NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER (Kino Lorber)

Night of the Juggler

Kino Classics
June 6, 1980
Written by William W. Norton, Rick Natkin, based on a novel by William P. McGivern
Directed by Robert Butler, Sidney J. Furie (uncredited)
Starring James Brolin, Cliff Gorman, Julie Carmen, Abby Bluestone, Dan Hedaya
Language English

Buy it HERE from Kino Lorber, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

The Movie: Excellent

Holy Toledo, gang! I originally saw this restoration in July as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival--at least, I think so. It was AN restoration, I'm not 100% certain it was THIS restoration--and I was jaw-on-the-floor riveted the whole time. Full of style that was for the time quite revolutionary, and awash in tension, Night of the Juggler hits the ground running and never really lets up.

Sean Boyd (James Brolin) is an ex-NYPD cop turned trucker who's on the outs with his wife but is still trying to show up in a meaningful way for his daughter Kathy (Abby Bluestone). When a local loon, Cliff Gorman as Gus Soltic the titular Juggler, mistakes Abby for a higher-profile child and kidnaps her, he sets off an exhaustive chase across the city of New York that takes Sean and other interested parties from high society brownstones to the actual sewers and everywhere in between.

A few things set this apart from the myriad of films and television involving a parent unrelentingly chasing down a kidnapper, and only some of them are obvious on a first viewing, while the rest were made clear after checking out the special features. First of all, the pacing. While I absolutely responded to it, as mentioned above, I wasn't conscious of how completely the film emphasized it until Julie Carmen mentioned in an interview how she felt the presence of jogging early on mirrors the unrelenting forward motion of the rest of the film. Relatedly, original director Sidney J. Furie's pioneering use of long lenses to add a claustrophobia to all shots, interior or exterior, by cramming the frames full of foreground and background detail. The result is a film that actively feels like desperately trying to push your way through a crowd going the other direction.

Brolin sells all of it. He has an easygoing but no-nonsense quality that tells the audience from the jump that the Juggler absolutely grabbed the wrong guy's kid (and not just because he actually did think she was a different kid). Once Sean is on the move, he pretty much never slows down and certainly not of his own accord, even though in real life, Brolin broke his foot filming an early chase scene and production had to halt temporarily, but more on that later.

I'd be remiss not to mention the rest of the cast, because they're all fantastic. Richard S. Castellano and Dan Hedaya as cops, with Hedaya becoming an especially dangerous thorn in Sean's side; Cliff Gorman giving a truly unhinged and dangerous performance as the Juggler; Julie Carmen as the sweet Maria who takes pity on Sean and helps him out; and a pre-breakout Mandy Patinkin doing a version of the accent that he would use in The Princess Bride as Allesandro the cab driver. And then there's New York itself. We're all well familiar with the old "the city is a character" adage, but I'd say that here NYC is almost a performer. Sidney Furie allegedly said that in New York, even the extras are great actors, and I'm inclined to agree with him. They add a level of reality to the film that makes the world feel so much more real and visceral.

The Packaging: Good

Talk about the type of case, if there’s a booklet, essays, etc. Talk about what stood out to you as someone who values owning physical media!

This comes in a standard Kino Lorber black 4K/Ultra HD case, which looks sharp, but the real one-two punch for me is the slip and the reversible cover art. One side offers the more colorful of the two illustrations which depicts a visibly shaken Sean in high contrast blue lighting above an image of the Juggler dragging Kathy through a sewer tunnel with the tagline "Somewhere out there his little girl is crying for help." This one is also the image on the slipcover, and it's a great one. The deep blue and teal green of the tunnel below work really well with the stark black background and white-and-blue title.

But, the reverse side, while less colorful, is my favorite. Above a narrow collage of imagery from the film is a depiction of a wild-eyed Sean tearing an image of New York City apart with his bare hands! It's all in black and white with the tagline "In the heart of every victim is a hero and he'll tear apart a city to prove it." at the top. The effect reminds me a little of the pop art collage work I first encountered in comic books from the 1960s and '70s and it's just an incredibly arresting image. I have limited wall-space, but I'm seriously considering tracking down a full-size poster.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I love the look of this film. As I mentioned above, Sidney J. Furie's concept for using the long lenses is fantastic. It crowds the frame with visual obstacles--fences, subterranean pipes, the people of the city--in a way that makes you almost desperate to keep your eyes on the action. After production halted due to James Brolin's broken foot, producers wanted Furie to make changes to the script that would see his character Sean spend less time being active onscreen. Seeing as how Furie had constructed the whole film to feel like a desperate chase, he disagreed which led to his being replaced by credited director Robert Butler. Luckily Butler and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper kept the long lenses, ensuring a cohesive vision for the film as a whole--and one that Butler would adapt to the Hill Street Blues pilot the next year, helping to establish a look for street-level crime stories that persists to this day.

