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ACTOR
David NivenToshirô MifuneHardy KrügerKazuhito Andô
DIRECTOR
Ken Annakin
SYNOPSICS
Paper Tiger (1975) is a English movie. Ken Annakin has directed this movie. David Niven,Toshirô Mifune,Hardy Krüger,Kazuhito Andô are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1975. Paper Tiger (1975) is considered one of the best Action,Adventure,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
A somewhat prim and proper Englishman is hired as the tutor to the son of the Japanese ambassador. His life changes when he and the boy are kidnapped by terrorists for political purposes.
Same Actors
Paper Tiger (1975) Reviews
Entertaining whilst on, soon forgotten afterwards.
Paper Tiger is a harmless adventure movie which tries to cater for juvenile and adult audiences. It is lifted slightly above its station by strong performances from David Niven and Toshiro Mifune. The central theme of what can go wrong if you live your life as one big lie is quite interesting too. It is neither a great movie nor a terrible one: merely a workmanlike, watchable time-filler. Niven plays Major Bradbury, an English gentleman who has got a job in a troubled Far East country tutoring a young and impressionable Japanese boy about western history. He entertains the boy, Koichi (Ando), by spinning him tales of wartime heroism and derring-do. However, all of Bradbury's tales are fanciful lies in which he presents himself as some kind of all-action hero. Koichi and Bradbury are kidnapped by guerillas, and Bradbury soon realises that he must try to live up the heroic stature he has invented for himself in order to help the boy to survive. Toshiro Mifune as the boy's father, a Japenese ambassador, gives a strong, moving and convincing performance. Niven also has his moments, especially when he looks into the mirror and is appalled by the "nothing" of a man he sees staring guiltily back at him near the film's climax. The story itself is interesting, but the handling isn't all that special. The film satisfies itself with being a straight-forward kidnap thriller fit for kids and adults alike, but the themes of real and imagined identity could actually have been explored much more closely and maturely if the target audience was just adults. Still, a family film is what the makers decided to make, and a family film is what they've given us. On that level, this will do quite nicely for a rainy Saturday afternoon - even if you'll have probably forgotten it by Sunday!
Strange story, though quite entertaining
You would be forgiven at first into thinking that this was an old Walt Disney children's film. The humour is family orientated and typically weak - this type of film always has an annoying American character in holiday mode who pops up every so often. However the story is quite clever, albeit moralistic - the moral is don't pretend to be something you ain't. The main problem with this film is that you are unsure what kind of viewers it is actually aimed at. In between the "sweet" scenes of David Niven and his young cheeky Asian charge there are shootings,terrorist bombings and assassination attempts - hardly Walt Disney. However, the story is quite good with nice appearances from familiar faces and, apart from the rather insipid and soppy vocal version of the theme tune, is wrapped up fairly well. A good Saturday-afternoon-with-nothing-to-do sort-of-film
Niven lifts an all too familiar tale
By this time in his career, debonair British actor David Niven was making films purely for the money. This effort was strangely different from other entries under this guise. The story of a dreamer facing the consequences of his masculine boasts is entertaining, and draws on his performance in Separate Tables. There is a certain sadness, watching Niven as one of life's losers trying to make amends with one last act of heroism, full of pathos and regret. The film itself is nothing spectacular, but Niven manages to rescue it from oblivion, and credit where credit's due, he almost succeeds.
As simple as a paper animal, but as warm as any living one
The story is admittedly very simple: elderly British "Major" Walter Bradbury (David Niven) is engaged by the Japanese ambassador to an unnamed Southeast Asian country, Kagoyama (Toshirô Mifune) as tutor to his enchanting 11-year-old son Koichi (Kazuhito Ando). "Mister Bladbelly" soon wins the reverence of the ever-trusting and perfectly-mannered Koichi by spinning yarns about his heroic wartime exploits that could hardly be further removed from his quiet nonentitous life, but is unexpectedly and severely put to the test when they are both kidnapped by guerrillas. However simple though, the story is still a good one and it is fantastically well and charmingly acted by all three of the main characters. Anybody who has known a paper tiger, especially the more amiable types who, like Niven, have twinkles in their eyes gently hinting at their harmless fraud, will surely warm to his authentic depiction of one. Paper Tiger is a gripping story, alternately funny, tense and moving, but above all it is a thoroughly warm-hearted and tenderly told tale of redemption. Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel of Eton, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112
A good idea badly executed and saved only by Niven's charisma
And that pretty much sums it up for me. This should have been a great little family film, even if it is surprisingly violent for a PG. An interesting story of a child and his teacher being kidnapped is let down by some woeful dubbing and the child lead has a very thick accent that is hard to understand. The direction is very average and the great supporting cast of Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Kruger and Ronald Fraser is given very little to do (Fraser and Kruger also turn up in Euan Lloyds next feature, 1978s 'The WIld Geese' where they have far more substantial parts). Niven saves the film with a performance of charm personified and is surprisingly effective playing a reluctant hero who lies his way into a decent job and then spins glorified untruthful tales of his previous heroism to impress his young charge. Of course the lies come back to haunt him but his colourful character just about saves this film from oblivion. It is a shame in some ways as with a little more care this could have been a better film than it is but something went wrong . Clumsy dialogue, badly explained politics, some comic book baddied and pedestrian directing coupled with obvious voice dubbing for some of the cast really let a good idea down here. Bit of a shame really.