Red Sun Rising

Don "The Dragon" Wilson was able to escape the clutches of schlockmeister Roger Corman for a little while and make this movie, which is one of his best. I know that might not seem much of a declaration, considering the poor quality of many Wilson movies, but this one managed to be genuinely entertaining. While a low-budget movie, the production values manage to be slick enough so that no scene looks especially cheap. The martial art scenes, while not up to those from Hong Kong movies, can be considered more realistic, and do manage to be exciting at times. There's even a decent attempt to do some character development! Speaking of the characters and actors, there is some good support from supporting players Ironside and (especially) Mako. The movie could have been given a little trimming (it goes on too long), but overall this is a solid little B movie.

Despite Don Wilson (nicknamed The Dragon) has made lots of movies this is the first movie with him as the lead that I saw. I have nothing against him, simply I don't follow him and apart me nobody knows him in Italy. Yet to his credit this movie entertained me very much and now that I finally took that off my chest, I can discuss it in the review.

Thomas Hoshino (Wilson) is a Japanese detective working in the US that has to avenge the death of his partner caused by a ninja with powerful connections to the Yakuza. After some opposition by Captain Meisler (Michael Ironside) Thomas will go on his own and after lots of brawls, chases and shootouts he'll make the Yakuza-connected gang blow.

While the plot isn't especially deep the acting was good and there were some nice fight scenes that looked a lot like those of the great Jean Claude Van Damme movies... and you certainly don't watch these movies expecting that they won the Academy Awards for Best Picture right? Lots of fun for both fans of the genre and of 1990s movies in general.

There is no doubt that Don Wilson is a phenomenal marital artist. But he really didn't get to show it off in this film. If fact, most of the story was so lame that the films only saving grace was Terry Farrell. Not a great part for her, but she did the best she could with what she was given and her performance was, well...fun. But even she couldn't save this film from becoming a B movie compared to other, better action/martial arts movies.

Having sat down in 2021 to watch the 1994 action movie "Red Sun Rising", I can honestly say that this movie from writers Robert Easter, Neva Friedenn and Paul Maslak was a very generic and archetypical mid-1990s martial arts action movie.

So why I hadn't I ever heard about "Red Sun Rising" before now 27 years after it was released? Well, I suppose because it was an martial arts action movie that didn't have any of the really noticeable of 1990s action movie stars in it. Sure, it had Don "The Dragon" Wilson in the lead, but he was a niche star, not widely known or recognized amidst the likes of Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, etc.

The storyline in "Red Sun Rising" was actually not too shabby, but it was just a bit too generic. I mean, you could have left the movie for a prolonged period and returned later on, only to be able to pick up and get right back into the movie. Nothing outstanding to this movie from director Francis Megahy.

Aside from having Don "The Dragon" Wilson on the cast list, the movie also had familiar 1990s faces of Michael Ironside, Mako and Soon-Tek Oh on the cast list.

The action sequences in "Red Sun Rising" were actually adequate. Sure, this was not groundbreaking choreography or anything, but it provided adequate enough entertainment for a single viewing.

My rating of "Red Sun Rising" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars. This was hardly among the best of action movies from the mid-1990s.

I remember saw this as a kid, and those visuals from the film really attached to my child psychic. I thought that I never see this film again, but I was fortunate, found it on the internet and downloaded it. A mystical low budget crap film about Japanese police man hunting down a Yakuza leader and his personal bodyguard and ninjitsu expert, who is also a dark magic user. The policeman was played by the kickboxing champion Don "the dragon" Willson, which was really fine in this film, he gaved some good fights also. Terry Farrel, who played Don's American partner was also OK, a tough, strong woman with large Cadillac! A supporting characters as Mako (Don's former ninjitsu master) who was really funny in this film, somewhat a comic relief and Michael Ironside (the man with the badass voice). For the end to mention martial arts actor James Lew, who played the main villain (you know him "Best of the Best" (1989), "Lethal Weapon 4" (1997), "Mission for Justice" (1992) and others). Lew played the leading bad guy very differently here, due to his scary looks, I think that he fit just fine for the leading bad guy here, a mystical, dark ninja bodyguard and user of dark ninja magic, and when he use hypnotic powers, his eyes turns blue, maybe I am older now, but, saw the film a few months ago, I found that really scary. Good work for James Lew! Other things as script, story, forget it, it's crappy, no use there. Just turn of your brain and enjoy this dark martial arts film. Love the music too. Watch it...! If you want... :)