Surely nobody watches a film like The Challenge expecting a work of art or a deeper cultural understanding, but if you're looking for even a half decent film you'll be equally disappointed.
Scott Glenn plays an American looser who travels to Kyoto and becomes embroiled in a family feud regarding a long lost sword. He meets the legendary Toshiro Mifune........ but if you're expecting the Toshiro Mifune of 'Seven Samurai' and 'Yojimbo' fame you will be extremely disappointed. This is Mifune at his lowest ebb towards the end of his career where he had begun to appear in a number of low grade American B-movies just for the money.
You see, the main problems that The Challenge faces is that it has a story that is thoroughly un-engaging whilst also being riddled with just about ever cliché you can think of. Every Japanese person is a mindless, sadistic, humourless, sour-faced robot, obsessed with honour and budo. That is all except the one Japanese woman who of course has a soft spot for our round-eyed hero and promptly jumps in the sack with him. The sequence is so painfully obvious it made me laugh (it even fades from their naked bodies in the bedroom to a shot of the clouds over Japan. Sweet Jesus!!)
For my part the one redeeming thing was to see some shots of Japan from 30 years ago......oh and there's a very funny sequence where a man in a wheel-chair flies out the back of a van and over the side of a bridge which made me laugh until orange juice came down my nose. And there's a really funny bit with a beheading which is pure Monty Python. Oh wait ..... and the bit with Scott Glenn fighting off a man with a sword using a stapler (no I'm not joking).
Hmmm now I think about it there are some unintentionally funny bits that could make an amusing 2 minute montage on YouTube......but other than that avoid this film.
Scott Glenn plays an American looser who travels to Kyoto and becomes embroiled in a family feud regarding a long lost sword. He meets the legendary Toshiro Mifune........ but if you're expecting the Toshiro Mifune of 'Seven Samurai' and 'Yojimbo' fame you will be extremely disappointed. This is Mifune at his lowest ebb towards the end of his career where he had begun to appear in a number of low grade American B-movies just for the money.
You see, the main problems that The Challenge faces is that it has a story that is thoroughly un-engaging whilst also being riddled with just about ever cliché you can think of. Every Japanese person is a mindless, sadistic, humourless, sour-faced robot, obsessed with honour and budo. That is all except the one Japanese woman who of course has a soft spot for our round-eyed hero and promptly jumps in the sack with him. The sequence is so painfully obvious it made me laugh (it even fades from their naked bodies in the bedroom to a shot of the clouds over Japan. Sweet Jesus!!)
For my part the one redeeming thing was to see some shots of Japan from 30 years ago......oh and there's a very funny sequence where a man in a wheel-chair flies out the back of a van and over the side of a bridge which made me laugh until orange juice came down my nose. And there's a really funny bit with a beheading which is pure Monty Python. Oh wait ..... and the bit with Scott Glenn fighting off a man with a sword using a stapler (no I'm not joking).
Hmmm now I think about it there are some unintentionally funny bits that could make an amusing 2 minute montage on YouTube......but other than that avoid this film.