Here's a largely forgotten movie from the early 80s that occasionally pops up in the late-night slot on the tube (during that same godforsaken hour reserved for "Bloodsport"): "The Challenge" (1982).
This semi-B-grade American action film boasts a rather impressive pedigree given the final product. The director is John Frankenheimer, who among other things directed the bona fide Cold War classic "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) and decades later did one of the definitive post-Cold War thrillers "Ronin" (1998). The star of the movie is Scott Glenn, who is probably best known for playing astronaut Alan Shepherd in "The Right Stuff" (1983) and Jodie Foster's boss in "Silence of the Lambs" (1991). Supporting Glenn is the legendary Toshiro Mifune, star of countless classic Japanese samurai films including "The Seven Samurai"(1954).
Glenn plays a down-on-his-luck boxer who is hired by some mysterious Japanese visitors to escort an ancient sword to Japan from the U.S. What he doesn't know is that the sword is part of a revered pair known as "The Equals" which belong to the mysterious family the Yoshidas.
The Yoshidas live an almost monastic existence on an opulent family estate, where they maintain the ancient traditions of the samurai and continue to practice the traditional fighting arts. Unfortunately, the family has been divided by a quarrel between the brothers Toru (Mifune) and Hideo (Atsuo Nakamura). Part of that quarrel has been over the Equals, which have been separated since World War II and both brothers are desperate to lay claim upon.
Glenn finds himself drawn into this archaic family intrigue, but also becomes fascinated by the martial traditions upheld by Toru. After being beaten between in an ill-advised match with Yoshida's top student and suffering various others humiliations, Glenn elects to become a student of the family. Quickly he gains mastery of the sword, staff, spear and other ancient techniques. Good thing too, because the family quarrel is about to burst into an all-out war, with brother Hideo (now a powerful CEO of a high-tech company) ready to bring in the guns and thugs.
The plot of "The Challenge" is nothing to shout about. It's a fairly standard revenge and honor plot, common to both Eastern martial arts films and their American counterparts (though surprisingly, there's no slain master or father figure to avenge). It also features the tiresome cliche of the white guy traveling to a foreign land to master exotic fighting arts within a short amount of time, as well as romance one of the local babes (a.k.a. the plot of "Dances with Wolves," "The Last Samurai," "Avatar," etc. etc.). That being said, the film was made before that trope had become so overdone.
What stands out about "The Challenge" though are the hand-to-hand action scenes. Whereas a lot of Hollywood films popularly incorporate Hong Kong kung-fu style action, "The Challenge" is one of the few to feature genuinely Japanese martial arts. There are chambara style sword fights with katana, good use of archery, plus various dirks, daggers and throwing stars. There's also a very impressive use of Aikido-based fighting.
Check out this clip where Scott Glenn gets a harsh lesson (Sorry, only a German dubbed clip was available): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEL08kvdNEY
Guess the fighting scenes shouldn't be that much of a surprise. Scroll through the credits and you will find a familiar-sounding name listed as choreographer: Steven Seagal.
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