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Mr. Baseball (1992)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
2 October 1992 (USA)
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Tagline:
An inspirational baseball movie. more
Plot:
A fading baseball player is traded to a Japanese team and has trouble fitting into the society. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Gary Ross Brought In to Rewrite 'Spider-Man 4'
(From Get The Big Picture. 9 July 2009, 9:17 AM, PDT)
Spider-Man 4 Lands a New Writer
(From TheMovingPicture. 8 July 2009, 10:14 PM, PDT)
(From Get The Big Picture. 9 July 2009, 9:17 AM, PDT)
Spider-Man 4 Lands a New Writer
(From TheMovingPicture. 8 July 2009, 10:14 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Heartwarming drama hiding within sports comedy "lite"
more (36 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Tom Selleck | ... | Jack Elliot |
 | Ken Takakura | ... | Uchiyama, Dragon's Manager |
| Aya Takanashi | ... | Hiroko Uchiyama |
 | Dennis Haysbert | ... | Max 'Hammer' Dubois |
| Toshi Shioya | ... | Yoji Nishimura, Jack's Interpreter / Guide |
| Kosuke Toyohara | ... | Toshi Yamashita |
| Toshizo Fujiwara | ... | Ryoh Mukai |
| Mak Takano | ... | Shinji Igarashi |
| Kenji Morinaga | ... | Hiroshi Kurosawa |
| Joh Nishimura | ... | Tomophiko Ohmie |
| Norihide Goto | ... | Issei Itoi |
| Kensuke Toita | ... | Akito Yagi |
| Naoki Fuji | ... | Takuya Nishikawa |
| Takanobu Hozumi | ... | Hiroshi Nakamura |
| Leon Lee | ... | Lyle Massey |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
108 min
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
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Fun Stuff
Trivia:
This was Ken Takakura's 200th movie appearance.
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Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: All of the Japanese scoreboards in the movie show the batting order using the numbers based on the players' positions in standard baseball scoring, i.e. 1=pitcher, 2=catcher, 3=1st base, and so on. The batting orders show Jack Elliot is the clean-up batter, which is fine. The Japanese use lights above the numbers to indicate who is up to bat. Even when Jack is up to bat, the clean-up position never gets lit. Mostly it's the second batter. Once, in an an away game, the other team has a batter lit up, even though the Dragons are at bat.
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Quotes:
Jack Elliot:
Just let them have a little fun.
Uchiyama: Baseball is work. Not fun.
Jack Elliot: Baseball is grown men getting paid to play a game. When you were a kid, I bet you didn't pick up a bat and ball because you were dying to work. A player's career is short enough. Let them enjoy it.
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Uchiyama: Baseball is work. Not fun.
Jack Elliot: Baseball is grown men getting paid to play a game. When you were a kid, I bet you didn't pick up a bat and ball because you were dying to work. A player's career is short enough. Let them enjoy it.
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Movie Connections:
References "Knight Rider" (1982)
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MR. BASEBALL is a film of paradoxes. Written and filmed as a "light, sports comedy" it truly has a heartwarming core as human and universal as some of Capra's finest. At the plot level, you have the paradox of baseball, a fine old American game, as it is played in Japan - turned around, with American values cast off and Japanese values imprinted upon the game. (Some of the superficial "sports comedy" results from Jack's uncomprehending disbelief at how "basa-boru" is played in Japan.) You also have a lead character who's presented as an over-the-hill, aging baseball star, but who is actually quite immature - pro ball allowed him to postpone growing up. And you have a lead character who is rudely resistant to the changes in his life that are being forced upon him, refusing to accept the curveball that life has given him, in the midst of a new country, a new manager, a new team, and a new girlfriend, who have all welcomed him and try to accept him. Sound like heavy stuff? Not really. It's a charming "clash of cultures" comedy that takes place on the national, sports, romantic, and professional levels. But if you watch it sensitively enough, you will also find a great story about a man who has to abandon his immaturity and grow up way too late in life (causing some amount of personal pain), and finds success in places he never expected it. I love the story, but I also have great respect for Selleck's performance; he bares his tush (literally) to portray an ugly American, insulting people and throwing tantrums in public, then lets us inside this character to understand his dismay. It also doesn't hurt if you're a big fan of Takakura Ken like I am. MR. BASEBALL is a surprising "loss of innocence" tale.