Mr. Baseball

"Mr. Baseball" is a pretty good film and it is enjoyable to watch. However, the main character, Jack (Tom Selleck) is rather unrealistic and if his character had been toned down just a bit, I think it would have been a better film.

When the film begins, Jack is playing in the major leagues for the New York Yankees. However, despite being a star in the past, his last season was terrible and he is now about to be released. But no other American team wants him because he's overpaid, arrogant and not performing. His only option...play ball in Japan. But his road to success is VERY bumpy...much of it because the culture is so different and because Jack is an obnoxious idiot! Can Jack learn to be a little less 'Jack' and manage to make a success of it?

As I said, Jack is a character that comes off poorly...entertaining to watch but also one dimensional and cartoonish. Of course life will be difficult for a major leaguer to move to Japan...but not THIS much because his character does NOTHING to try to learn Japanese customs or fit in with the team. Perhaps the filmmakers thought they needed to exaggerate all this...I think toning him down a bit would have been wiser. Still, it is worth watching....warts and all.

Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck), former World Series MVP for the New York Yankees, is traded to the Chunichi (Nagoya) Dragons of Japan. Although Elliot is on the downside of his career, he has not lost all of his playing skills. Now the trade doesn't stir well with the drinking, smoking, and womanizing egomaniac. Knowing little about Japanese culture, cuisine, and mannerisms, the gaijin (foreign) Elliot's awful attitudes form the basic plot of this not unlikeable movie. You just know that the American will quickly butt heads with unflappable Dragon manager Uchiyama (Ken Takakura). Meanwhile, as athletes attract attractive woman, Hiroko Uchiyama (Aya Takanashi) will become Elliot's love interest. But Hiroko, who is no bimbo, is an advertising professional who makes commercials for Japanese television. So can the love interest last?

Along the way Elliot would do well to heed the advice of new Dragon teammate Max "Hammer" Dubois (Dennis Haysbert), not a Frenchmen but an African-American. Dubois, earlier traded to the Dragons, had the gumption to learn Japanese ways and some of the language. Fitting in as well as he can, Dubois is resigned to his challenging situation. Conversely, as Elliot is green in Japan, he is accompanied by an interpreter, Yoji Nishimura (Toshi Shioya), who is wise enough to clean up the American's sardonic comments for the Japanese press. Overall, the movie does well in depicting the Japanese sports culture: manager-player interaction, the fanfare of the large crowds (which appear genuine), umpire esteem, corporate pressure on the managers, and the voracious sports media. Also note the importance placed on saving face, which means that certain on-field events are sometimes compromised. The climax involves the big game between the Dragons and their traditional rivals who always seem to beat them, the Yomiuri Giants. Will Elliot find redemption? Watch and find out!

PS: Know that the Japanese certainly love their baseball, and have played it a long time. The sport was introduced in Japan in the late 19th century! In 1934 Manager Connie Mack, Babe Ruth (called "Beibu Rusu"), Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, OSS spy Moe Berg, and other Major League Baseball all-stars visited and were greeted by huge and enthusiastic crowds.

I liked this movie, not because Tom Selleck was in it, but because it was a good story about baseball and it also had a semi-over dramatized view of some of the issues that a BASEBALL player coming to the end of their time in Major League sports must face. I also greatly enjoyed the cultural differences in American and Japanese baseball and the small facts on how the games are played differently.

Overall, it is a good movie to watch on Cable TV or rent on a cold winter's night and watch about the "Dog Day's" of summer and know that spring training is only a few months away. A good movie for a baseball fan as well as a good "DATE" movie … Trust me on that one! *Wink*

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.

Tom Selleck has been for most of his career a box office bust. Even though this movie did not score a home run with movie goers, it is still a nicely done film. It doesn't play down Japanese stereotypes, as the writers of this film did their homework on life in Japan. I used to watch Japanese baseball, and I can tell you that the film does a pretty good interpretation. In Japan, the manager of a ball club is more of a nurturing father. It's also more like work than sport. Players run fundamental drills all day and talent takes a backseat to skill. The movie is nicely done and Selleck does a good job as selfish, self-centered Jack Elliot. Dennis Haysbert is also nice in the supporting role of Max DuBois (He had enough practice being in baseball movies after being in Major League). Ken Takakura is good as the no-nonsense manager of the club. It's a shame he hasn't done any other American films after this one. Aya Takanashi is also nice as Jack's love interest. If you can, get the video or DVD because the TV version makes some of the most absurd edits and cuts I have seen.