IRON MAZE

Japan/US, 1991, 104 minutes, Colour.
Jeff Fahey, Bridget Fonda, Hiroaki Murakami, J.T. Walsh, John Randolph.
Directed by Hiroaki Yoshida.

Iron Maze is a strange collaboration between Japan and the United States. It is a B-action film with Jeff Fahey, so prominent in so many B films. Bridget Fonda plays the wife of a Japanese businessman who comes to Pennsylvania to buy a town. He is injured. In a Rashomon type of screenplay, various possibilities for his injury are given from the point of view a young man who works in the town, from the point of view of the wife, from the point of view of the injured man.

The film has an interesting social background, filmed in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a vast set of a dilapidated town where the mill stopped and the town and the citizens went into decline.

The plot, however, is rather thin and the possible explanations of what happened are rather stronger than what actually happened.

1.A thriller? Japanese? American?

2.The settings, the town of Braddock, the dilapidated mill, the streets, the offices? An authentic atmosphere? The action sequences, stunt work? The musical score?

3.The Japanese-American? interest? The Japanese businessman buying the town? Changing it? The possibility of setting up a theme park? The American need for this kind of capital input? The reactions of the mayor, to the man being injured, to the discussions about what happens in the town, the fair and the theme park? The finale with him looking at the plans for the theme park?

4.The injured man, his not being dead? Barry and his escaping on the motorbike? Chris and her leaving in the car? Mikey and his hanging out in the mill?

5.Jack and his assistant, the police, driving to the mill? Discovering the body? Taking it back, discovering that the man was not dead? Barry giving himself up, the interrogation and his version? The phone call from Chris and her version? The discussion with the injured man and his version? Taking Barry back to the scene? The difficulties with Mikey? The resolution?

6.Barry, his work, at the hotel, the interaction with Chris, the sexual story? Sugita and his disdainful attitude? As interpreted by Barry? At the mill, Chris’s presence, the clash, the chase? Mikey’s presence? His fall?

7.Chris’s story, the attack on Barry, the sexual encounter, its brutality? Her driving away? Going to a hotel? The end, her return? What really happened? The relationship?

8.Mikey, in the ruins, his attitude towards Sugita, slapping him? Hiding, Barry trying to get to him, up on the scaffolding, the falls? His fears of going to prison?

9.Sugita, in reality, as perceived by the others? Buying the town, improving it? His injuries?

10.How satisfying the resolution – the three different stories compared with the happy ending?