Takakura, Ken

Mr. Baseball

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

For the first time in many years Gou-ichi TAKATA (Ken TAKAKURA) takes the bullet train to Tokyo from the quiet fisherman s village where he lives on the northwest coast of Japan. His daughter-in-law Rie (Shinobu TERAJIMA) telephones to tell him that his son Ken-ichi (Kiichi NAKAI) is seriously ill and asking for his father.But when he arrives in the city Takata finds that Rie was not entirely truthful: Ken-ichi has been hospitalized but after years of painful estrangement he still refuses to see Takata. Crushed the old man quietly slips out of the hospital but not before Rie gives him a videotape to watch. Rie hopes what Takata sees on the tape will help him get to know his son again.Takata plays the tape and learns that Ken-ichi is studying a form of Chinese folk drama that dates back more than a thousand years. Ken-ichi had traveled all the way to Yunnan Province in Southern China to see the famous actor LI Jiamin perform but the actor was ill and unable to sing. Li promised to sing the legendary song Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles from the literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Ken-ichi if he returns to Yunnan the following year.Hoping to bridge the gap between himself and his son Takata decides to find Li Jiamin and videotape his performance for the dying Ken-ichi. As the old man begins an odyssey into the heart of China he encounters a number of strangers who color his journey -- from well-meaning translators who guide him through China s idiosyncrasies to prison wardens anxious to promote Chinese culture abroad to a young runaway with a complicated father-son relationship of his own. What Takata discovers on his journey is kindness and a sense of family he thought he had lost long ago.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396165854 Manufacturer No: 16585

Zhang Yimou's heartfelt feature about cultural displacement, grief, and reconciliation is a lovely and somewhat unexpected work from the director of Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers. Japanese actor Ken Takakura stars as Gou-ichi Takata, a laconic man who lives in a fishing village and is estranged from his son. When word reaches him that his son is ill with cancer, Takata travels to Tokyo but is turned away. Takata learns that his son has a passion for rural Chinese folk opera, and he flies to mainland China to locate Li Jiamin (playing himself), an opera star who happens to be in jail at the moment. Takata's story reminds Li of his own sad disconnection from his young son, and Takata sets out to restore their relationship as a prelude to helping his own with Li's help. Zhang himself is unusually operatic here, with intense emotions flying around, prettified visions of nature, and characters--including prison guards and peasants--who seem idealized, both as folklore and even old, Maoist notions of cooperation. Zhang's longtime admirers will appreciate and understand this change of pace from a filmmaker whose relationship with Chinese officials has often been strained over content. But film fans less familiar with his body of work will enjoy Riding Alone as well. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (click for larger image)

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The Yakuza

From Academy Award-winning director Sidney Pollack ("The Firm" "Absence of Malice") comes this suspenseful adventure about a Harry Kilmer (Oscar-nominee Robert Mitchum "Cape Fear") an American man determined to rescue his employer's kidnapped daughter from the Japanese mafia in Kyoto. Written by Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver" "Raging Bull") and Acadamy Award-winner Robert Towne ("Chinatown " "Tequila Sunrise"). "Dazzling displays of swordplay" praises Newsweek while Rex Reed proclaims this "an exciting riveting totally original motion picture."Running Time: 112 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 112 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569753150 Manufacturer No: 75315

Complex to the point of being pleasingly convoluted, this Sydney Pollack film (from a terrific script by Robert Towne and Leonard and Paul Schrader) is an intriguing blend of Western and Asian sensibilities. Mitchum, in one of his best roles of the 1970s, is drawn to the Orient by an army buddy (Brian Keith), whose daughter has been kidnapped. But when he gets to Japan, Mitchum finds that her kidnappers are the shadowy Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia--an organization that is as vicious as it is tradition-bound. He must call on friends he made after World War II for favors and finds himself unintentionally trampling on issues of honor, even as he battles for his life and that of the girl he is seeking. Surprisingly heartfelt and deliciously exciting, the film features a sorrowful performance by Mitchum and a stoically touching one by Ken Takakura. And what great samurai swordplay! --Marshall Fine

Black Rain (Special Collector's Edition)

Scott's overblown relentlessly grim and humorless police thriller set in modern-day Tokyo is a routine action film under the guise of an examination of a Japanese and American culture clash in police techniques. Douglas stars as a tough world-weary cop (is there any other kind?) who is assigned with partner Garcia to escort a New York-based hit man for the Japanese mob back to Japan. When the assassin escapes Douglas tears apart the city of Tokyo looking for him coming into conflict with the local police force and the mob. System Requirements:Run Time: 125 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 097360430240 Manufacturer No: 043024

A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who--along with his partner (Andy Garcia)--goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. When the latter escapes, Douglas's brand of gonzo crime fighting rubs his Japanese hosts the wrong way. Slick, mechanistic, and absurd, the film is all surface action and attitude (not to mention Scott's incredibly busy, trademark art direction); and one can get lost in the sheer indulgence of it. However, if you can buy Douglas as an iconoclastic lawman, you can buy anything else here, including the notion of Kate Capshaw as a blonde escort highly desired by Japanese businessmen. --Tom Keogh

A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who--along with his partner (Andy Garcia)--goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. When the latter escapes, Douglas's brand of gonzo crime fighting rubs his Japanese hosts the wrong way. Slick, mechanistic, and absurd, the film is all surface action and attitude (not to mention Scott's incredibly busy, trademark art direction); and one can get lost in the sheer indulgence of it. However, if you can buy Douglas as an iconoclastic lawman, you can buy anything else here, including the notion of Kate Capshaw as a blonde escort highly desired by Japanese businessmen. --Tom Keogh

