The Sho Kosugi Thread

mr 420 · #1 29th March 2010, 03:26 PM

Star of countless martial arts/ninja movies. My absolute favourite (and still one of my fav films of all time) has to be Revenge of the ninja. This movie has it all, amazing fight scenes, priceless dialogue and an insane cast of characters. The stunt where the evil ninja death-slides between the two sky scrapers is still my favorite stunt today.

Who else here feels the same, or do you find his movies total junk. Remember, they were never ment to be high brow academic studies in the first place.

buggenhagen · #2 29th March 2010, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr 420

Star of countless martial arts/ninja movies. My absolute favourite (and still one of my fav films of all time) has to be Revenge of the ninja. This movie has it all, amazing fight scenes, priceless dialogue and an insane cast of characters. The stunt where the evil ninja death-slides between the two sky scrapers is still my favorite stunt today.

Who else here feels the same, or do you find his movies total junk. Remember, they were never ment to be high brow academic studies in the first place.

YES! Sho Kosugi absolutely DOMINATES!

I was a bit of a late comer to his movies but Revenge Of The Ninja is an undisputed classic of the early 80's action scene. I simply do not tire of that movie. His son Kage rocking the nunchaka round the hot tub is mindbending!

The beauty of his movies is that they seemed to get more and more wigged out as the years went by... Ninja 3: The Domination is nuts, and Pray For Death is wild too. I was warned off Rage Of Honour and Black Eagle so can't comment on those.

It's a bit of a shame that after a good few years in the movie wilderness made a comeback in Ninja Assassin which is absolutely stinking.

Despite that I'll back you on Kosugi anyday...

The Reaper Man@Cult Labs · #3 29th March 2010, 11:41 PM

Love Sho Kosugi films.

I've got REVENGE OF THE NINJA,ENTER THE NINJA and RAGE OF HONOR.
I wish someone would release PRAY FOR DEATH.

Just don't mention 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA,which I got rid of,which is now selling at the bargain price of £32 on Amazon.....

mr 420 · #4 1st April 2010, 04:50 PM

Can't forget about The Master either. Really enjoyed this in the mid 80s on late night ITV. Quite amusing seeing Timothy Van Patten (Class of '84) playing a good guy taken under the wing of Lee Van Cleef.

mark meakin · #5 2nd April 2010, 10:59 AM

Kosugi also had an all too brief fight with Rutger Hauer in the enjoyable Blind Fury.Rage Of Honor is far superior to Nine Deaths Of A Ninja,but Pray For Death & Revenge Of The Ninja remain the best films to date.He also pops up in Ninja Assassin which should hit dvd in the UK anytime soon.I also have a soft spot for the 1995 Ninja actioner The Hunted staring Christopher Lambert due to the excellent sequence on the bullet train.

buggenhagen · #6 2nd April 2010, 05:16 PM

It's a real shame that his main ninja films haven't been given proper releases. The MGM R1 of Revenge Of The Ninja is great but we could really do with Pray For Death and Ninja III - The Domination getting properly released too.

Out of interest the US cable channel MGMHD had a ninja New Year this year and showed an uncut HD print of Pray For Death! Show's that it's out there - surely couldn't be that hard to get it onto at least DVD. They only showed it once but I managed to track down an HD rip of it which, I'm ashamed to say, I haven't had a look at yet.

Ninja Assassin was absolutely stinking in my book - I wouldn't even sit through the first 5 minutes again. I've been interested to check out The Hunted for a while - is that the William Friedkin movie?

Splatterdragon73 · #7 3rd April 2010, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reaper72

Love Sho Kosugi films.

I've got REVENGE OF THE NINJA,ENTER THE NINJA and RAGE OF HONOR.
I wish someone would release PRAY FOR DEATH.

Just don't mention 9 DEATHS OF THE NINJA,which I got rid of,which is now selling at the bargain price of £32 on Amazon.....

ROTN is imo Kosugi's best actioner and the mother of all '80s ninja efforts. MGM's R1 DVD looks superb despite being full frame.

I'd love to see an uncut ETN release based on the film's trailer and have yet to watch my own copy of ROH. Lewis (The Overthrow, Stir Crazy and The Relic) Van Bergen plays the bad guy in this one from what i recall.

Wasn't PFD supposedly arriving on U.S. DVD sometime last year?
And it's high time we were blessed with Ninja III:The Domination on DVD too!

I agree with you about 9DOTN and got rid of my own stateside edition a while back. An awful film which still plays on the Movies4Men channel.

Splatterdragon73 · #8 3rd April 2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr 420

Can't forget about The Master either.

If you don't already know i believe this series is available on U.K. DVD.

Pretty catchy theme tune too from what i can remember!

mr 420 · #9 3rd April 2010, 01:46 PM

I remember reading an edition of Combat (or the like) back when Revenge had come out. It had an interview with the guy who played Sho's martial arts mate (The one with the FBI jacket) saying how he was dissapointed that his fight scene against a 300 pound wrestler had been completely cut from the film, plus if you watch the trailer for the film you will also see scenes that never made it into the final cut.

IMO I think that there is quite a bit of cut footage missing from this film, maybe some gore too, but since its in MGMs hands I dont think we will ever get the special edition that it truely deserves.

Splatterdragon73 · #10 3rd April 2010, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr 420

I remember reading an edition of Combat (or the like) back when Revenge ad come out. It had an interview with the guy who played Sho's martial arts mate (The one with the FBI jacket) saying how he was dissapointed that his fight scene against a 300 pound wrestler had been completely cut from the film, Plus if you watch the trailer for the film you will also see scenes that never made it into the final cut.

IMO I think that there is quite a bit of cut footage missing from this film, maybe some gore too, but since its im MGMs hands I dont think we will ever get the special edition that it truely deserves.

It would indeed be great to see ROTN receive an upgraded DVD release with any or all extra footage intact. But until such a sadly unlikely event occurs then the current R1 DVD will simply have to suffice.

Things could've been worse. ROTN may have never been issued on the digital format to begin with and right now i'd rather have this DVD version than no DVD version at all.