User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Highly controversial "Twilight Zone" episode released on May Day-May 1-1964 that even now almost 50 years after its original broadcast has never been shown, on re-runs of US televised Twilight Zone episodes, since.

The unique casting of Neville Brand as the despondent US WWII veteran Fenton and George Takei as Japanese American handyman Arthur "Toro" Takamori was pure genius on Rod Serling and the shows casting departments part. Brand was in real life a highly decorated WWII combat veteran who was almost killed when hit by German gunfire on April 7,1945 and Takamouri was together his family interned in a US detention, or concentration, camp during WWII as suspected, like 120,000 other Japanese American, enemy agents and saboteurs.

The "Encounter" has to do with Toro coming over to Fenton's house to do some handwork for him while his wife is away at her sisters house. It's when Fenton sees that Toro is ,in his words, a dirty Jap all his pent-up feeling against the Japs that he fought in Sipan and Okinawa comes to the surface. Toro for his part tries to keep his cool, with Fenton offering his cans of beer, but the very abusive Fenton doesn't let up with his hatred of his former enemy that Toro finally starts to lose it. You wounder why Toro doesn't just get out of Fenton's place but that's later explained in that the door to his house has been mysteriously locked locking the two men in.

***SPOILERS*** It's then that Fenton and Toro come to some kind of understanding in their negative feeling for each other in that both have skeletons in their closet that they've kept hidden from the world and each other for over 20 years! Fenton killed a Japanese officer on Okinawa after he gave himself up and Toro's dad was in fact the man in Hawaii who was a spy for the Japanese and guided, with hand signals, the Jap Zeros into Pearl Harbor to attack and sink the US Pacific Fleet!

Locked in Fenton's house both Fenton and Toro square off with each other as if the war in the Pacific never ended! It soon becomes evident that this encounter between Fenton and Toro was pre-arranged by fate in that the men never got over the war, in what they experienced in it, and this, mortal combat, was the only way to settle it once and for all! Even if it meant killing each other to do it!

The theme of guilt is at the core of this fifth season entry of The Twilight Zone. Taro (George Takei) lives with the guilt and dishonor that his father brought on the family by turning traitor during World War II, even while employed as a ship builder in Hawaii. Fenton (Neville Brand) endures the repressed guilt of having murdered a Japanese soldier after the man had already surrendered. The episode see-saws back and forth between the acrimony each of the players feels for each other, unable to reconcile their feelings of hatred toward each other, up until a few moments earlier having never even met before. The story is a fairly strong indictment against blind prejudice, made even more disconcerting with the introduction of a supernatural element, the samurai sword from Fenton's military past. In that respect, it seems that Serling wasn't really sure what kind of approach he wanted to take with the resolution. The 'accidental' hari kari on the part of Fenton is offset by the almost silly action Taro took by jumping out the attic window. Was he possessed by the sword? Was he overwrought by the death of Fenton? The rushed quality of the finale doesn't seem to do justice to the tale, and one might consider that an out of character Twilight Zone ending might have been called for here, one in which the main characters might have overcome their differences and found common ground in humanity.

I agree with jcravens42 that this episode was far ahead of its time, but with the other reviewers that it was very badly written (comically bad at the end). Perhaps the problem is that this subject was still too fraught for its time to be handled in all its complexity, even by Rod Serling. The elephant in the room is the internment of 140,000 Japanese-Americans, that should have been included in the story, but at the time that was not widely known or talked about. Here's how I would rewrite it in 2012:

Keep the basic scenario, the brilliant way Fenton passive-aggressively goads Arthur about his heritage (Brand and Takei were perfectly cast and did a great job with what they were given). Keep Fenton's alcoholism and broken marriage and war-related guilt, and the fact that some supernatural force is preventing them from leaving the attic until 'something' is resolved.

But during their verbal sparring we learn that Arthur's family were loyal Americans, interned during the war, and that his father killed himself in the camp from shame (this really happened). Fenton keeps goading Arthur into picking up the sword to see how it felt to be one of his brave 'countrymen' (Fenton already mentioned how much the U.S. Marine respected the Japanese soldier) and he repeatedly refuses. But finally Fenton has made him so angry, perhaps by casting aspersions on his father, that Arthur lifts the sword above his head in a murderous rage...and that's when the supernatural aspects of the sword reveal to him what really happened on Okinawa.

That as Fenton had said, his superiors ordered that no prisoners were to be taken. A Japanese officer is lying on the ground, very badly wounded, begging Fenton for help (perhaps just with his eyes). But Fenton, with self-disgust, runs him through with his own sword.

