hwg1957-102-265704 '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.

gavin6942 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.

Scott LeBrun Martial artist Sho Kosugi stars in this fairly routine but also fairly entertaining action film, playing Shiro Tanaka, a narcotics detective whose associate Ray (Richard Wiley) is murdered by a creepy drug lord named Havlock (Lewis Van Bergen). It's only natural that he should want revenge. You see, Shiro believes in very traditional ideas of honor. It's also a given that he'll ignore the warnings of his superior and go on a corpse littered rampage of destruction. "Rage of Honor" may be average in terms of the action/revenge genre, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its moments. Sho has an intense presence, and even if he's rather stiff in his acting, he's anything but when it comes to the game of kicking ass. He designed the weapons himself, and is undeniably very skilled in any and all fight scenes. As you'll see from watching the movie, he's particularly fond of his throwing stars. The movie is a little rough for a while, but its globe trotting nature - moving from Singapore to Buenos Aires - gives it appreciable exotic atmosphere, and we are treated to a little bit of the sights and sounds of the city. Things definitely pick up when Sho gets to the jungle, in search of his good friend Dick (Chip Lucia) and girlfriend Jennifer (gorgeous blonde Robin Evans). The supporting cast is okay but mostly nondescript, although the oft smiling Van Bergen is an amusing villain, and in the tradition of the action movie will need to be "killed" more than once. The direction by Gordon Hessler ("The Oblong Box") basically gets the job done, while that stunning South American jungle scenery is a tremendous asset. Potential viewers can note that there's enough gunfire, explosions, and violence (albeit rather bloodless violence) to keep things from ever getting really boring. As was said, this isn't the kind of thing one would likely watch often, or even more than once, but it's certainly tolerable enough for its 92 minute running time. Six out of 10.