Into the Sun (2005)

Mink Directed 'Into the Sun', turns out to be A Good Watch. A Nicely Written Screenplay, along-with Stylish Direction & A Super-Cool Performance by its lead-Star, All-Time Bad-Ass, Steven Seagal, just adds to its glory.

'Into the Sun' Synopsis: When a government official is killed, an American operative with experience in the Yakuza culture is brought into investigate.

'Into the Sun' has an interesting start, an okay middle & a killer end. The Screenplay Written by Seagal himself, is mostly interesting. Mink's Direction is completely Stylish. Cinematography is perfect. Editing is mediocre. Art Design is fair. Action-Sequences are top-notch.

Seagal's Super-Cool Performance is among the merits of this film. And Like Always, his fight-scenes are a pleasure to watch. He's an All-Time Bad-Ass!

On the whole, 'Into the Sun' works. A Must See for Seagal Fans!

Fmovies: It is interesting that so many people are giving this 7th dtv Seagal effort such a mediocre to bad rating. "Into the Sun" is Seagal's best and most enjoyable effort since 2001's "Exit Wounds"-this easily could have been a theatrical release as the production value of the film is much better than that of his previous efforts. Seagal plays Travis Hunter with much more charisma than in his last 5 efforts-and looks like he is having fun. The best acting job by Seagal since 1996's "The Glimmer Man"-The camera work is fast-the story is better than his last efforts, although it does take a while to get going. The last 20 minutes reminded me of the sword work from "Kill Bill"-very well done for a D.T.V effort-the action, though scarce, is done very well. Seagal fans should be happy with this latest effort.

Action: Steven Seagal looks in the best shape he's been in since Exit Wounds. The action fight sequences unfortunately were few and far between. There was a fight at the mall that was superb, in my opinion this was great, but it was over too soon. This was really the only time where he truly showed off his hard to hand combat moves as well as his Aikido throws. The other fights later on were mainly sword based although there were a few punches. No care chases at all. The movie was certainly more plot based than we are used to for a Steven Seagal movie.

Characters: Steven Seagal get's a partner in this movie, but he is pretty much under-used. There's a few funny moments between them. The other characters are pretty poor too. William Atherton as the boss doesn't seem to interested in his role and the other Chinese and Japanese stars don't improve the movie much either. I sure miss the days when Steven Seagal made movies with a decent support cast.

Soundtrack: The radio stations and restaurants in Tokyo must all be tuned in to Steven Seagal FM, everywhere he went his music was playing - i heard a few of his tunes from 'Songs From The Crystal Cave' playing through the film. Overall i counted at least three of his songs including the credits song. The soundtrack was good though.

Direction: The movie begins with an action sequence in the jungle, which is not very well done. The opening credits begin and then some graphic work happens to show the movie is in Tokyo. When i saw this is reminded me other Michael Oblowitz's work in 'Out For A Kill' and i thought the worst, but after that panic it was certainly well directed. Good job mink.

Overall: Pretty disappointing, i was expecting much more for a budget of $35 million, i don't know where all this money was used as it seems rather excessive considering not much was blown up. It is certainly a better movie than 'Out For A Kill' and 'The Foreigner', but it is not better than 'Belly Of The Beast' and nowhere near as good as his earlier work. For a direct to video effort it is certainly above average though. I must admit i pretty much agree with the review form 'Ain't It Cool'.

Rating: 2 / 5

Into the Sun fmovies. INTO THE SUN was supposed to get a limited cinema release, i don't think it would have fared well on the big screen? The beginning is good, the ending is great, but the mid section (as with most recent SEAGAL movies) felt a little padded. SEAGAL (great as ever) plays TRAVIS HUNTER (great name) ex CIA Yakuza expert, sent to Tokyo, to solve the case of a murdered governor. SEAGAL meets up with his (soon to be) young bride, and makes his peace with his old sensei, but the Yakuza are on to Hunter (and his rookie partner) and plan to take them, out of the picture......BIG MISTAKE!!

On paper this sounds fine, but i just wish that the director had given SEAGAL more to do than spend an hour, questioning people, or driving around. When the fight scenes do come, they are very good (i've watched it slo-mo, and looks 100% genuine SEAGAL.......so why all the quick cutting?) and SEAGAL still has amazing hand-speed (the sword fights are awesome) and i quite liked some of the Yakuza scenes (but it's in this mid-section, that SEAGAL is rarely on screen, or even forgot about) but with more fight scenes, this movie could have been a classic. As it is, it's a million times better than the (rather dull) OUT OF REACH, but still nowhere near the giddy heights of BELLY OF THE BEAST (the perfect combination of SEAGALism and kick ass action) Director MINK (eh?) does a good job with the action scenes, and tries to inject the movie with flashy visuals, from time to time. I'll give them credit, however, for using music tracks from SEAGAL's album (SONGS FROM THE CRYSTAL CAVE) throughout this movie. The sword fighting scenes are quite bloody as well (take note QUENTIN!) and the movie has a more 'polished' look than previous SEAGAL epics. The bottom line is this, people expecting another UNDER SIEGE need not watch this, but fans of 70's Yakuza flicks will enjoy seeing the old cliché's on display.

It was rumoured that this picture was meant to be a remake of sorts to 1975's classic THE YAKUZA (with ROBERT MITCHUM) but the blood soaked climax aside, it bears little resemblance.

Final thoughts; Good movie, solid fight scenes (when they come) OK performances, crisp photography, great soundtrack (that i'll bet is never released anywhere) No voice doubles and some violent bloodletting, make INTO A SUN a (slow) step in the right direction for STEVEN SEAGAL, still the baddest man on the planet known as 'action' 8 OUT OF 10

If you've been disappointed with some of Seagal's film of late, don't let that stop you from seeing this one. Some people just think Seagal's a joke and hate everything the guy does. But this movie is never boring, it's very violent (like his films back "in the day" were), and the direction by "mink" (huh?) keeps the film moving at a brisk pace. The authentic Asian locations help a lot too.

While far from perfect, this movie rocks: it pours on the blood, the fights, the moments of zen "calm" -- all the things one expects from a Seagal film. And this one delivers!

Seagal wrote and performs some of the music for the film too. It's great stuff: he's a decent singer and a fine guitarist.

Keep crankin' 'em out, Steve!

When the governor of Tokyo is killed in his campaign for election, the former CIA agent Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal) is assigned to find the responsible working together with the rookie FBI agent Sean (Matthew Davis). 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 (Takao Osawa), who has associated to the Chinese Tong mobster Chen (Ken Low) in a powerful drug dealing business. When his fiancée Nayako (Kanako Yamaguchi) is brutally and cowardly murdered by one of Kuroda's men, the mission of Travis becomes a personal issue and he seeks revenge.

"Into the Sun" is the best of the recent works of Steven Seagal. The story is flawed, full of clichés, but also very entertaining. Steven Seagal does not have the same agility of his first movies, but the plot is well supported by magnificent landscapes, wonderful soundtrack and a great cast. I really have not understood why he alternates speaking in English or Japanese; there are some dialogs that the Japanese characters speak in Japanese and Travis speaks in English, in a complete mess. But in the end, I liked this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Operação Sol Nascente" ("Operation Rising Sun")