Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) was a New York Yankee, an MVP from the World Series. He viewed himself as untouchable. Then a new player arrived and the Yankees traded Jack. "Not Canada!" Jack insisted. No, not Canada. "Cleveland?" Nope. He was being traded to Japan. Jack arrived in Japan to find himself assigned an interpreter, Yoji (Toshi Shioya), who often changed Jack's replies to completely change the meaning. His coach, Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), was a serious and sober man who did not appreciate Jack's disrespectful antics. Hiroko (Aya Takanashi) was his assigned agent and arranged for his mandatory endorsement deals and TV commercials in Japan. She soon became his love interest. Jack was not the only American on the team; Max 'Hammer' Dubois (Dennis Haysbert) had been in Japan for 5 years and offered pointers on assimilation, most of which Jack didn't take.
The movie doesn't know what it wants to be. The comedy elements are purely situational and fish out of water variety humor. There are no laugh out loud gags or jokes. The romance between Jack and Hiroko is bland. She's the only woman he knows in Japan who speaks English; she's the only fish in the pond. Later revelations about her parents paint this in an even weirder light. Because much of the dialogue is in Japanese, the other players - except Max - don't get much development. It is unclear why this movie was even greenlit.
Of course, this was the year that ended Tom Selleck's movie career. Also in 1992, he had a cameo in the critically panned Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, and stared in Folks!, a movie where Don Ameche played his senile father who moved in with him; it was a comedy. All three were box office bombs.
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