Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

A tough New York police officer, Sam Makin, is declared dead after an attack and given a new face and a new name: Remo Williams. A covert organization that targets powerful criminals who have escaped justice has recruited him, faking his death to hide him from the world. His training falls to Chiun, an elderly Korean master of an ancient martial art called Sinanju. The old man, baffled by modern American life, teaches his first white pupil to fight without weapons and to overcome fear and vertigo. A friendship forms between them as Remo becomes the organization's enforcer and takes on his first assignment.

Guy Hamilton directed this 1985 action adventure comedy, the thirteenth of the thirteen films he directed, following Evil Under the Sun. Christopher Wood wrote the screenplay, Larry Spiegel produced, and Fred Ward plays Remo opposite Joel Grey as Chiun. Wilford Brimley, J.A. Preston, George Coe and Kate Mulgrew appear among the twenty-one credited cast members. The production, from Orion Pictures and Dick Clark Productions, cost about 40 million dollars and returned roughly 14 million worldwide, a poor result for its scale.

On IMDb it holds a 6.3 rating from 298 votes, while film critics gave it 4.9 from 17 reviews, so audiences rated it more generously than critics did. The film runs 121 minutes.