The transfer really works incredibly well with this style of filmmaking. Taken from a 4k scan of the original camera negative, there's film grain present, but the images themselves are very sharp, which you really need with the cluttered depth of frame achieved by the long lenses. On a lesser transfer, Sean and Sgt. Barnes (Hedaya) having a conversation with a chainlink fence between them and the camera could easily be muddy, or the third act descent into sewers and subterranean utility corridors, with all their pipes, steam, and other visual obstacles, could be a dark mess of blurry shapes. Here, everything feels tactile and real, which adds to the immersion. I felt like I had to actively keep my eyes on what was happening, lest the movie get away from me.

The audio mix adds to that effect as well. As I type this, I can't think of any score, though I know there had to be some. All I can recall is the sounds of the city swallowing everything at every turn. Obviously, you can't run down a busy street in New York without drawing the ire and car horns of numerous drivers, but also people passing on the street and general atmospheric sounds were all mixed very well in my three-channel soundbar.

Special Features: Excellent

What I always want most from special features is context. I like to know the clime and conditions in which the film I've watched was made. The features on this Kino release are dynamite for context! There are the two interviews, the Pandemonium Reflex inquest segment, and a very informative commentary track, all of which added to my understanding of this film as an object. Even the trailers help give me an idea of similar films of the era (though as always, I think trailers need a 'Play All' option).

The inquest feature especially, really stands out for me. In addition to elucidating a lot of the information about the filmmaking style that I've mentioned above--which I appreciated because I didn't even realize I was responding to it until it was brought to my attention!--it also really brought Sidney J. Furie into sharper focus for me and added a bunch of his (to me) lesser-known films to my watchlist.

• Commentary from film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
• Summer of '78, an interview with James Brolin (13:51)
• The Sweet Maria, an interview with Julie Carmen (14:22)
• Pandemonium Reflex: An Inquest into Sidney J. Furie’s Night of the Juggler (14:02)
• Trailers
• Night of the Juggler (1980) (1:53)
• Hardcore (1979) (1:23)
• Vice Squad (1982) (0:59)
• The Hunter (1980) (3:15)
• Stick (1985) (1:22)
• Death Wish 3 (1985) (1:41)

In Summary: Must Own

There's a certain relentless determination in a film that audiences respond to. It's part of what made the John Wick series pop for so many people. Few films really support that tone as well as Night of the Juggler. From the moment Kathy is taken, the film rarely loses momentum, and even when it does it more than makes up for it when the pace picks back up. The densely packed frames add a desperation and anxiety to the chase that, as I mentioned, was adopted shortly after this and remains part of the genre's visual DNA. It's because it works.

Thrillers are called thrillers for a reason. You want your audience tense, and excited, and Night of the Juggler delivers, as a film, hugely. On top of that, this release allows for a tremendously satisfying, high quality viewing experience with plenty of satellite materials for deep-divers to explore. 

A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION / MAHJONG: Two films by Edward Yang (Criterion)

A Confucian Confusion / Mahjong:
Two films by Edward Yang
Criterion
1994 / 1996
Written by Edward Yang
Directed by Edward Yang\
Starring Shiang-chyi Chen, Bosen Wang, Shu-Chun Ni, Tsung Sheng Tang, Virginie Ledoyen,
Chinese / English with subtitles available in English

Buy it HERE from Criterion

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Podcast Director and Staff Writer 

The Movies: Good

Edward Yang is a fascinating figure with an equally interesting story. Originally an architect, he was inspired by the work of Werner Herzog to instead become a filmmaker, directing a handful of features over roughly twenty years before breaking into wider prominence with what turned out to be his final film. The critical appreciation for 2000's Yi Yi then triggered an examination of Yang's back catalogue of films. Criterion have previously released Yang's A Brighter Summer Day (1991), and they have plans to release Yi Yi in January of 2026, but this release concerns the two features that came in between those films, Yang's two comedies: A Confucian Confusion (1994) and Mahjong (1996). Yang seems fascinated with the ways in which groups of people interact, whether it be a family (Yi Yi), schoolmates (A Brighter Summer Day) or, in the case of both A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong, the young people in and around Taipei in an era of great financial growth. As much an examination of the city itself as the characters, both films are awash with nuance, motion, light, and tension.

A Confucian Confusion follows a handful of young professionals working in and around an entertainment company. Their clients and projects include a weekly TV show, an author, and a play being put on by an eccentric auteur. An additional dimension to things is the interpersonal relationships behind these business relationships: Molly (Shu-Chun Ni) has been put in charge by her wealthy husband Akeem (Bosen Wang). She might not be our main character (there might not even be one), but she's inarguably the lynchpin. Her sister (Li-Mei Chen) hosts the TV show, her friend from school is the auteur director (Ye-Ming Wang), who it turns out "borrowed" the plot from an old novel written by the author (Hung Hung), who happens to be Molly's brother-in-law, which will require him to sign a release. Akeem also wants to take his relationship with Molly from one largely of convenience to one involving actual love, but believes she has been having an affair.

