The Challenge

I've always thought that this movie deserved better than it got. This film, while flawed in many ways, is still a very good one. It's an excellent study on the clash of cultures, both internally and externally, as Japan is forced to decide whether to embrace the culture of those who dropped atomic bombs on them, or cling to their traditional values ... or to try to make a shaky compromise. It's also a study on what constitutes honor and friendship. And not the least, it's a drama ... with an incredible action-packed finale! As an action film solely, audiences are sure to be disappointed. The action is intense, but it's relatively brief. Renaming this film to the laughable "Sword of the Ninja" only compounds this problem, luring in action fans who had already chose to pass on the picture. Well, this only made them angrier. It really is quite a good film. Give it half a chance. Glenn and Mifune are terrific in it as always.

Rick, a down-and-out boxer, is hired to transport a sword to Japan, unaware that the whole thing is a set up in a bitter feud between two brothers, one who follows the traditional path of the samurai and the other a businessman. Rick undertakes samurai training from the other brother, and joins his cause. He also becomes romantically involved with the samurai's daughter. When you watch this, for some reason you cannot help but think about The Last Samurai. A 'foreigner' joins a group, shut out from the world, and learns and gradually respects their ways. Other than that, its a fairly brutal movie, but unfortunately, due to Glenn being miscast, the film fails on many levels. Glenn is a great actor, but an action star he is not, and when you see him running during set pieces, its laughable. Mifune is their because he adds a little gravitas, and the other brother wears a suit because hey! It's a sign of the times. Many have stated that this is a fantastic movie, and it appears to have a cult following, it a decapitation cannot justify this status. And the supposedly powerful death with the chap in the wheelchair, is sadly hilarious. Watch Enter The Ninja instead, at least its a little tongue in cheek.

I wish it was on DVD. As noted by another reviewer, the martial arts scenes are skillfully done. The basic story is that an upstart American (Scott Glenn) is hired to smuggle an historic Japanese sword *back* into Japan. Naturally there are bad guys trying to prevent this sword from making it to it's intended recipient (Mifune). The bad guys are funded and led by a rich Japanese industrialist who wants the sword for himself, but there's more also, which I will not mention here. Scott Glenn is beaten by the bad guys, eventually decides he likes the honor of the good guys group, and trains to become a ninja/samurai type. The movie culminates with a martial arts vs. gun-fu battle not to be missed. The director and cast make this movie: Frankenheimer is a very skilled director and it shows here. Ad to that the location shooting in Japan, and Scott Glenn and Mifune as student and teacher, and this movie is an absolute winner.

Scott Glenn gives an excellent performance as a waistral, down-on-his luck, out-of-work boxer who becomes a fallguy for a heirloom (Samurai sword) smuggling plot. Scott, like others in only a handful of movies (e.g. The Yakuza (Robert Mitchum) and Black Rain (Michael Douglas)) gives a rare performance that contrasts the Japanese/American cultures of honor, discipline and duty. John Sayles and John Frankenheimer explore these values with a shoot-em-up verve that attempts to merge business, home, family, warrior and personal values. Tall order! Glenn is the Kevlar-perfect warrior who somehow survives James-Bondian onslaughts .. . and Samurai-disciplines to emerge a winner. Toshiro Mifune needs no introduction .. . and is, as always, a delight. One could only have hoped that better definitions of the term "Ninja" (fogged in myth as assassins and even as a race of women assassins) and "Samurai Sword" (through an expert such as Kenji Mishina) could have been added to the movie. A unique movie dealing with topics that fifty years after a major military and cultural conflict between two diverse cultures, go largely unexplored ...

The Challenge is one of John Frankenheimer's more tolerable action movies from the 1980s. It was the decade that the formerly great director made a number of duds, such as the embarrassing The Holcroft Covenant, but this one is OK in its simple minded way. The story concerns American boxer Scott Glenn, who is hired to smuggle a priceless Samurai sword into Japan. He does it easily enough, but then discovers that the sword is responsible for a family feud, with two sides of the same family claiming that it is rightfully theirs. The film is quite action packed and definitely bloodthirsty. It has a good sense of pace for the opening three quarters of an hour, and builds up an interesting plot. There's a slow bit for the next hour or so, but it comes back to life with a vengeance in the closing minutes with a truly outstanding sequence in which Glenn and his ninja buddy infiltrate a heavily guarded building. The Challenge is definitely no masterpiece (the afore-mentioned dull patch in the middle ruins it chances of that) but it's an enjoyable enough way to pass a couple of hours.

I saw this under the title "Sword of the Ninja" back in the 80's and not being a huge fan of martial arts movies, found it very enjoyable. I didn't expect the movie to be so deep...it really has a great story of two Japanese brothers, one traditional and one a powerful businessman, fighting over a set of ancient family swords. The American is brought in as a courrier(and planted thief)and becomes embroiled in the battle. The amount of action and gore in this movie is unbelievable, and the story even has room for a young boy training to become a warrior and a great scene where the American is introduced to fine Japanese food thats still alive.Moving at a brisk pace, this movie flows well from beginning to end..and what an ending it has! My rating....7 out of 10

What seems to be just another "east meets west" actioner is given the John Frankenheimer treatment and comes up a winner. Scott Glenn is fantastic as a loser boxer recruited to help escort a priceless family heirloom back to Japan, and by the end o f the film he rediscovers his worth as a human being and man. Frankenheimer has always dealt extremely well with themes of "manliness" and this one is no exception. For a good companion piece, check out his even better "round-eye on the loose in Japan" flick THE YAKUZA.

The only reason to watch this movie is to see one of the greatest Japanese actors ever born (Mifune) in one of the dumbest "spaghetti-jidai-geki" ever made. The poor man must have got the script only after signing the contract. The story is truly imbecile, the direction and camera - very mediocre, and the movie looks like it's somebody's first try in cinema montage. How could anything like this ever get on the screen?

Geez, I kinda like this one. It's an interesting look at Japanese culture from an outsider's viewpoint (compare it to The Hunted, with Christopher Lambert and Joan Chen). It makes good use of the same hotel as the one used for the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner, and the office/swordfight at the end is a hoot as Scott Glenn turns mere office equipment into deadly kung fu weaponry! Glenn's always worth seeing, even in this, one of his earlier works.

No one should except to see an Oscar worthy film here, but this movie simply ran with the standard "white man learns to love Asian culture" script, and it doesn't even pull that off well. Everything Scott Glen/"Rick" learns to love about Japan is just a cliché. Instead of showing the American audience what there is to love about Japanese culture (which could fill 16 hours, easy), we're reduced to stereotyped figures and situations. I love Toshiro Mifune, and it pained me to see him have to dull his acting and swordplay in this film to suit the rest of the cast. Scott Glen is about as good of an action hero here as Ben Aflect is in "Dare Devil"... and that's bad. I normally like Mifune and Glen, even in his bad movies, but this time it was just painful. "The Last Samurai" was successful where this turkey flopped- it explored the differences between two cultures that were clashing. It did this by refusing to boil everything down to simple stereotypes, as "Sword of the Ninja"/"The Challenge" did. By the way, where was the ninja? I counted a few Bushido warriors (samurai), but no ninja. Hmmmmm... "Crap Storm" is a nice title...