When Arthur lowers the sword and angrily tells Fenton what he has just perceived, Fenton breaks down totally and begs Arthur to kill him. Arthur emotionally deflates and goes to put the sword back in Fenton's trunk, where he sees the rest of Fenton's war memorabilia, which includes some small photos of the Japanese officer and his young family. As he walks from the attic, and Fenton sobs on his knees, collapsed over the table, Arthur puts a comforting hand on his shoulder, and walks out.

First things first: it is true that this episode played fast and loose with history, and, in doing so, courted controversy regarding its handling of racial issues. It's a quintessential 1960s sort of a fumbling approach to racial issues, and it can also be fairly said that its heart was in the right place. Even Twilight Zone, which took on so many relevant and controversial social issues in a time where such programming was hardly welcome by a significant percentage of the viewing public, had its fumbles and missteps. I will suggest an alternative explanation for making Arthur's father a traitor -- not only does it create a conflict for the character, I believe it was actually a sincere (if misguided) attempt to emphasize that Arthur considers himself an American through and through, which is why he is so anguished by the fact that his father betrayed America. His behavior shows that his torment isn't simply a case of being upset that his father had misbehaved; he's downright devastated by the idea that his father had betrayed his country to the the Japanese. This is Arthur's burden, the fact that his authentic claim to be an American is undermined by the sins of his father choosing his own "people" over his country.

The drama here, while slightly overwrought, makes for compelling viewing. In typical TZ fashion, we are left with almost as many deeper questions to ponder as answers. Neville Brand gives a powerful performance as a man who (or so I believe) knows deep down that he is wrong and has done wrong but can't seem to overcome his flaws. It's a tribute to the writing and the acting that we don't even need the show to point out the similarities between the "just following orders" excuse to that of the Nazis. We get it immediately. George Takei's acting matches Neville Brand blow for blow as he slowly loses his composure (helped along, presumably, by MacGuffin samurai sword) and grapples with the questions of his identity and the guilt that comes from the sins of his father.

On a side note: the captioning in the Netflix version had them exclaiming "bonsai!" instead of "banzai!," which added some unintentional humor.

Yes the episode was overly ambitious and there was little chance of a masterpiece but given the restrictions on time, 1/2 hour slot, this episode came out a lot better than it could have.

Since others have summarized the plot I'll be brief. Arthur Takamori, ably played by George Takei, is a Japanese American gardener that shows up at Fenton's, played by Neville Brand, house and is asked to stay for a beer and help Fenton clean the attic. Both of them are haunted by guilt from WWII, Fenton for having killed a Japanese officer and taken his sword after he had surrendered and Arthur whose father had aided the Japanese when they attacked Pearl Harbor. Tensions build and an outside force seems to ratchet things up to the end where Fenton is killed by the sword during a struggle and Arthur commits suicide by jumping from the attic window. Engraved on the sword was a phrase that translated to "the sword shall avenge me". In reality no way but as a plot device OK.

Given the short time from WWII to when this episode was made I can see where the controversy arose. There were a lot of situations where Japanese soldiers had surrendered but were killed because no prisoners were being taken. During some of the island battles there simply was no way to handle prisoners logistically and the soldiers that surrendered weren't trusted. Someone that served with my father in the war had a soldier surrender to him. The Japanese soldier spoke English and had been the in US. The prisoner asked for a cigarette which he was given. They talked while the prisoner smoked it. Afterwards, quite simply, he shot the prisoner. It really haunted him, according to my father, and probably did to the day he died.

On the other side there were a relatively small number of Japanese Americans that either provided information and assistance or entered the Japanese military.

Emotions were still raw on both sides in 1964 and it would have taken a full movie to adequately explore the issues of guilt. Trying to do it in 23 minutes produced a rather shallow attempt. However even given that problem I think that this was one of the more thought provoking episodes and one of the more intense ones. Not my favorite episode but it had real impact.

By the way, the overacting never came close to matching Shatner in Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.

And you'll need one too after watching this overwrought, messy, chaotic show, courtesy of writer Martin Goldsmith, who had recently delivered another "classic" episode featuring two equally maladjusted , hapless creeps in "What's in the Box", another of TZ's worst. Interesting to note that ALL FOUR of Goldsmith's main characters meet a violent, shocking death --literally in the case of William Demarest; another is impaled on a sword, while the other two meet their maker via defenestration (sorry for the fancy, obscure term; I couldn't resist).

