User Reviews

'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.

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.

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Sho Tanaka (Sho Kosugi), Ray Jones (Richard Wiley) and Dick Coleman (Gerry Gibson) are trying to catch drug dealers when someone betrays them. Ray is killed and Tanaka follows the leader Havlock (Lewis Van Bergen, who played the lead on the TV adaption of the comic book Jon Sable, Freelance) to Argentina.

Director Gordon Hessler made this with Kosugi after Pray for Death, which I feel is a much better and more consistent movie. This one was written by Wallace C. Bennett (The Silent Scream, The Philadelphia Experiment) and Robert Short (Scared to Death).

If this had any other actor than Sho - and his self-made weapons - it wouldn't be as much fun. By this point in Sho's films, he plays a cop who is just a ninja on the side versus a ninja, which feels like a step back from where he's been. That said, he also has a throwing star that blows up on impact.

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.