Bullet Points: Into the Sun (2005)

Looking through the vast archives of Bulletproof Action and there are two glaring omissions when it comes to our coverage of the career of Steven Seagal… 1991’s Out for Justice and 1992’s Under Siege have never been reviewed in the eight years this site has been operational.

Either of those two movies would have been excellent choices for this edition of Bullet Points, but I don’t own either of them. However I have at least two copies of 2005’s Into the Sun as part of various DVD multi-packs that I have acquired over the years, so here we go…

• Assassination: When the Governor of Tokyo is assassinated and it is believed that the Yakuza had something to do with it, the FBI in Tokyo call in a favor with the CIA… they want CIA operative Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal, Marked for Death) on the case. For good reason too, Travis grew up around Tokyo, he still lives there (operating a sword shop) has plenty of local contacts and is quite familiar with Tokyo’s underworld… Travis is working at his sword shop, where a patron asks him if it is true that he once cut a man’s arm off in a duel (foreshadowing perhaps??) and that’s when he gets the call to come down to CIA’s Tokyo office and meet with CIA Agent Block played by William Atherton. Block was a bit of pest, but we didn’t get full blown William Assholton in this role like we did in Die Hard or Ghostbusters. Although the fact that Travis flips Block the bird tells me at least Travis thinks Block is an asshole. Travis accepts the assignment and doesn’t even argue that he is being assigned a fish out of water FBI sidekick, Sean Mack (Matthew Davis)… Block calls in Jewel (Juliette Marquis) to shadow Travis and keep tabs on what he is doing. And a lot of what Travis does in this movie is pretty boring…

• New Generation: The early portion of the movie is a lot of Travis and Mack going around Tokyo talking to Travis’ various contacts… not exactly the most thrilling content. Although there is a brief fight scene about 27 minutes in where Travis takes out some street punks working for Kuroda with total ease. Travis does learn that there is a rift in the Yakuza with the new generation led by Kuroda (Takao Osawa)… Kuroda has zero respect for the ways things have been done and even finds himself in business with the Tongs looking to expand the Yakuza’s reach and his personal wealth. It becomes clear early on that Kuroda is the man responsible for the Governor’s death and he’s the guy that needs to be taken out.

• Frustration: At one point FBI Agent Mack is sick of doing busy work for Travis and decides to sneak into Kuroda’s fish packing plant and see what he can find… he ends up finding trouble and eventually death as a result. Mack isn’t the only one close to Travis Hunter that ends up dead at the hands of Kuroda and his gang… Travis’ fiancé Nayako and his protégé Mai Ling are also taken out… this is bad for them obviously, but great for the movie.

• Rejuvenation: As I type this review Into the Sun has an IMDb rating of 4.3… I would venture to say that 3 points of that is thanks to the last 20 minutes of the movie (and .3 of that is thanks to to the female nudity that is shown at various points in the movie) because up until that last 20 minutes much of Into the Sun was a chore to watch, it felt very plodding… then with 20 minutes remaining Travis Hunter gets pushed beyond his limits, grabs his sword and decides he is going to bust right through Kuroda’s front door and take care of business. And that business picks up fast as Travis, with some help from Fudomyo-o (Kosuke Toyohara), a tattoo artist who had his family slain by Kuroda’s men too and the daughter of Travis’ Sifu. Travis goes right through the front door as promised, cuts a guys arm off, shoves a pair of chopsticks in a guys throat and is making his way to Kuroda for a good old fashioned sword fight finale with Travis coming out on top… at that point all that is left is for Block to call in Jewel and the cleaning crew and it is mission accomplished.

For a good chunk of the movie I was regretting my decision to watch Into the Sun instead of one of Seagal’s earlier films that had yet to be covered here on the site. By the end I did not regret my decision at all. Was this Steven Seagal at his best? Far from it. Was this Steven Seagal at his worst? Far from it.

By the end of any review I do, I am ready to share some Bonus Bullet Points…

• Subtitled Disturbing Quote: “I couldn’t sleep well, knowing I hadn’t chopped off your balls yet” – Fudomyo-o to Kuroda
• If You Ever: …wanted to hear Steven Seagal say “peachy keen”, then Into the Sun is the movie for you.
• The Name Game: Not to be confused with 1991’s Into the Sun starring Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Paré.
• Confusing Quote: “If you get yourself killed on my watch, I’ll kill you again.” – Travis to Mack
• Product Placement: A Nissin Cup Noodle container (curry flavor if you were wondering) can be spotted at Kuroda’s fish packing plant.
• Thumbs Down: Into the Sun has two scenes featuring some really awful entertainers. I am talking almost as bad as the “performer” in River of Death… First, there’s the geisha girl dance scene that is accompanied by music that sounded more like caterwauling to me… The bad singing continued later in a scene at a karaoke bar. Speaking of karaoke…
• Play Us Out: Friend of the site, Paul London, once told me a story about how he sang the Steven Seagal tune “Don’t You Cry” at a karaoke bar the last time he was in Japan… it just so happened that “Don’t You Cry” was the song used for the end credits of Into the Sun…