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| Images courtesy of Toy Robot Video |
Not even a year after Shogun’s Ninja paired up
director Norifumi Suzuki with his newfound favorite leads Hiroyuki Sanada and
Sonny Chiba, the acting-directing trio were back for another round with Roaring
Fire picked up by Arrow Video’s new subsidiary Toy Robot Video. An out-of-nowhere boutique label seemingly
arising in the wake of Radiance Films and their use of collectible OBI spines,
our first encounter with the outfit came with Chris Jordan’s take on The Guyver 2. With many more releases
ahead on their slate including the original Masters of the Universe in
4K UHD as well as Arrow’s own recent Blu-ray disc release of Shogun’s Ninja in
the West for the first time, it was only natural another effort featuring the aforementioned
combined forces on disc would follow. Briefly
released in the US by New Line Cinema in 1982 and featuring infamous hardcore
extreme wrestler Abdullah the Butcher in an unlikely supporting role, Roaring
Fire while not as strong as Shogun’s Ninja is another outlandish and
playful if not hyperkinetic actioner which doesn’t always take itself
seriously.
In an opening prologue, we see a man played by the film’s
leading actor Hiroyuki Sanada gunned down, immediately playing with our
reactions to seeing our main character seemingly murdered. Fear not, its a twin brother the film’s Texas-raised
rancher Joji (Hiroyuki Sanada) never knew about. Learning of this on his adoptive father’s
deathbed as well as apparently having a sister too, Joji ventures out to Japan
to find them and why his brother was killed.
Upon meeting his sister Chihiro (Etsuko Shihomi) whom he learns has been
blind since youth, it arises their uncle Ikeda (Mikio Narita) is enmeshed in fascist
criminal syndicates who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the coveted Queen
of Sheba diamond. The closest thing
Joji has to an ally in all of this is a mysterious snarky ventriloquist magician
who calls himself Mr. Magic (Sonny Chiba) and may have a bit more of a vested
interest in this whole endeavor than he initially leads on.
Though lacking the playful anachronisms of Shogun’s Ninja,
particular in that film’s jazzy and rock-and-roll infused score by Masakatsu
Suzuki, Roaring Fire is a pretty entertaining follow-up to that film’s
shenanigans and still offers up a funky score of its own by Kentaro Haneda. Making his debut as a cinematographer here is
Kiyoshi Kitasaka who the following year would lens Kinji Fukusaku’s Best
Picture winning comedy Fall Guy with a marked ratio change from scope
2.35:1 in Shogun’s Ninja to a more standardized 1.85:1 aspect between
movies here. Hiroyuki Sanada more or
less picks up where he left off with the prior film while Sonny Chiba more
actively plays around with his character where you aren’t quite sure whose side
this quirky guy is really on versus his obvious villainy from before.
At one point when the film stars to feel more
like a James Bond movie, your stereotypical heavy bouncer arrives in the form
of Spartacus (Abdullah the Butcher) in a scene that feels channeled right out
of the WWE film No Holds Barred. Given
Abdullah’s own time spent working Japanese wrestling circuits, it makes
absolute sense why he’d be plugged into a Japanese action flick wanting to
capitalize on the then-recent wrestling arena sensation. Etsuko Shihomi unveils an unexpected battle instinct
when she is forced to do combat with Ikeda’s adversaries and seeing her
transformation is an exciting one.
Meanwhile Mikio Narita, with carefully framed pictures of Hitler behind
him in his secret hideout, is a deliciously hateful bad guy.
When the film was released in the United States via New Line
Cinema, in typical Western fashion, Hiroyuki Sanada was renamed ‘Duke Sanada’. Years later, Sanada would have the last laugh
in winning a Primetime Emmy for Best Actor in the FX/Hulu miniseries ShÅgun. Sonny Chiba is hilarious and surprising in it
while Sanada’s still in very early young action hero mode. The unexpected cameo of Abdullah the Butcher,
for good or for ill, sort of puts this into the beer-and-pizza category though
world wrestling fans keen on the performer will absolutely want to grab this
release up. Toy Robot’s digitally
restored Blu-ray looks fabulous and comes with numerous extras including an
audio commentary by film historian Brian Bankston, three video essays including
one on Sonny Chiba, Abdullah the Butcher and the film itself, particularly its
offbeat mixture of action, drama and comedy.
The Toy Robot disc also comes with three lobby cards with the transfer
information listed on the back of one along with reversible sleeve art and a
collectible slipcover. All in all, if
you liked Arrow’s release of Shogun’s Ninja, buy this Toy Robot release
of Roaring Fire with confidence!
--Andrew Kotwicki
