After the ransacking of the settlement, we turn our attention to young Megan (Sydney Penny). One can tell that this story is going to be a spiritual journey. We listen to her prayer, a recitation of Psalm 23 with her current heartfelt concerns interspersed. A visual representation of God answering her prayers, the man only known as Preacher (Clint Eastwood) comes down from the mountain like Moses. Just like the prophet of old, we have an inkling that he’s here to execute the moral law upon the wicked.

Normally, child actors can be a miss, especially when put up against seasoned adult actors. However, the precocious Megan proves to be the standout of the film. She expresses a resolute fierceness against the LaHood gang pushing her around, but also exudes a humble spirituality as shown by her opening prayer and her later continuing faith in Preacher.

There’s a later scene between her and Preacher that could prove to be awkward to the audience. Her admiration for the courage of Preacher grows into infatuation, and Megan seeks to entice the interest of him. As the moral center of the film, Preacher turns her down. Because of her youth, her strong emotional attachment, and the mistaken reading of interactions, she takes his rejection to mean something else. Her mood swings quickly from one of attraction to that of jilted hatred. If not handled properly, this scene could come off as disingenuous and awkward. However, Penny portrays Megan the way a teenager would act in the moment. Beneath the surface you can tell there’s no true hatred. There’s just a confused response due to her not getting what she wants in the moment.

Megan’s mother Sarah (Carrie Snodgrass) puts in a fine performance as the worn-down frontierswoman. However, the other actor that gives the film heart is that of Michael Moriarty, portraying the meek, but stubborn Hull Barret. He’s probably today most recognized as the protagonist of low-budget fare such as Q and The Stuff from Larry Cohen. In these films he plays extroverted eccentrics. Hull is mild-mannered and contemplative in contrast. This does not mean that he lacks courage. Earlier in the film, against LaHood’s commands, he enters the neighboring town for supplies to repair the ransacked settlement. Before he leaves, LaHood’s men assault him. Still, he requires the muscle that Preacher can provide to fight back.

Preacher, however, provides more than physical strength. He gives the community faith. Faith in a better tomorrow. Even LaHood recognizes this as more of an obstacle to his operations than just individual opposition. “A man without spirit is whipped. But a preacher, he could give them faith. Once ounce of faith, they’ll be dug in deeper than tick on a hound.”

A beautiful example of the positive influence that Preacher has on the settlers is concerning a situation with a massive ore boulder. Though Hull believes there’s gold hidden within, the task of chipping away at it seems too much. It’s Preacher’s initiative of striking away at the ore that prompts Hull to join in. As Preacher stands up to threats from LaHood’s son and an imposing hired henchmen, the rest of the community realizes that they don’t need to be afraid anymore if they stick together. They then assist to hammer away on the ore, revealing what Hull believed was within originally.

It’s interesting to note that though the villains of the film are hateworthy, they’re not portrayed as cartoonish. It would’ve been too easy, especially coming from a Spaghetti Western background, for Eastwood to portray the antagonists as bloodthirsty maniacs, without concern for law or the mores of the day. However, LaHood tries to work his schemes through the protections of the law. He’s careful not to kill the settlers; in the opening scene, the only casualties are livestock and Megan’s pet dog. He’s even willing to buy them off their land, paying a high price for each head. Finally, he utilizes the services of a Marshal named Stockburn and his deputies.

However, Eastwood wants you to realize that though these actions may be legally right, they fail to measure to the standards of higher, moral law. It thus seems fitting that Preacher faces down Stockburn, LaHood, and their men. He’s either a divine revenant or the personification of Death coming to claim those that God has judged.

“Come and See!” These are some of the words from Revelation 6:7,8 pointing out the fourth horsemen of the Apocalypse. These verses are also the basis for the film title. Eastwood wanted to show audiences that the Western was not dead. It could still tell innovative stories. Though the film features elements from both classic and Italian Westerns, it also points forward to the revisionist Westerns that would be popularized in the 90s, including his classic Unforgiven.

The moody theme that lingers while Preacher is on screen. The early winter setting, which gives off the chill of the grave. The emotional highs and lows vividly depicted by even the minor characters. These aspects, among others, make Pale Rider to be Eastwood’s defining movie of the 80s. It gathers past elements of both acted and directed Clint Eastwood films into one narrative. However, it also shows the promise that he had much more to say, whatever the genre.

