The Challenge

When John Frankenheimer’s modern samurai film »The Challenge« premiered in 1982, it was often misunderstood as a cynical orgy of violence. Even today, it is far less well-known than other works by this auteur, who repeatedly pushed the boundaries of genre cinema. This is also true of the story of an American boxer drawn into a feud between two brothers in Japan. The battle over two samurai swords is not only between Yoshida (Toshirô Mifune) and his younger brother Hideo (Atsuo Nakamura); Scott Glenn’s Rick also finds himself caught between the forces of a country torn between tradition and modernity. John Frankenheimer stages this division in every moment, imbuing the impressively choreographed fight sequences by Steven Seagal and the brutal eruptions of violence with extraordinary power. Within them, a similarly brutal societal upheaval manifests itself.