This is one of the strangest Yoji Yamada films of the bunch, but I also can't describe it as bottom of the barrel with full confidence, as I didn't hate it. The Greatest Challenge of All feels like a bit of a Tora-san warm-up in hindsight, the same as can be said about a few of his other 1960s movies. I guess tonally it's off, though. Technically, on paper, objectively, all of the above, it's a mess, with heavier moments alongside dark humor alongside expected family drama, and there's a feeling of things being made up as they went along, and after 90 minutes, just ending it (it's almost right on an hour-and-a-half long).
So that makes me think it'd probably be a tough sit for most, but I've seen so many Yoji Yamada joints that it was worth it as a morbidly curious completionist. It was messy but in a way that was at least a bit charming.
