Runtime:
92 minutes
Directed
by: Gordon Hessler
Starring:
Sho Kosugi, James Booth, Donna Kei Benz, Norman Burton
From:
Trans World Entertainment
Here
is the last film I watched in 2012 and the first one I am reviewing
for 2013. It was on MGMHD, which had a Ninja New Year marathon; it
might as well have been called Sho Kosugi New Year, as most of those
starred the famed 80's martial arts star. I had seen this once
before, on Hulu a few years ago. I figured I'd watch this again, a
film where the villain you see the most is named LIMEHOUSE WILLLIE. I
have no idea what a “limehouse” is and the movie never tells you
what one is.
The
plot: Businessman Akira Saito (Kosugi) and his family live in Japan;
his wife is Japanese-American and she wants to move back to her home
country and due to buisness reasons he agrees. They go to Houston and
they open up a Japanese restaurant in the ghettos of Houston. The
property they inherited has an attachment that is used by bad guys
and crooked cops steal a valuable necklace from the bad guys, and
they believe Akira has it. They thus do really evil things to the
wife and kids and Saito (who by the way is also a NINJA) exacts
revenge in a tremendous way.
Overall,
this movie is corny and goofy and the kids (Sho's real-life sons)
aren't always the best actors. But, this is also wildly entertaining,
Akira does a lot of flipping, and things get pretty violent at times
as he wrecks dudes. The villains are so, well, vile, that you really
enjoy what they get coming to them. You also get a tremendous
80's-riffic soundtrack with a wacky ballad and the score itself is
synth tones, with the drum machine getting used often. Plus, lol to
one of the sons having a bike sooped up with gadgets as if he was
James Bond in an Aston Martin DB5, a gadget-master as if he was Data
from The Goonies. Not to be sterotypical but I got that comparison
from someone else.
If
you enjoy the silly but entertaining world of 80's martial arts
films, then you should see this. I'll be back Friday night.
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