Mission: Impossible (TV Series) ran from 1967-1972.
Episode "Butterfly" (S5.E7) aired on Oct. 31, 1970.
The MI team must exonerate an American businessman framed for the murder of his wife and marked for death in Japan. Undercover in the guise of various masters of Japanese art forms they dupe the true killer into confessing.
Paris makes a rather unlikely Kabuki performer and Willie a convincing jujitsu expert as the IMF seeks to prove that the Japanese wife of an American was killed by her narrow-minded brother, not her husband. A bogus blackmail film of the murder, which Dana endangers her life to peddle also figures prominently in the plot.
In Japan, motor vehicles drive on the left side of the road; thus, most Japanese vehicles are right-hand drive. But all of the vehicles shown in this episode are left-hand drive.
The title is an apparent reference to a symbol on the robe worn by anti-American industrialist Masaki (Khigh Dhiegh) when he kills his sister, which he does in order to frame her American husband (Russ Conway).
Unfortunately, most of the "Japanese" exteriors of Masaki's estate were all-too-painfully indoor sets (although some sequences were shot in an outdoor Japanese village in Buena Park, near Los Angeles).
Less successful is Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of a Kabuki performer Nimoy is a fine actor, but the large planes and pronounced physiognomy of his face made his occasional forays into Oriental makeup utterly unrealistic. This would have been a good episode for the team (for once in these later seasons) to have added a guest star who could have authentically passed as a Japanese character instead. It's also a shame that the always-excellent James Shigeta has only a minor role as one of Masaki's henchmen, with little to do except stand around looking nasty.
Helen Funai handles her role as the murdered woman's (and accused murderer's) daughter with touching vulnerability.
Appearances[edit]
- Helen Funai as Nobu Kellem
- James Shigeta as Shiki
- Dale Ishimoto as Saburi
- Fuji as Osaki
- Roy K. Ogata as Fighter (uncredited)
- Leonard Nimoy as Paris
- Khigh Dhiegh as Toshio Masaki
- Benson Fong as Inspector Akita
- Lisa Lu as Mioshi Kellem