Mahjong, while also concerned with Taipei as a financial mecca and with family, romantic, and friendship dynamics, introduces crime elements to the mix. Red Fish (Tsung Sheng Tang)'s father has gone into hiding. Though the family is quite wealthy, he owes a tremendous amount to local criminals, who plan to get it back by taking Red Fish hostage. He's part of a gang of low-level hustlers whose main scam is having Little Buddha (Chi-tsan Wang) make strange predictions which the other members make come true, "proving" Little Buddha's value to wealthy marks who then pay handsomely to secure his services. Intertwined around these schemes are a sought-after hairdresser (De Zhao), a British actor (Nick Erickson), and his French ex-girlfriend (Virginie Ledoyen) who came all the way there seeking closure, among others.

To say that Edward Yang's films are complex would be a bit misleading. They're actually quite simple, and elegant, they're just very detailed. Their comedy comes from situations, and the ways in which ostensibly normal characters react to them, and to each other. But the same goes for the drama present in both films: relationships are strained, fractured, changed, broken, or repaired and Yang's extremely empathetic viewpoint shines through. There are very few irredeemably "bad" people, just people who want different things. These films are about learning that there's more to the world than just what you get out of it, and about crossing the threshold from trying to change the world to allowing it to change you.

The Packaging: Excellent

This double feature comes packaged in the standard Criterion case: sturdy and handsome, like me. Unlike me, this release features art by Tori Huynh. A minimal black, white, and red color scheme and simple, clean lines depict most of the important characters from both films on both sides of the cover--there are 22 on the front, I believe--, the booklet, and both discs.

The booklet, in addition to a wonderful essay by Dennis Lim and a Director's Note from Edward Yang himself that originally accompanied A Confucian Confusion's press notes in 1994--both of which provided me with tons of valuable cultural context--also features several wonderful images from the films. But. My personal favorite bit of the included ephemera is a reproduction of a drawing Yang himself did of the main cast of characters in A Confucian Confusion, to help keep all the interpersonal relationships clear. It was mentioned in the bonus features, and I was pleased to find it included.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I found nothing about either the audio or video presentations to take issue with. These films are small in scale and somewhat intimate in the way they are captured, and the audio mix makes them feel very grounded and real. One of the producers owned a TGI Fridays in the city, leading to many scenes in both films being set there, perhaps as a commentary on the commercial encroachment of western culture, perhaps as a convenience, or perhaps both. Mahjong also features the Hard Rock Cafe as a hub of interaction for what it's worth, though as far as I could find, that was entirely an aesthetic choice. Regardless, the constant hum of pop music in both locations while the characters are trying to have important conversations felt incredibly relatable and familiar in a way that added a lot of emotional texture to scenes.

The down-to-earth focus of Yang's lens likewise conveys an almost voyeuristic intimacy, like we are stumbling across these people in the moments, while out in the world, but it doesn't limit the everyday beauty he could capture. There's a certain modern loveliness to things like a series of neon lights in the darkness that Yang was obviously aware of. One especially lovely shot, allegedly inspired by Shadows and Fog (1991), at one point in A Confucian Confusion features two characters in a high rise office beautifully backlit by the dawn skyline. I'm hard pressed to think of a director with more of a grasp of the quiet beauty of the everyday.

Special Features: Good

I think this release has all its bases covered. Personally, what I look for in supplemental features is context: unless I'm already deeply familiar with a film personally, there's nothing I like more than better understanding the environment in which an artist has created their art. It's why I loved movie hosts growing up, and why I enjoy things like the Blank Check podcast now. The Q&A with Yang on Disc One is nothing but straight-from-the-horse's-mouth information about A Confucian Confusion from conception to execution. Similarly, the discussion on Yang's works between Chinese cultural studies scholar Michael Berry and film critic Justin Chang was incredibly enlightening. 

But if you're someone interested in "the process",  here's an interview with editor Chen Po-Wen who worked on every one of Yang's films from A Brighter Summer Day onward. There's also a filmed performance of an entire play by Yang for those folks who like finding some freebies in their bonus features. The various sources paint a picture of Edward Yang as an incredibly considerate artist in all senses of the word.

• Disc One:
• Edward Yang Q&A (53:27) - recorded after a screening of A Confucian Confusion in 1994
• Likely Consequence (45:20) - recording of a 1992 performance of a play by Edward Yang
• Disc Two:
• Michael Berry & Justin Chang (44:12)
• Interview with editor Chen Po-Wen (25:49)

In Summary: Buy It On Sale

Of the two films featured here, Mahjong works slightly better for me. While both films are insightful and delicate examinations of humanity and the ways we interact with each other and the great big world, the addition of a crime element allowed both the comedy and drama aspects of Mahjong to sing a bit more. That said, both films are just fantastic. Beautiful, elegant, and occasionally unexpectedly funny.

If you are looking for gentle, well-drawn examinations of characters, some of whom are just slightly larger than life, I would bump this up to a Must Own, but for some filmgoers, these movies might be just a little too mellow; too low-stakes. Even the threats I mentioned in Mahjong never really feel life-or-death, even if they're presented that way. They're just a different prism to examine these characters through, and in my case, a much appreciated one.