Starring Matthew Modine (Dark Knight Rises, Full Metal Jacket, Stranger Things), Frank Jasper, Daphne Zuniga, Linda Florentino (Gotcha, Last Seduction), Michael Schoeffling (Sixteen Candles), Ronny Cox (Total Recall, Robocop). Directed by Harold Becker and released on February 15, 1985 earning a modest Box Office of just $13 million dollars.

There are plenty of films that become Cult Classics, for better or worse; with only some of them actually being worth a damn to watch and re-watch over again. But, a select number of those few actually capture not only a time and setting but also a culture. Vision Quest is one of those films.

The story of Louden Swain, an eighteen year old high school wrestler, who in attempt to end his senior year with a bang decides to drop weight and take on the defending state Champion “Shute”, played by Frank Jasper. Based on the novel by Terry Davis the film is a character study of a young man coming of age into adulthood. Along the journey his father takes in a young artist on her way from New Jersey to California and develops feelings for her. This movie is the Rocky of wrestling films and will probably be the best and only true depiction of what it takes to be a wrestler.  I’m going on a limb but, I guarantee every High School coach has given this film as an assignment to aspiring wrestlers every year for a book report.  Yes, a generic coming-of –age story. But thanks to the pacing and writing by the filmmakers, Vision Quest showcases well developed and authentic characters; making it a stand-out entry in the genre worthy of multiple revisits.

It’s as good as it gets.

So keep your cool. Stay healthy and always keep that finger on the REWIND button.

Movie Link:  

Berry Gordy’s Last Dragon is a 1985 film produced by Berry Gordy of Motown Records, starring Taimak, Vanity, Julius J Carry III, Chris Murney, Keshia Knight Pulliam (small cameo) and Faith Prince. Choreography was done by Lester Wilson and Lawrence Leritz; the movie theater fight was choreographed by Ron Van Clief with Julius Carry performing his own stunts; Julius who plays the Shogun of Harlem, trained in martial arts for this film.

Now if you’d like to hear my objective n fun theory of this cult classic you can go and enjoy yourself with my previous article – “The Tragedy of Sho’Nuff” ( https://newretrowave.com/news/?tag=The+Last+Dragon ).

The story takes place in New York City. Young martial artist “Bruce” Leeroy Green has been elevated to the final level by his KungFu master and embarks on a quest to find the final master that will teach him how to harness his energy and manifest the Glow. The only force standing in his way is Video Game king Eddie Arcadian, a shady business man who intends on conquering the music video and recording arts markets. Both men are world’s apart but through circumstances are dead set on a head on collision.

Enter the Shogun of Harlem, a mysterious gang leader and martial arts God, tired of the word of mouth going round town bout the legendary Bruce LeeRoy. Infuriated motivated and completely obsessed with exposing this charlatan for the con-artist that he really is – “a crumb”. He too plays a major role in this Urban Kung Fu exploitation classic that had a budget of $10million dollars and was a box office success in spite of being critically slammed.

Now you go. Go do your pushups, 1inch punches, kettlebell routine and meditate on this gem from yesteryear. Keep your eye on the heavenly glory and your finger on the rewind button.

It’s time to round out September with some more unbelievably lush and unforgettable art from our favorite classic games. I chose a few more, and I’ve even got some videos this time, because I got all nerd-excited over some of the choices. I also made an earnest effort to find out as much as possible about the individual artists who created these visual masterpieces… that information is oddly difficult to find – or maybe I’m just dumb as hell and don’t know where to look. If you see one I credit incorrectly or that doesn’t have an artist credit, and you’ve got that information, PLEASE TELL ME! Without any further unnecessarily wordy prefacing bullshit, let’s get right to it! Feast your eyes!!!

Salamander/Lifeforce (Konami)

Year: 1986

Artist: Uncertain, my guess is either Kenji Shimoide or Naoke Satō

The cover of the official OST, perhaps the least intruded-upon version of the base image. Back in early days, at the rental store… this snake scared me so stupid I HAD to try Lifeforce. Just to see if I could teach that snake a lesson.

You are looking into the face of galactic evil. Are you even remotely ready for this shit? Do you even know what “ready for this shit” means?

I don’t think you do, ese. I think you’re gonna get schooled into little fragments.

This one always entranced me as a kid. I originally saw it on the US NES cover, and later on in life I was awed at the detail lost in shrinking it from the original arcade flyer. I know it’s just a space snake, but it’s a fucking scary space snake, man. That perfectly coiled length behind it, framed by the yawning star-speckled nothingness of outer space.

