Rage of Honor

Ok, again, when I was growing up in Germany we had one channel that spoke english.  That channel was the AAFES network.  It sucked!  It played news about 90% of the time, one cartoon usually "Voltron", and a lousy black and white drama before they played star spangled banner and went off the air.  Needless to say, VHS was our best friend.  My older brother usually raided the Martial Arts section with our Father.  We discovered Sho Kosugi.  With titles like "Enter the Ninja", "Revenge of the Ninja", and "Ninja III Domination" he introduced two pre-teens to the world of bloody assassins who would find endless new ways to hack someone every couple minutes.

I'm not sure how we missed "Rage of Honor".  I found it in the free section of on demand and it was like I had been given a gift.  "A Sho Kosugi Ninja movie from the 80's that I've never seen!  I'm all in SON!!!"  Having said that I obviously lost something I had when I was younger, or maybe just got a little bit wiser, not sure which.  I think when I was younger I thought the moves were precise, and the gadgets were cool.  Now that we have advanced so far in making Martial Art movies one's like these are really lacking.  They move their swords so slowly that a 6 year old kid could move out of the way, yet the blades still make swooshing sounds like they're cutting the air.  They don't even try to cover up the stunt doubles, and the acting makes me want to punch myself.  The plot is so redonkeyless it looks like they made it up as it went.  They should just call this movie what it was.  Sho Kosugi moving slow and pretending to hurt people.

For all these reasons I've given "Rage of Honor" my KEPT WATCHING, BUT NOT SURE WHY.  This movie has made me question if the old ones I loved so much will look like crap on a crutch if I was to watch them again.  I think for that reason alone, I'll retire my 80's Ninja outfit, and let them live on in my memories.