True, as another IMDB poster points out, it's cool to have Neville Brand and George Takei--BOTH of whom dealt with real-life "Encounters" during WWII-- onscreen a mere 20 years after their own ordeals. Also, Robert Butler's direction concentrates heavily on close-ups of both actors--dark, gritty, and sinister-- which lends the episode what tension it has. But the script is SO crazy, with the characters constantly careening back and forth between calm and reasonable on the one hand, and silly and psychotic on the other, that it's almost impossible to take this show seriously.

And every time things get really overheated and ugly---especially after George Takei's big, cathartic scene where he actually cries onscreen--- Neville kicks back and calls for another round of beers. It's CRAZY! LR

In my review of Twilight Zone as a whole, I mentioned that there are a very select few number of episodes (maybe 3 or 4) that were shown only one time. The reasons for this are various. Sometimes they involved a lawsuit. This one doesn't really have an official reason, but after watching it, it might seem obvious. Personally, I think it's one of the better episodes, but it's one of those things that people either hate or love. It has one of the simplest settings of the entire series, with the entire thing taking place in an attic, and only involves 2 characters. The episode is about Fenton, a middle aged second world war veteran trying to accomplish some cleaning tasks in his attic. A man by the name of Arthur Takamuri shows up, seeming to know that Fenton wants his lawn cut. Arthur partially lies to Fenton because his real name is Taro, and he is touchy about his japanese heritage. Due to Fenton's time in the marine corps, he enjoys berating him with racial slurs. Later on, the two men can't seem to get along, and Taro picks up a sword Fenton says he brought back from the war. A strange force comes over Taro for a moment, and he appears as if he's going to decapitate Fenton. The sword seems to control him and tells him that Fenton acquired it by killing a defenseless japanese officer as he tried to surrender. Taro gets more and more unsettled and tries to leave Fenton's house, but notices the attic door (which doesn't have a lock) is stuck. Taro then starts to talk about his past during the war, and says how his father was actually a traitor who showed the japanese planes at Pearl Harbor where to drop their explosives. Fenton finally says he wants Taro to kill him since he lost his job, and following a short fight, Fenton falls on the samurai sword and dies. Taro then jumps out the attic window and kills himself, while the camera pans back and shows the attic door gently swing open. This is a weird episode. There really weren't any episodes that brought racism to the forefront, but this one does just that. I can't help but feel this is what got it removed from the air, which is a shame because it's the only one with George Takei. Ironically, Fenton is played by Neville Brand, who was actually in world war 2. In the real world, there were no japanese american traitors at Pearl Harbor showing planes where to drop bombs. In fact, there isn't a single case of japanese american betrayal during all of world war 2. Maybe they felt this episode made them look disloyal after all they did for america, so they had to shelve it.

The stupidity and clumsiness of this episode can be summed up in just the brief exchange very early on.

"My names is Arthur." "Why Arthur?" "Why not? I was born in this country. I'm just as American as anybody." "Who says you're not? You're just too sensitive."

So dumb. If you're gonna preach then at least make it halfway realistic, instead of having Sulu address Racistguy so informally, as if they hadn't just met each other literally 30 seconds earlier. This kind of snippy reply from Sulu is absurd and rushed, more in line with the two knowing each other from before, or Sulu being hostile from the get-go rather than being very polite, which he was at first.

Ironically, we're supposed to dislike Racistguy (Brand), but his quip about Sulu being "oversensitive" is right on the money. Sulu's reaction was over-the-top aggressive.

I realize that a 23-minute format pressures the plot to quickly develop, but this is not how you do it. It seems as if the writer is raring to go, can hardly wait to start sending his trite "anti-racist", please-more-tolerance message. Such a message needs to be more subtle, less in-yer-face, otherwise it is insulting to the audience. At least to the intelligent half of it... ("Half" is optimistic, I know.)

Which neatly brings me to the key problem: Brand and Sulu keep switching to and fro between being completely hostile to each other and being civil, in a way that is wholly unconvincing because quite schizo. Sure, some "unknown" force (the samurai sword) is exerting its power over Sulu, but it does so in a very wishy-washy ping-pong type of way more suited for a parody. Besides, what is making Brand so schizo? No explanation. (Oh, right... his "guilt".)

A totally ridiculous scene is Sulu describing very emotionally and in detail the Pearl Harbour attack - then suddenly confessing that he made it all up! What's the point of this scene then? Why not just tell the truth from the get-go - or stick with the initial lie. After all, Brand never questioned the story, he never forced Sulu to admit it was a lie.

