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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: September 27th, 2022.
Director: Francis Megahy
Cast: Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Terry Farrell, Michael Ironside, Mako
Year: 1993
Purchase From Vinegar Syndrome
Red Sun Rising – Movie Review:
Red Sun Rising, a low budget action movie directed by Francis Megahy and released in 1993, opens in Japan where a cop named Thomas Hoshino (Don "The Dragon" Wilson) and his partner, Yuji (Yuji Okumoto from The Karate Kid III and Cobra Kai!), are staking out a gangster named gangster Yamata (Soon-Tek Oh). Within minutes, it all hits the fan and soon enough, Yuji is dead at the hands of the mobsters hulking, mulleted enforcer, Jaho (James Lew), a master of the death touch.
When Yamata heads stateside a short time later, Hoshino is sent after him. Soon enough, he hops on a flight to Los Angeles and soon winds up working with a sassy, smart-mouthed female cop named Karen Ryder (Terry Farrell), who soon proves to be…. Strangely racist. Will they fall in love? Of course they will. At any rate, Yamata winds up getting killed which kind of puts Hoshino’s plans in a bit of a bind – but don’t worry, before long he’s been brought back from the dead, which doesn’t seem to phase our cops at all. Later, a fat cop named Ray (James Hatch) offers to show Ryder his dick, but she tells him she forgot her magnifying glass so he needn’t bother.
Yamata is actually in the states to sell weapons to two rival gangs operating out of Los Angeles, something that Ryder and her boss, Captain Mesiler (a sadly very restrained Michael Ironside), would very much like to put a stop to. But he’s got Jaho on his side, which won’t make things easy. Thankfully, Honshino has a connection in Los Angeles, a former priest named Buntoro Igo (Mako!) who is now way more into ladies than his religious pursuits. Will he be able to train Honshino with the martial arts skills he needs to take down Jaho and his cronies?
Red Sun Rising is an entertaining enough time killer but it has some problems that are hard to ignore. First off, Karen Ryder is an asshole. She’s not likeable at all and her frequent racist jokes don’t land well, and they’re not even clever, just predictable. Not that a racist character can’t at least be an interesting one (French Connection is a fine example of how to make that work) but that’s just it – she isn’t interesting. She’s good looking, to be sure, and she handles herself pretty well in the fight scenes but when one of your lead characters is irritating and obnoxious, it’s hard to make the chemistry with the other lead work. Don “The Dragon” Wilson is better than usual here, showing more range than he does in most of his performances. He’s at his best when he’s kicking people in the face or punching bag guys in the nuts. He does this frequently enough in the movie, in action set pieces that he choreographed alongside Art Camacho, that the movie never really stalls despite the wonky characterization.
The supporting cast is entertaining. Mako is pretty fun here as the horny old man with the secret training skills and it’s amusing to see him strutting about in a t-shirt that says “I’m The Big Banana” on it for some reason. Michael Ironside handles his work here just fine. His role is more of a cameo than anything else and you do kind of which he’d chew some scenery, but it doesn’t happen. Still, a movie is always better for having Michael Ironside in it, that’s just a fact. Soon-Tek Oh, who was in pretty much every eighties TV show ever made but who also appeared in Death Wish IV: The Crackdown and The Man With The Golden Gun, makes for a fun bad guy and James Lew is pretty entertaining as a man of few words and much hair.
Red Sun Rising – Blu-ray Review:
Red Sun Rising arrives on a 50GB Blu-ray disc, “newly scanned & restored in 4k from its original 35mm camera negatives” and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. Presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, the picture quality here is excellent. Natural film grain is noticeable throughout, just as you’d want it to be, but there’s virtually no print damage here at all, the picture is clean from start to finish. Colors are handled very nicely, all of those garish nineties fashions pop quite nicely, and we get strong black levels too. Detail, depth and texture are consistently impressive and there are no issues to note with any noise reduction, edge enhancement or compression artifacts of note.
Vinegar Syndrome offers up 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track for the both feature. Optional subtitles are provided in English. Quality is just fine, with dialogue always easy to understand and follow and levels balanced nicely throughout. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion to note, everything sounds clean and crisp.
The Dragon Rises is a brand new interview with actor Don "The Dragon" Wilson that runs thirty minutes and sees the film’s leading man discuss how the film was originally meant to be a buddy cop film starring Chris Penn and himself, how Penn had to drop out to do True Romance, how the romantic angle was brought once Terry Farrell was brought in to replace Penn, working with the other actors in the film, some of the action set pieces and more.
Red Sun Reflections is a brand new interview with first assistant director Erica Fox. Here, over eighteen minutes, she speaks about how she got her start in the film industry, moving up the ladder to directing for the first time with a movie called Dead Women In Lingerie, her marriage to cinematographer John Newby, what it was like on set, what she was responsible for during the shoot, some of the locations used in the movie, getting along with the cast and crew and how she feels about some of the film's more politically incorrect content in hindsight.
Producer Fu is a new interview with producer Paul Maslak clocking in at half an hour in length and covering his involvement in the martial arts scene, his work on No Retreat, No Surrender, his relationship with Don “The Dragon” Wilson, bringing Megahy on board to direct and how the movie wound up going to HBO and becoming a pretty popular title there and then on VHS as well.
Cinematographer John Newby is up next in Newby's Way, a thirty-three minute interview where he talks about how he got into filmmaking, some of the early work he did in the industry, getting the job on Red Sun Rising, working with Megahy and how they got along, what he learned during the production, shooting in Los Angeles and some of the challenges inherent in low budget moviemaking.
The last of the new interviews is Master Of The Flying Edit, an eighteen minute piece that covers John Weidner's work as editor on the movie as well as how he got his start in the business working with PM Entertainment, some of the projects he worked on when just getting his feet wet, the influence of Hong Kong cinema and working with Don “The Dragon” Wilson and Maslak on post-production duties.
The disc also includes a selection of shorter archival interviews including an eighteen minute bit with director Francis Megahy, a fourteen minute bit with Don "The Dragon" Wilson, a twelve minute piece with producer Paul Maslak, an eight minute bit with actor James Lew, a four minute piece with writer Neva Friedenn, a quick ninety second piece with actor Ewart Chin and a six minute segment with actor / fight choreographer Art Camacho.
An original video trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options round out the extras on the disc itself.
As far as the packaging goes, Vinegar Syndrome offers this release, part of their VSA limited edition line, (limited to 5,000 copies and not to be re-pressed) with a hand numbered bottom loading slipcover, a reversible cover sleeve and a double-sided poster.
Red Sun Rising – The Final Word:
Red Sun Rising is a moderately entertaining slice of low budget nineties action goofiness but it’s been given a pretty impressive Blu-ray debut from Vinegar Syndrome with a very strong presentation and way more extra features than anyone probably expected.