I hope you said your space prayers, kiddo.

Space Harrier (Sega)

Year: 1985

Artist: Sega doesn’t even denote who did what in their game credits, everyone just gets lumped in as “STAFF”

I managed to find this one without the retail trim, so you could soak in the moment of visceral chaos. There’s so much going on… there is a gigantic floating brain back there. It’s got a city on top of it. Yeah, everything’s normal here.

There is a lot going on here, and you’d benefit from a close look. Soaring through planetary atmospheres destroying shit with a gun as big as you are? AMAZING career path. Let him show you.

Our dude is so unspeakably cool that he is point-blank nuking the ouroboros dragon thing without even folding p his shades and putting them somewhere safe. He knows the space babes are watching, and Space Harrier never disappoints. The stone heads just sort of toodle by; it seems like they’re either used to this shit by now or just so sullen and insular that they dare Space Harrier to destroy them.

My favorite touch is the light panic on Space Cyclops Elephant’s face. He is not even sure how he’s getting by in this ecosystem, but he sure as hell didn’t sign up for this. He’s got kids.

OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK KEEP UP CARL OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK 

Meanwhile, a gleaming futuristic metropolis stands majestic against the sublime sunset in the background.

The space babes are definitely there.

DOOM (id Software)

Year: 1993

Artist: Gregor Punchatz

“I don’t need any support, advice, or compassion, because even if I am the most ruinous man, I still feel so powerful, so strong and fierce. For I am the only one that lives without hope.” -Emil Cioran

I had to come here. Had to tread the blood-red sands of Hell once more. A UAC space marine’s job is never done. It’s a good thing someone tossed med-kits and boxes of bullets all over the place.

This one image defines my late childhood/early adolescence, at least in part. I still have the 11×17 poster that I framed and hung in my room as a preteen. I just don’t keep it hung up anymore because wherever you put that thing, it sucks the eye away from everything else near it.

Here we see a man who’s pretty certain he’s about to die. He’s bleeding, the sneering legions of Hell are grasping at hims limbs, and you can see the stark animal fear building on his face beneath the visor of his helmet. He drops one, maybe two, but like a pissed-off Satanic swarm of fire ants, the demons simply pile on. His buddy’s running up, shouting that he’ll help cover a retreat. Our man doesn’t even have the breath to say what he’s thinking: you’d better turn right back around, private, or this is gonna be you about twelve seconds after I hit the ground.

That’s the thing that really nailed me to the genre and the aesthetic of games like DOOM when I was younger. I was nihilistic, full of existential terror, and coming to terms with my own mortality at an age when I should have been basking in the bucolic sunshine of oblivion. Doom grabbed me because it was not only action packed and no-holds-barred, but because it really did have this nuance of hopelessness to it. The imagery, the implied storyline, and even certain pieces of music from the game are enough to invoke images of humanity’s twilight. This cover art is no exception. We have stumbled upon a fictional future man about to die, just like billions have before him… except he’s fighting demons and it fucking rules.

Anything Yoshitaka Amano Has Done for the Final Fantasy Series (Squaresoft)

Year: So many, and it’s awesome

Artist: Yoshitaka “World-Crafting Visual Arts Deity” Amano

I’m not one of those people who gushes over shit just because it’s Japanese. Don’t get me wrong; I deeply appreciate what Japanese creators and innovators have contributed to video games throughout the history of the industry. I just tend to sift through my consumption of anything a bit more than it seems… some people do. I’m not judging them. Anyway, I WILL gush over this, because every piece of this man’s art is like Hellenic Greece and ancient Rome collided with the hyperbolic world of JRPGs and created an alternate reality where literally everyone was a god.

Left: The crew from FFII, the Japanese II that was so hard they second-guessed releasing it Stateside but relented eventually; and on the right we have FFIV’s Twin Pimp Squad, Cecil and Kain.

I have a confession to make: the latest Final Fantasy game in the series that I’ve played is IX. I just couldn’t stay interested, plus I stopped doing the console thing around the time the Dreamcast went the way of the dodo. My two favorites, both of which mark me as a minority among FF fans, are I and IV. They are the two that I grew up chewing through, that helped shape my sensibilities about RPGs. I also enjoyed VI very much because it had an even richer story than IV had, and once I got to play them in an intelligible format I fell in love with II and III.

Left: the gang from III, all grown up and jobbed out. Right: Some fabulously crazy shit from VI.

