Into the Sun (2005)

When a government official is killed, an American operative with experience in the Yakuza culture is brought in to investigate.

Director:

mink

Writers:

Steven Seagal (story), Joe Halpin (story)

Stars:

Steven Seagal, Takao Ohsawa, Juliette Marquis

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Seagal	...	Travis Hunter
Matthew Davis	...	FBI Agent Sean Mack
Takao Ohsawa	...	Kuroda
Eddie George	...	Jones
William Atherton	...	CIA Agent Block
Juliette Marquis	...	Jewel
Ken Lo	...	Chen (as Ken Low)
Kosuke Toyohara	...	Fudomyo-o
Akira Terao	...	Matsuda
Eve Masatoh	...	Kojima (as Masatoh Eve)
Pace Wu	...	Mai Ling
Chiaki Kuriyama	...	Ayako
Kanako Yamaguchi	...	Nayako
Namihiko Ômura	...	Takeshi
Daisuke Honda	...	Kawamura

Storyline

When the governor of Tokyo is killed in his campaign for election, the former CIA agent Travis Hunter is assigned to find the responsible working together with the rookie FBI agent Sean. Travis was raised in Japan, has great connections with the underworld of the streets and is a master in sword and martial arts, trained by a former member of Yakuza. Travis discloses that there is a war between the old and traditional members of Yakuza and the new generation leaded by the deranged and sick Kuroda, who has associated to the Chinese Tong mobster Chen in a powerful drug dealing business. When his fiancée Nayako is brutally and cowardly murdered by one of Kuroda's men, the mission of Travis becomes a personal issue and he seeks revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

yakuza | cia | fbi | revenge | martial arts | 

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Taglines:

Only one man can stop the Yakuza.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality and nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures [Japan]

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

22 November 2005 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Yakuza

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$164,762 (Japan), 27 November 2005, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aries, Franchise Pictures, Kundali Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Steven Seagal can be heard speaking Japanese in many scenes. As a result of him living in Japan during his younger years, he can speak it fluently.

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Goofs

Throughout the scene when Mai Ling is fighting the doors behind her switches from closed to open. Even when leaving the room the mistake is repeated.

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Quotes

Matsuda: I couldn't rest knowing your balls were not on my table

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Connections

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

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Soundtracks

Waza Kurabe Asajino Nigiwai
Written by Kyoen Nobumoto and Umekichi Kiyomoto

User Reviews

As a Seagal fan I disliked it...

weren't the late 80's and first half of the 90's great people? We have this guy who can't act but sure as hell kick a punch in movies with mostly no plot at all except for him kicking ass for 90 minutes long. OK, so they did have a little plot but the movies were all about Steven kicking the butts of bad guys. Steven would hit, kick, run, jump etc etc and people would get there bones broken in the nastiest ways. Who can forget the guy with the meat cleaver in "Out for Justice"? The way that was handled: pure testosterone filled ballet! Now it's the new millennium and the only decent thing our aikido hero has released was Exit Wounds (with lots of help from wire-fu, funny script, good co-stars, a good director, Steven who went to the gym etc etc). OK so Belly of the beast was decent, but not when you consider Steven had a body-double in tons of scenes.

So here is Into the sun, the latest fight fest from Steven and what does it contains:

-An openings scene which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It works for James Bond but not here

• Steven doing pinkypink with his soon-to-be-wife (lame!) About one aikido fighting the first hour of the movie (against a couple of street kids)

• The rest is sword fights to the end

• Unimaginative baddies (I miss those guys from Under Siege 1 & 2, Hard to kill etc)

• Too much uninteresting plot too little fighting.

All Steven needs is a simple plot for him to go on a one-man-rampage across a lot of different locations fighting lots of men to get to his goal... Nothing more, nothing less. That never happens in Into the Sun. Steven just goes from friendly contact to friendly contact to get some info and that's basically it. Only in the last half hour the flick turns into a revenge-story and we get to see a toned down version of Hard to kill. What was the use of getting all that info in the first hour when the baddies get taken down by Steven out for a revenge motive? Next time someone writes a script for Seagal, just kill someone he loves in the beginning or drop some terrorists in the same location he is. Then get him "a shotgun and a patrol car" and he'll do the rest.

And make sure he went to the gym before the filming starts... those really close up aikido fights are not very exciting...