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Goro: Ken is a tormented man. It is Eiko, of course, but it is also Japan. Ken is a relic, a leftover of another age, of another country.
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Harry Kilmer: Everywhere I look, I can't recognize a thing.
Oliver Wheat: It's still there. Farmers in the countryside may watch TV from their tatami mats and you can't see Fuji through the smog, but don't let it fool you. It's still Japan and the Japanese are still Japanese.
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Dusty: American saw cuts on a push stroke, Japanese saw cuts on a pull stroke. When an American cracks up, he opens up the window and shoots up a bunch of strangers. When a Japanese cracks up, he closes the window and kills himself. Everything is in reverse.
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Dusty: That guy doesn't like you.
Harry Kilmer: No, not much.
Dusty: So how come you figure you can trust him?
Harry Kilmer: Giri.
Dusty: Gitty?
Harry Kilmer: Giri. Obligation.
Dusty: You mean he figures he owes you something?
Harry Kilmer: Yeah, sort of.
Dusty: Well, that can work two ways, Kilmer. If you ain't alive tomorrow, he don't owe you shit.
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Description
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."
Amazon.com essential video
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
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