Seeing Amano render those characters in such a graceful, hyper-human style takes me back every time. There’s something deeply Classical as well as something very Art Noveau about everything he illustrates, and it depicts these characters as both visually striking and starkly human.

Splatterhouse 2 (Namco)

Year: 1992

Artist: Probably one of the following – A. Chan, Gyoee~! Miyachan, or Taiji Nagayama (again, they just pile names together in these things)

I just realized while preparing to publish: the fucking octopus has eyebrows. Click for larger version.

I finished with this one because October’s right around the corner. Horror in classic video games is one of my favorite topics to swim around in. Usually the end result of such efforts ends up either painfully cool (but not scary) or laughably shitty. The Splatterhouse series (at least, the original three) are painfully cool. This cover is so 1990s cool I can’t even look at it without muttering “yeah dude” under my breath reflexively.

He is battling the SHIT out of a massive purple mutant and an absolutely FURIOUS land octopus with what appears to be an oversized slot machine lever. You can tell he’s been busy, because that knob is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, an army of the living dead shuffles forth under the guidance of the shittiest little Eddie Haskell ghost I’ve ever seen. One look at Rick’s face tells you all you need to know: he’s HAD IT, and every single thing he can physically reach tonight is going to die.

What’s even more amazing than this is the little intro movie from the game. We’re treated to parallaxing horizons, an almost legitimately moving vision of Jennifer begging to be rescued and then PLUMMETING back into the gullet-anus of some unthinkable creature, and some really driving music that consider the best track out all three OSTs. Look on.

All right, RetroFiends. Put on your hockey masks and go get your pillow cases. I will see you in October!

There is no denying that I would enter a vapid land of infertile thought and mundane repetitiveness, were I to elaborate on a well-known fact that out of a countless plethora of books, some are considered rare because of their bewildering exactitude and profundity, while some others, also being an infrequent treat, are like kids playing hopscotch – flawlessly carefree and genuinely unpretentious. However, this obviousness ends rather abruptly when the profundity breeds cement shoes of repulsion and the unpretentiousness gets lost in a distorted mirror image of itself – naivety. Nevertheless, we should not feel abused by these truly disheartening phenomena whatsoever simply because a third, very intermediate type of book might always come in handy as a ‘savior’, who casts off a whiff of disappointment reeking from the previous two. The transitional state of such ‘redeeming’ novels comes from a specific quality which makes them invulnerable to the aforesaid corrosion. Galápagos is surely one of them. But how did it acquire its exceptional ‘stainlessness’ and what are its traits – answering these questions is a quest which awaits the following text.

Galápagos can be regarded, with a slight overuse of oxymora, as a stoic outcry of calm exasperation, how typical of Vonnegut and other authors being thoroughly disillusioned yet somehow still deeply stirred up by a questionable moral constitution of humanity and its probable as well as unforeseeable transformation in the near or far future. Being a twisted blend of dystopian fiction and a clear-cut satire, the book presents a story of an impending end of human race as we know it. Narrated from an incredibly amusing, subjectively omnipresent point of view, which provides another delivery of paradoxical expressions to our humble collection, it follows the retrospective vivisection of accidental events, which resulted in stranding a totally mismatched menagerie of characters on a fictional, northernmost island of the titular Galápagos archipelago – Santa Rosalia. We find among them: an admiral in the Ecuadorian Naval Reserve, who is an all-fingers-and-thumbs socialite of German descent and a sheer figurehead as regards even basic sailing skills, a recently widowed, middle-aged, high school teacher of biology, a blind daughter of a well-off financier – a genuine cross-breed between Gordon Gekko and Steve Fossett, a pregnant wife of a Japanese IT genius and six girls of a cannibalistic Kanka-bono tribe from the Ecuadorian rainforest. By the utterly contingent chain of events, the above motley crew sets sail from Guayaquil’s waterfront amidst the freshly erupted mayhem of the imminent apocalypse.