Too Late the Hero

Oscar® winners* Michael Caine and Cliff Robertson star in this rousing (Film & TV Daily) war drama about two reluctant heroes desperate to survive even at the cost of their own allies. Thrilling intense and harrowing Too Late the Hero will keep you on edge from start to finish (Cue Lt. Lawson (Robertson) has only one interest in the war getting out of it. Sent with British soldiers on a suicide mission to thwart the Japanese communications system he finds a natural comrade in the cynical Tosh (Caine). But when the two soldiers make a discovery that could change the course of the war they must decide whether to save themselves...or become the heroes they never wanted to be.System Requirements: Running Time 134 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616905833 Manufacturer No: 1006383

Robert Mitchum - The Signature Collection (Angel Face / Macao / The Sundowners / Home from the Hill / The Good Guys and the Bad Guys / The Yakuza)

This collection of Robert Mitchum movies includes the following titles: ANGEL FACE THE GOOD GUYS & THE BAD GUYS HOME FROM THE HILL MACAO THE SUNDOWNERS and THE YAKUZA. Please see individual titles for synopsis information.Featuring:ANGEL FACEMACAOTHE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYSHOME FROM THE HILLTHE SUNDOWNERSTHE YAKUZAFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 085391113492 Manufacturer No: 111349

Big bad Bob Mitchum: Seriously, is there anybody you'd rather watch in a movie? Mitchum had the cool looks, a dancer's sense of balance, and a thoroughly modern amusement about his own stardom. Somehow he made you invest in a movie, while simultaneously communicating his own smirky suspicions that the whole thing was a joke. Mitchum gets boxed in Robert Mitchum: The Signature Collection, a six-disc batch of random but rewarding Mitchum vehicles. Highlights are two noirish outings, and two prestigious auteur pictures that allowed Mitchum to play outside his usual job description. The one authentic noir is Otto Preminger's Angel Face (1952), with Mitchum as an incredibly passive hero bewitched by Jean Simmons' spoiled rich girl. True to its title, the film is utterly deadpan in tracking the downfall of Mitchum's easily-seduced male.

The quasi-noir is Macao (1952), a compulsively enjoyable piece of nonsense produced by the ever-meddling Howard Hughes. It's credited to director Josef von Sternberg, but it was largely reshot by Nicholas Ray (according to a Mitchum-Russell interview included on the disc, Mitchum wrote some of the new scenes). Doesn't matter; the combo of Mitchum and Jane Russell (re-teamed from the even kookier His Kind of Woman) is enough to carry this slice of backlot exotica. Both actors look skeptical about the material and amused by each other, and Russell gets to sing "One for My Baby."

Home from the Hill (1959) is an underappreciated change of pace for both Mitchum and director Vincente Minnelli. Mitchum, all authority as the super-manly patriarch of an East Texas family, supplies the brawn; Minnelli brings the same sensitivity to the emotional effects of color and movement that he brought to his musicals. Biggest surprise here is that two young-cub Georges, Peppard and Hamilton, are both very good in the male-ingénue roles. Another long film, Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners (1960), is a gentle and wise account of a nomadic family of sheep-herders in Australia. Mitchum and Deborah Kerr bring a beautiful sense of mature romance to their relationship, and Zinnemann catches the beauty of the country. Plus, you learn how to shear a sheep.

The clinker in the set is Burt Kennedy's The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, a 1969 Western that can't decide whether it's sending up High Noon or playing it straight. Mitchum's the aging Marshall eased out of his job, George Kennedy is the equally aging varmint whose gang (led by whippersnapper David Carradine) plans a train robbery. One can imagine John Wayne as the Marshall and Mitchum as the rogue, but the movie would still fall flat. Finally, The Yakuza (1975) finds Mitchum in his weathered seventies form, and easily the best thing about Sydney Pollack's stately film. The Paul Schrader-Robert Towne script heads to Japan for some cultural lessons and much finger-severing. All in all, the set shows the range of a perpetually underestimated actor who never stopped being cool. --Robert Horton

Kon Ichikawa's 47 Ronin

The tale tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless becoming ronin after their master was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official Kira Yoshinaka who had goaded him into the assault by insulting him. They avenged their master by slaying Yoshinaka. In turn they were themselves forced to commit seppuku.System Requirements:Running Time: 129 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SPORTS/GAMES/MIXED MARTIAL ARTS UPC: 737187011887 Manufacturer No: ANM-DV1188

Black Rain

A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who--along with his partner (Andy Garcia)--goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. When the latter escapes, Douglas's brand of gonzo crime fighting rubs his Japanese hosts the wrong way. Slick, mechanistic, and absurd, the film is all surface action and attitude (not to mention Scott's incredibly busy, trademark art direction); and one can get lost in the sheer indulgence of it. However, if you can buy Douglas as an iconoclastic lawman, you can buy anything else here, including the notion of Kate Capshaw as a blonde escort highly desired by Japanese businessmen. --Tom Keogh

Cultures clash (and so, occasionally, do clichés) in this 1989 stylefest from director Ridley Scott. Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia are New York cops who grab a Japanese mobster and take him back to Osaka--only to lose him there. When they're forced to track him down, Douglas's knuckles-and-know-how approach to crime-fighting puts him at odds with his Japanese handlers. Beside eschewing police brutality, their code of honor also induces guilt because Douglas has succumbed to the occasional shifty tendency in the past. Despite some strong action sequences and Scott's trademark look of neon reflected on wet streets, it begins to drag and ends up exactly where you expect it to--with Douglas chin-to-chin with chief bad guy Yusaku Matsuda. No one plays a flawed hero better than Douglas but this one tends to be by the numbers. --Marshall Fine

Mr. Baseball

Never Give Up