RAGE OF HONOR (Arrow)

[Oscar Rothman]

Rage of Honor Blu-ray PRE-ORDER



EW US ONLY TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT: RAGE OF HONOR!

Sho Kosugi's ninja domination continues!

Pre-order yours at all major retailers soon!

Rage of Honor (Arrow Video) Blu-ray

Following his star turns in ‘80s actioners Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja, Sho Kosugi continued his domination of the US martial arts movie with 1987’s Rage of Honor – helmed once again by Pray for Death director Gordon Hessler (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad).

Federal agent Shiro Tanaka (Kosugi) used to live for his job – now, he lives only for revenge. When his partner is killed during a bungled drug bust, Shiro throws away his badge and the rule book with it: arming himself with an array of deadly weaponry – including nunchucks, blades and ninja stars – he sets out to Buenos Aires to settle the score with the bad guys.

Packing explosions, flying kicks and somersaults aplenty (as well as some truly logic-bending stunt sequences), Rage of Honor sees Kosugi at the top of his game as he battles his way from the streets of the urban jungle to the very literal jungles of South America.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation from a transfer of original elements by MGM
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Sho and Tell Part 2: The Domination – brand new interview with star Sho Kosugi on Rage of Honor and the later stages of his film career
- Sho Kosugi Trailer Gallery: Enter the Ninja (1981), Revenge of the Ninja (1983), Pray for Death (1985) and Rage of Honor (1987)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

The first pressing includes a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film and an extract from Kosugi’s upcoming book

Release date: 03/15/16 (US only)
Region: A
Duration: 98 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: 5.1
Discs: 1
Color

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Nice! Although not nearly as popular as Pray for Death, Sho Kosugi and director Gordon Hessler were really quite ambitious with this one. The scale is much bigger than Pray for Death. What it lacks in plot, (I forget what that soaking wet floppy disc Sho and the main bad guy fight over is even for), it makes up for in action and crazy fight scenes. Sho fights hordes of different groups of bad guys, from random camouflage ninjas to random Amazon tribes. A lot of music cues from Pray for Death are carried over here. Will definitely be getting this and Pray for Death.

[MifuneFan]

[Member-222782]

Wow, artwork is already up? I like that. No waiting months to see it

[Skorpius]

It is a great day.

[fuzzydragon]

Excellent news! Loving the Sho resurgence on blu. Hate to sound greedy, but any chance of seeing 9 Deaths of the Ninja someday?

[tylerdurden10]

Originally Posted by fuzzydragon

Excellent news! Loving the Sho resurgence on blu. Hate to sound greedy, but any chance of seeing 9 Deaths of the Ninja someday?

Was thinking the same, that will basically be his last major title that needs a blu-ray release. I'm sure it will happen!

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

The awesome 80's opening and closing theme to Rage of Honor, "I Was Gonna Be Good To You":

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fzgDSZZ_kVs

Whoever the artist is remains a mystery as it's not even listed in the end credits for some reason.

[Pete Rock]

I was never the biggest fan of Rage of Honor. The original Ninja trilogy and Pray for Death were always my favorite Sho Kosugi movies. However, I might pick this up just because it's Sho, and because these types of releases need support if we want to see more of them. Maybe down the road we will see region A releases of some of his later films like Black Eagle and Blind Fury. Black Eagle isn't very good, but it does feature a showdown between Sho Kosugi and a very young Jean Claude Van Damme. Blind Fury on the other hand is actually a pretty good movie starring Rutger Hauer as a blind samurai Veitnam vet. Kosugi appears in the movie as the main villain's hired hand.

[ravenus]

Looks like the UK release is messed up, cropped to 4:3. The label 101 Films claims that's the master provided by MGM. Hopefully Arrow's release will prove different.

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Looks like the UK release is messed up, cropped to 4:3. The label 101 Films claims that's the master provided by MGM. Hopefully Arrow's release will prove different.

I'm sure it will since I cannot see Arrow taking a cropped master from MGM.


Oh and Pete Rock, I too would love to see Blind Fury get released, that movie is so good!

[StingingVelvet]

I really need to try some of these 80's ninja movies. This might be a good one to start with.

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I really need to try some of these 80's ninja movies. This might be a good one to start with.

If I recall this one doesn't really play like a Ninja film. You should probably start from the beginning with Enter the Ninja.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I really need to try some of these 80's ninja movies. This might be a good one to start with.

As action packed as the film is, this wouldn't make a great introductory film for Sho to someone. I'd go with Revenge of the Ninja and Pray for Death, Sho's best, to start with. If you like those, then I'd give this very strange but ambitious Rage of Honor a shot.

You also need to see the American Ninja films, at least the first two with Michael Dudikoff and Steve James, which were very popular during the 80's
Ninja craze.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan Kenobi

As action packed as the film is, this wouldn't make a great introductory film for Sho to someone. I'd go with Revenge of the Ninja and Pray for Death, Sho's best, to start with. If you like those, then I'd give this very strange but ambitious Rage of Honor a shot.

You also need to see the American Ninja films, at least the first two with Michael Dudikoff and Steve James, which were very popular during the 80's
Ninja craze.

Good suggestions, thanks. Not sure why I never saw the 80's ninja stuff, despite being an 80's kid and 80's action movie junkie. I never really saw actual Japanese stuff either, which is scary to get into because there are so many (and they're typically expensive).

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by fuzzydragon

any chance of seeing 9 Deaths of the Ninja someday?

I was surprised that the trailer for this isn't included with the other Sho Kosugi trailers on Pray for Death, though it is on the Trailer Trauma compilation BD.

[WaverBoy]

Don't know how I missed this announcement until just now. Never expected this. Amazing, and coming on the heels of an equally unlikely but extremely appreciated PRAY FOR DEATH release! I'm in. May the Sho Blu-ray Renaissance continue!

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

Don't know how I missed this announcement until just now. Never expected this. Amazing, and coming on the heels of an equally unlikely but extremely appreciated PRAY FOR DEATH release! I'm in. May the Sho Blu-ray Renaissance continue!

I guess all we really need now is 9 Deaths of the Ninja and Black Eagle.....and Aloha Summer!

[NoirFan]

I had a dream last night that consisted entirely of running into Sho Kusugi in the lobby of a hotel, complimenting him on his fists of fury, and asking him to autograph my Prey for Death Blu-ray, only to be politely rebuffed as he explained that his hands were too sore from writing his novel (an excerpt from which, in the real world, appears in the BD's booklet). As far as dreams/posts involving ninjas go, it doesn't get any less exciting than that.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

I had a dream last night that consisted entirely of running into Sho Kusugi in the lobby of a hotel, complimenting him on his fists of fury, and asking him to autograph my Prey for Death Blu-ray, only to be politely rebuffed as he explained that his hands were too sore from writing his novel (an excerpt from which, in the real world, appears in the BD's booklet). As far as dreams/posts involving ninjas go, it doesn't get any less exciting than that.

Ha! That's classic.

Exploding ninja stars, Sho's got exploding ninja stars in this one, good people.