I am having this dubious sensation right now that Vonnegut – one of the most effortless evokers of the severely depleted supply of common sense ‘stored’ inside the homo sapiens species – might have actually written a perfectly distorted parable. As we are being amused by author’s bitter-sweet, fact-like prose loaded with some gallows humor of the most exquisite quality, we suddenly realize that the funky bunch of our modern Robinsons-to-be, gathered on the “Bahía de Darwin” passenger ship, cannot be actually treated as, in this particular case, the aggregate protagonist at all. It simply could not be one, due to the overbearing power of fatalism sticking out its impish head from behind the text itself. Its influence on the reader seems to be irrevocable to such a great extent, that we are barely able to see the embodiment of the ‘antagonist’ too, namely “the big brains of humans”, ‘whose’ destructive force, an unfortunate result of a superfluous intellectual flexibility homo sapiens has been cursed with, has the earmarks of something absolutely detached from the humans themselves, a thing exterior, almost alien and, what is even more puzzling, completely marginal. This perplexing impression of the ultimate fatalism (maybe the term “catastrophism” would do even better here), emerging as an eerie toss-up between blind chance and fate, is the only element of parable left in the strictly ‘anti-parable-ish’ microcosm of Galápagos. Or is it?

As a matter of fact, it is not. There is another factor, which could be deemed not only an ‘elongated’ moral, appearing gradually as an antithesis of the mischievously predetermined ‘fabric’ of the book, but also something which calls into question my sudden supposition (maybe Galápagos hasn’t been soaking in a marinade of antiparable for that long after all?…). Sprouting probably straight from Vonnegut’s bona fide steadfastness against mindlessness and hopelessness the earthlings have been following and causing throughout their career as the Rulers of the World, it may have something in common with an… optimism! Yes, indeed, the optimism – however ridiculous it may sound, for the prose of our Pall Mall-loving author does not necessarily leave you grinning from ear to ear in a straightforward manner; it’s more like a laughter through tears – which is being hinted along the tale and quite often reassures us that a certain type of redemption always awaits the human race. And it doesn’t matter, whether it turns out to be a result of tossing a coin called “Fate” (another oxymoron to our catalog!) or if it comes from the law of natural selection, which finally does justice and straightens things out a little for the remainder of humanity or, better yet, streamlines it here and there. I cannot restrain myself from listening to the promptings of my oversized brain, which keeps telling me to give my own proposition of the moral. So I say: thank goodness for a devolution! Wait a minute!? Do I hear a squawk of a great frigate bird resembling a laughter?…

In the first paragraph I stated that Galápagos belongs to the intermediate group of novels, which are immune to ‘genetic’ deformations and mutations of those overly thorough(bred) as well as mongrel-ishly happy-go-lucky. I suppose the secret of Vonnegut’s ‘stainlessness’ lies in the qualities of the crooked parable pinned down on an ad hoc basis: the anti-exemplary protagonist, the distilled, almost nominal antagonist, the overgrown, highly imperative fatalism and the moral, which is definitely present, although mercilessly elusive. After all what can one possibly say or write when there has already been said and written almost everything about the self-destructive force of human stupidity? Quoth Beckett: The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope is to be a little less, in the end, the creature you were in the beginning, and the middle. That’s probably why Vonnegut, I presume, is e.g. dropping sloppy hints of what will the typical specimen of homo (still?) sapiens look like in one million years. Nonetheless, all of this can always be proven wrong (another caprice of the oversized human brain – doubts). Therefore I am leaving the task of dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s up to you and your much less misleading gut instinct. Just remember not to trust your oversized brains too much! They tend to get rusty and, after all, little do we know about how they really work, don’t we?

Amonne Purity

When we were kids, and we first beheld the wonder of console video games, the entire thing would sometimes seem like one huge river – no, an ocean is more appropriate. One deluge of games would be released, then another, and we’d still be tackling the first. Then here, a whole new system, and there, crazy new peripherals we never even knew we wanted (but we wanted them). It was like we could never run out of choices. The best (but perhaps most bewildering) part: we were duplicating a primary cycle that was approximately 3 years ahead of us in Japan, where all (most) of this stuff was getting made. One thing most of us were guilty of, though, at least until we were older, was that we’d make strong mental associations with the games and characters, but maybe not the great companies creating them. Now, as a grown-ass man writing about video games three times a month, I try to explore what I clearly missed as a child… the mostly unsung sagas of these companies, some of whom came from humble beginnings and seemingly faded away without the public noticing.

Hudson Soft is a tale that begins with Hiroshi and Yuji Kudo. In May of 1973, they opened a simple shop called CQ Hudson, which sold radio equipment and also had some nice art photographs. You know, stop in for a transistor, get a nice shot of the ocean for your mom as a gift. It’s worth noting that the company was named after a train, specifically the Japanese C62 which had been produced originally by Hudson Locomotives. Japan saw a lot of railway growth after the Second World War, which was when the Kudo boys were coming up.

