La rage de l'honneur

Please do not confuse this title with RAGE AND HONOR starring Cynthia Rothrock. This martial arts / action film is still not pumped up to the limit, but it did deliver some occasional surprises. Our Asian action man, Tanaka, can fist-fight and use a gun simultaneously. Not only that, he also carries a wide arsenal of weapons including ninja stars and bombs, all of which makes this worth an evening rental. Even more, he does about a couple of cool action stunts that rival (but not as good as) Jackie Chan once in a while. It's a fairly solid 80s actioner because of these features. Let me warn you, though. This movie is kind of lame and it won't hold your interest after one viewing. Solid choreography carries RAGE OF HONOR above the average mark.

Sho Kosugi stars as Tanaka a ninja who when on vacation fights of a group of mercenaries who killed his friend in this terrible chop socky effort which showcases a hero that is just too invincible to be any fun, also Gordon Hessler misdirects the action and the movie never recovers.

Rage of Honor (1987)

** (out of 4)

A Narc agent (Shô Kosugi) gives up his job and goes for revenge after his partner is brutally killed and no one seems to care. It gets even more personal when the drug lord kidnaps his girlfriend and the agent decides to take everyone down. RAGE OF HONOR isn't going to win any Oscars and most people are going to hate it with a passion but if you're a fan of the genre then it should at least keep you entertained. Again, if you're looking for some type of high art then this here certainly isn't going to be your cup of tea but genre fans should eat it up. Kosugi was never an actor and his lack-of-acting skills actually makes for some pretty funny moments and especially in the more dramatic moments. The actor simply can't display any sort of dramatic moments and this at least gives some campy humor to the film. What Kosugi can do is kick major a@# and this is apparent during the various action scenes throughout the picture. The best one and the highlight happens on a hotel balcony as Kosugi's girlfriend is dangling from the side about to meet her death and her boyfriend is in the room fighting. The climax to this fight is pure martial arts material and classic. The supporting characters are all pretty much cardboard and none of them are interesting enough to really make the material better. The film also runs on a tad bit too long, which is another reason the film doesn't work better. With that said, there's enough silly action and camp to make it worth viewing for fans of the genre.

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.

This movie is very 80s. It has agents, ninjas, military, evil druglords, jungle tribes... it reminded me of every action movie from James Bond to Rambo to American Ninja.

It also has bad acting, uninteresting characters and somehow boring flow of story. I can't give a really good rating because I felt a bit bored most of the time. But when the action starts, then it gets good. The action scenes may not be the best possible quality but they have certain coolness, with nice stunts, crazy ninja weapons, and enough explosions. I also liked hard rock/synthwave kind of music which seals the very 80s feel.

So, this is not a movie you watch for the story, but if you have a soft spot for 80s' action movies it has a decent dose of that ridiculousness you probably yearn for.