The Challenge (1982)
Rick, a down-and-out American boxer, is hired to transport a sword to Japan, unaware that the whole thing is a set up in a bitter blood-feud between two brothers, one who follows the traditional path of the samurai and the other a businessman. At the behest of the businessman, Rick undertakes samurai training from the other brother, but joins his cause. He also becomes romantically involved with the samurai's daughter.
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Scott Glenn is an American boxer, recruited into a Japanese feud over ancient swords. Initially he tries playing the feuding brothers for financial gain, similar to Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars". Soon however the movie morphs into a martial arts training film like "Enter the Dragon". The climax is a free for all sword fight, with Glenn taking on the evil brother, and taking quite an impressive beating to boot. There are a few chuckles, especially relating to Glenn's attempt to understand Japanese culture. Head lopping and torso slicing aside, the story is pretty good, the acting by Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune competent, and the entertainment value delivered. Can't ask for more than that. Recommended of it's type. - MERK
This film is a Martial-Arts classic!It has all the ingredients of a good martial arts movie in it... yet they turn them into something else. I cannot fathom the reason why it only received 5.5/10. It's outrageous!--==## SPOILERS ##==-- Let's have a look at the film. A low life boxing sparring partner of a champion is frustrated. His technique is a lot better than the skill of the champ, yet he needs to be the mere sparring partner, reasons enough to cut the crap at one time and to beat the champ up and resign.Het gets sucked into the quarrel of two Japanese brothers, one modern, the other traditional Japanese. Here he learns traditional aiki-style martial arts.Yeah... you think you see it coming! The American learns Japanese MA in a three weeks intensive course and beats every Japanese up without effort! And... NOPE he doesn't! He gets beaten up until the very end of the movie! He needs to get himself a gun in order to survive and win... and even then he gets beaten up.Furthermore the movie is especially about the culture shock between Americans and Japanese. You can see clearly how the Japanese know the American ways a LOT better than vice versa. --==## SPOILER END##==--In short: this is one of my all time favorite MA movies and it will always be, no matter what flashy MA movies are released nowadays. I prefer The Challenge above Crouching Pussycat, Hidden Lizard ANYTIME!
SPOILER ALERT Fantastic intelligent action flick from a master of the genre, John Frankenheimer (check out THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE or RONIN). Bottom-of-the-barrel boxer Scott Glenn is recruited to escort a valuable Samurai sword and is thrown into a blood feud between two brothers who both lay claim to the blade, which is one of a set of twin weapons called the Equals. One brother is a rich gangster/businessman, the other a venerable sword master (Mifune at his best)who seeks to uphold the family honor symbolized by the heirloom swords. After a couple of bloody ambushes Glenn says "sayonara" to save his own skin, but returns due in part to his attraction to Mifune's luscious daughter, and from his own desire to conquer his limitations and become the warrior that Mifune sees within him. Ultimately he is the old man's last hope and after extensive training and a bit of "vision quest" consciousness-raising confronts the martial-arts expert mobster on his own turf. The resulting office sword battle is bloody and no-holds-barred and Glenn finds not only his own honor but the respect and affection of the aging warrior who believed in him. I've followed different movie martial-arts styles since way back when and this was the first time I recall seeing the impressive handhold and body-throws of the Aikido style championed by Steven Seagal (small wonder since it was he who created many of the fight scenes for this one, prior to becoming an action star himself). I knew a few martial arts people when this film was released, and they were all impressed especially by the training and culture-clash sequences and by the relationship between the students and their master played by Mifune. One teacher I knew even borrowed my tape of the film to show to his class---this was back around 1983. This one's been shown on the tube under a number of lame-assed alternate titles but it's still a great flick. The sex scene between Glenn and the girl ain't bad either! Don't let anyone kid you, this is an action film and a half, with not only hand-to-hand martial arts but dazzling swordfights and gun battles in mind of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. If you like this one, check out THE YAKUZA, THE OCTAGON, and HIGHLANDER if you like a bit of fantasy with your bladework.
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.