(6/10)
Rage of Honor
by Jim Haggerty
6/10
In the 80's, Sho Kosugi became the undisputed king of the ninja craze with his masterful martial arts,
savage sword-play and his impossibly perfect mane of jet black hair. Seriously, the guy's hair is always
perfect to the point of almost seeming unreal - and for a guy who spent so much of his time under a
ninja hood, there was never a hint of hat-head.
This time out, Sho isn't actually a ninja, but an ass-kicking drug enforcement agent who seems to have a
touch of James Bond - or maybe it just seems that way with the various exotic locations and prolonged
scenes in a tux.
The film is called 'Rage of Honor', which - as anyone with a good grasp on the English language knows -
means absolutely nothing, simply a few action movie words that sound cool together. Our guy Sho is a
pretty cool customer - as well as a pretty bad actor - so there isn't much rage on display, not one perfect
hair on his head gets mussed. As far as the honor part, as we aren't in the ninja mode, that also seems
incongruous.
Anyway, Sho keeps making huge drug bust after huge drug bust which has his balding chief oddly
pissed off (jealousy over that great hair?). When one of his team is savagely murdered by a sadistic
drug lord played by Lewis Van Bergen (who meanders through the film like he's doing the role as a
goof) and the chief tells him to do nothing about it he quits the force and flies to Argentina with his
pretty blonde wife to solve the case himself.
While I've never been to Argentina, it must be an interesting place if this film is at all realistic. People
are hung from balconies, murdered in the streets, and yet no one ever seems to be walking past or
looking out a window to see. Also curious is how Sho manages to get detained in prison for no other
reason than he decides he wants to go there to hunt one of the bad guys - prison as a bed and
breakfast?
Of course it's silly - we know that because it stars Sho Kosugi and is directed by Gordon Hessler, the
man who directed the insane 70's epic "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park". But does it deliver the
goods? Actually, it does. Sho kicks a lot of ass consistently without slowing things down too much to
waste time with plot, plausibility or dialogue we can barely understand. It's a prime example of 80's
action. Not as good as the classic Cannon ninja opuses, but certainly fun.
It's on the bottom rung of a triple feature DVD I found in the five dollar bin that also features "Revenge
of the Ninja" and "American Ninja" - a great buy as far as I'm concerned. Grab it if you see it!
Rage of Honor
by Jim Haggerty
6/10
In the 80's, Sho Kosugi became the undisputed king of the ninja craze with his masterful martial arts,
savage sword-play and his impossibly perfect mane of jet black hair. Seriously, the guy's hair is always
perfect to the point of almost seeming unreal - and for a guy who spent so much of his time under a
ninja hood, there was never a hint of hat-head.
This time out, Sho isn't actually a ninja, but an ass-kicking drug enforcement agent who seems to have a
touch of James Bond - or maybe it just seems that way with the various exotic locations and prolonged
scenes in a tux.
The film is called 'Rage of Honor', which - as anyone with a good grasp on the English language knows -
means absolutely nothing, simply a few action movie words that sound cool together. Our guy Sho is a
pretty cool customer - as well as a pretty bad actor - so there isn't much rage on display, not one perfect
hair on his head gets mussed. As far as the honor part, as we aren't in the ninja mode, that also seems
incongruous.
Anyway, Sho keeps making huge drug bust after huge drug bust which has his balding chief oddly
pissed off (jealousy over that great hair?). When one of his team is savagely murdered by a sadistic
drug lord played by Lewis Van Bergen (who meanders through the film like he's doing the role as a
goof) and the chief tells him to do nothing about it he quits the force and flies to Argentina with his
pretty blonde wife to solve the case himself.
While I've never been to Argentina, it must be an interesting place if this film is at all realistic. People
are hung from balconies, murdered in the streets, and yet no one ever seems to be walking past or
looking out a window to see. Also curious is how Sho manages to get detained in prison for no other
reason than he decides he wants to go there to hunt one of the bad guys - prison as a bed and
breakfast?
Of course it's silly - we know that because it stars Sho Kosugi and is directed by Gordon Hessler, the
man who directed the insane 70's epic "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park". But does it deliver the
goods? Actually, it does. Sho kicks a lot of ass consistently without slowing things down too much to
waste time with plot, plausibility or dialogue we can barely understand. It's a prime example of 80's
action. Not as good as the classic Cannon ninja opuses, but certainly fun.
It's on the bottom rung of a triple feature DVD I found in the five dollar bin that also features "Revenge
of the Ninja" and "American Ninja" - a great buy as far as I'm concerned. Grab it if you see it!
 |
Rating;
| by Jim Haggerty |
