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.
Review of Rage of Honor