"We were told that you people weren't even human, that you were some form of ape!" says Brand.

Funny that, the irony being that Colonial Japan was as racist as you could possibly get, the Japanese forces for example treating the Chinese as totally inferior - let alone Caucasians. But this of course doesn't get mentioned - hence the writer gives the false impression that Americans were the racists in that war, which is of course completely one-sided left-wing-agenda hogwash. There was racism on both sides, with Colonial Japan being more extreme in that sense. Probably much more extreme. Or are we to believe that a democratic nation is more racist than a Fascist dictatorship? Gimme a break...

Which begs the question: why would a lib writer "side" with Colonial Japan over democratic America? It's simple: the only thing libs detest more than Fascism is capitalist democracy (which they consider a form of Fascism). Besides, libs often shift their positions and arguments, depending on what nonsense they are trying to prove at a given moment. This is why they are so mired in self-contradiction, because of this opportunistic spin-doctoring and the propensity to "switch sides" as the wind changes i.e. As a situation dictates.

"We were told not to take prisoners so I was just obeying orders!" says Brand.

Another revisionist li(n)e. Sure, that may be, but Japanese brutality and treatment of POWs was second-to-none - not even Nazis. Again, the writer tries to place a disproportionate amount of guilt on the American side, just to make a dumb point about anti-Japanese racism. How very noble of you, Goldsmith, to take such a "brave" stand against the majority in order to elevate a minority... Left-Wing Hollywood Propaganda 101.

The ending is more appropriate for a Python sketch than TZ. Utter baloney. Brand gets somehow impaled by the sword of the soldier whom he killed despite the surrender (how cheesily symbolic) and then Sulu kills himself by jumping through the window, complete with a cliche war-cry. It would appear that Goldsmith had drunk far more alcohol than Brand...

Despite not being a household name, Neville Brand was an excellent actor. He could play the most incredibly menacing characters and was one of the better performers in the ensemble film "Stalag 17". He also was a decorated soldier who fought in Europe--though in this episode of "The Twilight Zone" he plays a veteran of the Pacific War.

His counterpart in this show is a very young George Takei--several years before he gained fame on "Star Trek". While not as famous at the time as Brand, he, too, did a very good job in the episode--with what he was given. Unfortunately, both actors were given very, very little in this way below average episode.

The show takes place in Brand's attic. He invites the gardener (Takei) up to the attic to have a beer and both actors behave VERY inconsistently and are confusing to understand. At times, Brand seems like a nasty old bigot--and at others he seems reasonable, lonely and decent. As for Takei, he seemed like a normal everyday guy but by the end he was an inexplicable nut job. None of this made any sense and I felt like the writers never really finished the script--they just told the actors to wing it near the end because they really didn't have an ending--no real twist, no intelligent way to tie it together...nothing. As a result, it's a real chore to watch and sub-par in every way except for the actors--who tried, in vain, to make something of this mess. Not the worst episode of the series, but close.

Spoiler Alert! Wow, this episode stinks. Takei and Brand are credible enough actors. But the agonizingly awful script turns this fare from the Twilight Zone into a mess. It revolves around two characters. One is Fenton, an alcoholic, out of shape, older, veteran of WW2, who is out of work and his wife has just left him. The other is Arthur, a young Japanese-American gardener. The show starts inconspicuously enough, Arthur comes by to see if Fenton needs a gardener and Fenton invites him up for beer. The only thing you know for sure is that Fenton has some issues and Arthur is ULTRA sensitive. But then, this episode unravels into a confusing heap of crap. Most Twilight zone episodes either falls into the Sci Fi or Supernatural category. This thing defies categorization. The worst part is the fluctuating and over the top behavior by the two characters. Fenton appears to be just a guy cleaning his attic and amiably offering a beer to a new acquaintance. In the next second he turns into a snarling bigot with flashbacks and delusions of persecution. Then he apologizes and is polite again, just to change back into a cliché racist afflicted with paranoia. Arthur is no better. He comes off as a young entrepreneur with a professional demeanor. Right away he becomes overtly sensitive to even the most harmless comments made by Fenton. From there he reverts to an even more psychotic persona and starts having flash backs of Pearl Harbor including accompanying sound effects made by him. In the end, Arthur kills Fenton with a samurai sword and jumps out the window yelling "bonsai"! What in the world was the meaning of this episode? Don't have a beer with your employer perhaps?