Rage of Honor (1987)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Thanks for the memories!

Fresh and Exciting

'Rage of Honor' has a plot one has seen hundreds of times with stock characters and dialogue that goes from the clichéd to the absurd. It does have some attractive South American scenery though and a good music score from the prolific Stelvio Cipriani. It also has Sho Kosugi who may not be able to act but who can do martial arts satisfactorily. The last half hour is mainly action and it is quite exciting though someone must start teaching evil henchmen how to shoot straight. Lewis Van Bergen as the main villain Havlock and Robin Evans as the love interest Jennifer Lane are uninteresting. Not a film to watch twice.

A Japanese cop, Shiro (Sho Kosugi), and his partner Ray are after a bunch of drug dealers. But they are betrayed by an insider and Ray is killed. Shiro follows the murderer, a sadistic drug lord, up to Singapore.This is director Gordon Hessler's follow-up to "Pray for Death" (1985), also starring Sho Kosugi. The general consensus seems to be that the best Hessler-Kosugi team-up was "Pray for Death", but I respectfully disagree. I feel they stepped it up a notch or two for "Rage of Honor", and I really appreciate the James Bond-as-a-ninja theme.Some people may take issue with Hessler's direction. Cool A** Cinema notes, "Unfortunately, the action sequences suffer the same fate as most American martial arts pictures of the day. There's very few master shots and far too many close ups." That point is well taken, but for those looking for an action film rather than a martial arts film, this may not be easily noticeable. No one should be expecting Bruce Lee.The Arrow Video blu-ray is not packed with extras, but is far from bare bones and does include a brand new interview with star Sho Kosugi on "Rage of Honor" and the later stages of his film career. We also have an interview with Stelvio Cipriani, the film's composer. The first pressing includes a collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film and an extract from Kosugi's upcoming book. And, of course, you are getting the film in high definition, looking far crisper and cleaner than we ever got in the glory days of VHS -- you can actually see the individual drops of splashing water.

Sho Kosugi re-teamed with PRAY FOR DEATH (1985) director Gordon Hessler for this international action flick. Shiro (Kosugi) is a Drug Investigation Bureau (D.I.B.?) agent who seeks revenge after his partner is murdered by drug-lord Havelock (Lewis Van Bergen). He quits the force and flies to Buenos Aires to get his revenge. Oh, I'm sorry, he rages his honor. Shiro is apparently not the smartest cookie as he brings his girlfriend along and she is quickly kidnapped, resulting in a huge chase through the jungles of Argentina. This was Kosugi trying to expand his screen image a bit, resulting in a character that is sort of like James Bond with some ninja tendencies. He doesn't have Bond's instincts though. For example, the "good guys" send a chopper to pick him up and 6 deadly ninjas pop out to kill him. Shiro dispatches of them, yet still follows the instructions of the "good guys" to "take the disc to the abandoned factory" (how he knew which factory is beyond me). The action is very well staged by Hessler, who gives the production a really big budget look. The last half hour is pretty much fighting and shootouts non-stop. The MGM DVD I have have (part of a ninja 3-pack with American NINJA and REVENGE OF THE NINJA) is frustrating in that it starts the film widescreen for the credits and then jumps to 1.85 for the movie. But at least it is better than the full frame single edition release MGM previously put out.

Shiro Tanaka (Sho) is a Phoenix, Arizona cop working for the "Drug Investigation Bureau". Both he and his partner Ray (Wiley) are sick of department red tape, and even though they always get results, the top brass is always coming down on them for their "reckless" ways. While working an angle, Ray goes solo to the compound of the sadistic drug lord Havelock (Van Bergen), where he is then tortured and killed. Shiro vows revenge and uses every weapon at his disposal to stop his arch-nemesis, and eventually this leads them both into the jungles of Argentina where the final battle commences. Will the resourceful Shiro win the day? Starting from the opening "party boat" scene, you know you're in for a heavy dose of 80's awesomeness. (frustratingly, the one song used in the film, a Wang Chung/Mister Mister-like jaunt, is not listed in the credits or anywhere online that we could find). Both here and throughout the whole film, Sho's thick accent is in full force. Some of the most hilarious moments in the movie come during the dialogue scenes, where the other actors have to simply pretend his accent isn't unintelligible. So, to keep Sho's dialogue to a minimum, he pauses instead of speaks in many cases. The result is amusing. But the other actors aren't blameless here either - while Sho's name in the movie is "Shiro", it sounds like most people are calling him "Churro". While this would be insulting to Mexicans and Japanese alike, I think we can put this down to lack of understanding of Japanese naming traditions. While this is part and parcel of the whole Sho experience, fans really want to see Sho in action, and they are treated to some great stuff here.While the film lacks one of Sho's trademark opening-credits displays of his moves, we do see throughout the movie his wide array of weaponry. Some of which he is credited with creating himself. While the bad guys have some noteworthy hardware, such as long , Wolverine-like metal claws that remind you of Terror Claws Skeletor, in almost every action scene, Sho seems to have a tackle box filled with throwing stars, nunchuks, swords, grappling hooks and many other items. One of the coolest is a digital throwing star which blows up on contact. It doesn't get any more awesome than that.But, if truth must be told, there is some filler in this one. This is director Gordon Hessler's immediate follow-up to Pray for Death (1985), which is a much more consistent film. Yes, Havelock is the classic "hiss-able" bad guy, but Limehouse Willie beats him in both the name and pure evilness departments. Once the action moves to Argentina, it gets dangerously close to a standard Exploding Hut jungle slog, and Sho can do better. We liked him in the scenes with his tuxedo and white scarf, looking suave. Despite what may surround him, one fact is undeniable: Sho is cool.Interestingly, while Sho is, here, for all intents and purposes, a ninja, the whole "ninja" aspect is not played up at all. No one says the word "ninja" and no emphasis is put there. Perhaps by 1987 the filmmakers felt the whole Ninja Boom was on the wane and they would try out Sho as a cop...who's basically a ninja.So go back to a time when men smoked in hotel lobbies (and the prerequisite abandoned warehouses), and Sho ruled the video store shelves. While we believe the best Sho movie we've seen to date is Pray for Death, the Cannon-like fun of Rage of Honor shouldn't be forgotten among those who can't get enough of the thrills of Sho.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviewsc.com