TV Asahi, Shogakukan, A-Team, Nagoya Broadcasting Network and Tokyu Recreation. It also takes inspiration from the "Man with No Name" stock character variously used in the Spaghetti Western genre but most notably in the Dollars trilogy by Sergio Leone. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Hideaki Itō, Kōichi Satō, Yūsuke Iseya, Masanobu Andō, Masato Sakai, Yoji Tanaka, Renji Ishibashi, Sansei Shiomi, Takaaki Ishibashi, Shun Oguri, Quentin Tarantino, Yutaka Matsushige, Yoshino Kimura, Teruyuki Kagawa and Kaori Momoi.
Chanbara (チャンバラ), also commonly spelled "chambara", meaning "sword fighting" films, denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. Chanbara is a sub-category of jidaigeki, which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a story set in a historical period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai character or depicting swordplay.
The Kyoto International Conference Center, abbreviated as ICC Kyoto and previously called the Kyoto International Conference Hall, is a large conference facility located at Takaragaike, Sakyō-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The Kyoto Protocol was signed in this hall.
Daichūshingura (大忠臣蔵) is a Japanese television dramatization of the events of the Forty-seven Ronin. The first episode aired on January 5, 1971, and the 52nd and final episode appeared on December 28 of the same year. The NET network broadcast it in the Tuesday evening 9:00–9:56 prime-time slot in Japan.
Red Lion is a 1969 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshirō Mifune and Shima Iwashita.
Best Guy is a 1990 Japanese action film directed by Tōru Murakawa, and produced by Toei Company in association with Mitsui & Co. and Tohokushinsha Film. The screenplay was written by Murakawa with Makoto Takada. The film stars Yūji Oda, Naomi Zaizen, Masato Furuoya, Masato Nagamori, and Toshio Kurosawa. The title refers to the highest rank of the JASDF's F-15J training program.
Events in the year 1997 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 9 (平成9年) in the Japanese calendar.
Miiko Taka was an American actress, popular for her film and television roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Her best known role was as an elegant Japanese dancer starring with Marlon Brando in the drama Sayonara. She also acted in several other films and TV shows with fellow performers such as Miyoshi Umeki, James Garner, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, and Toshirō Mifune.
Battle of the Japan Sea is a 1969 Japanese epic war film directed by Seiji Maruyama, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Yūzō Kayama, Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshio Kurosawa, Makoto Satō, Ryutaro Tatsumi, Chishū Ryū, and Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII. In the film, the Imperial Japanese Navy and army fail in their attempts to seize Port Arthur, and the Russian Pacific Fleet bears down on the Japan Sea during the Russo-Japanese War.