Ten Zan: The Ultimate Mission
1988 film by Ferdinando Baldi
Ten Zan: The Ultimate Mission (also known as Missione Finale) is a 1988 science fiction action film written and directed by Ferdinando Baldi under the pseudonym "Ted Kaplan". The film stars Frank Zagarino, Mark Gregory, Romano Kristoff, and Sabrina Siani. It was Baldi's final film before his death in 2007.
The film, an international co-production between Italy and North Korea, was filmed on-location in the latter country. To date, it is one of the few Western-produced non-documentary features to be shot in the country, and one of the only films made there to feature American actors. The film portrays North Korea as a futuristic utopia, a decision which Baldi later explained as "a conscious avoidance of reality" foisted upon the production by the local regime.
Ten Zan was one of eight North Korean films to be shown at the Udine Festival of Far East Film in 2000. In a report of these screenings for Asiaweek, Richard James Havis regarded the film as "truly lamentable", saying: "The acting is worse than that of the propaganda movies, as is the plot."
Plot
A group of known troublemakers are working on experiments in the Far East. They have discovered a substance that penetrates human cells, and makes changes to chromosomes and genes. These experiments are carried out on young girls who are abducted from the local villages.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3859275. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988, 2007 and 2000.
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