review by Owen Hughes Patron
Black Eagle 1988
Watched Sep 17, 2012
Owen Hughes’s review:
The first Sho Kosugi film I've seen actually and I don't think I'll be pursuing any more! He is a terrible actor but I guess he can fight pretty well as the film only really gets interesting when Van Damme actually adds some kind of physical, identifiable, human threat as the villain. Up until their big fight, it's a virtually "faceless" enemy so hard to route for Kosugi as the special agent trying to get his kids back and do some covert nonsense for the CIA.
It's a shame that I felt like I had to wait until pretty much near the end to get anything out of this film, but I did quite enjoy those last few scenes which salvages it somewhat.
Despite your negative feelings towards Sho Kosugi and his acting abilities I would recommend watching Ninja III: The Domination, Pray For Death, Rage of Honour and Ninja Assassin. All top ninja films.
Which is the pick of that lot and I'll add it to my watchlist.
Truth be told, I only really watched this as it was part of a 4-action-films-on-one-dvd thing that my parents gave me, and one of those films features JCVD!
I saw it back when it came out and remembered liking it. I picked it up in a charity shop in a double-pack with a Sandra Bullock film for 99p, and found out it's not as good as I remember it.
But don't let it put you off Sho Kosugi films as there are some really good ones to check out.
Ninja Assassin would probably be the best one to try as it's the most recent. From memory, Ninja III is one of those 'so bad it's good' films as the story is about a woman being possessed by the ghost of a ninja. And Pray for Death was a typical ninja revenge film but was quite good.
Right, I'll give him another chance with Ninja Assassin then!