The post-war choo choo that inspired two young Japanese boys to innovate and entertain.

Things went well for the Kudo brothers, and in 1975, they began selling products for personal computers. Around ’78, Hudson began inching into video games. At first, the firm was putting out around 25-30 titles a month, which sounds impossible; given the simplicity of the platforms in that era, however, it was far from it. Needless to say, this clone-vat approach bore only modest fruit, so Hudson leaped at the opportunity when given a shot a developing for Nintendo’s new Family Computer. Let me re-phrase that: Hudson strode confidently into video game history by becoming Nintendo’s FIRST third-party developer. They immediately met with strong success; both their port of Lode Runner and their self-conceived game Bomberman sold over 1 million copies. Bomberman had been released previously for Microsoft’s Japan-geared MSX computer, and Broderbund had done well with Lode Runner in the US and Europe, but the Famicom was the desired platform and the timing was just right.

Two titles that solidified Hudson Soft’s position in the top tier.

From its new office in Midtown Tower in Tokyo, Hudson continued to carve a place for itself in video game history. Starting in 1985, the company began doing something we wouldn’t even think of until the early 1990s: tournament-style video game competitions. Their first one revolved around the Hudson title Star Force in Summer of ’85; its sequel Star Soldier was used in ’86 and even had 2 and 5 minute modes built into its home version to reflect its status as a competitive game. These remarkable yearly events, which took a much less competitive tone after 1992, solidified Hudson Soft’s notoriety and popularity at home.

In 1987, Hudson teamed with NEC to create perhaps the greatest dark-horse console of the 20th Century: The PC Engine. Known in the West as the Turbo Grafx 16. I’ve already written a love letter to that console, so I’ll spare you the gushing… but it’s important to remember a few things. With this platform, Hudson Soft beat both Nintendo and Sega at a few things. The PC Engine set the record at the time for the smallest console. It also achieved graphically what the Mega Drive did, except almost three years earlier. Lastly, the portable version of the PC Engine wasn’t using its own pared-down set of games. This wasn’t some wrap-it-up Game Boy shit. It was using the same media as its mother system. It did this five years before Sega could pull off the same thing by producing the Nomad. There’s more to how awesome the PC-Engine is, but you’d be better served by reading my original article.

You’re not losing a whole lot visually, either.  Sorry, I just like rubbing this in because so many Sega partisans tend to studiously overlook it.

Other memorable titles from Hudson Soft (many of which saw multi-platform release) were Starship Hector, the Adventure Island series, Faxanadu, Milon’s Secret Castle, and my two favorites of theirs… Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu and Felix the Cat.

Hudson Soft’s main bank collapsed during a financial crisis around the turn of the millennium, driving the firm to offer itself on the Japanese stock market. To speed up a sad and tedious tale, Konami bought majority stock in Hudson; the two companies had worked amicably with each other since the early 80s and Konami sought to help give lift to the tired bee’s wings. Hudson still self-published until 2011-2012, when Konami bought what was left and absorbed it into itself. The final vestiges of Hudson Soft vanished in 2014, when its website began redirecting to Konami’s. Officially, the Hudson brand still exists, but it is part of Konami Digital Publishing.

The Hudson Bee about to be taken down from over the firm’s original HQ in Sapporo, 2/29/12.

I tell myself sometimes (And I’m sure someone reading this will laugh at me) that I’m helping preserve and curate history when I write articles like this. I know it’s not terribly significant stuff to the world at large, but it is to me… and to any gamer who likes knowing where things started. Thank you, Kudo Brothers. Thank you for starting a radio parts shop in 1973 and naming it after a train.

Thank you for everything.

More in February! Take care until then!

Written by Christopher Fried

http://www.christopherfried.com/

Somehow Japan or Japanese-influenced themes keeps popping up in these reviews, but here it goes.  Back in February we took a look at the debut novel Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, which thrust the author into literary celebrity after its release in August 1984.  Not only was the novel a hit with the majority of book reviewers, its popularity spread throughout the public, and film rights were quickly optioned with famous young actors seeking to the play the protagonist’s role.   The literary world thus wondered what would come next from the ink of McInerney, who was just about to enter his thirties.  McInerney, however, already had a sophomore effort in the making, and a little over a year later in September 1985, Vintage published Ransom.  But unlike his first work, this work had mixed reviews, which some believe lead to his work not taking off like those of his contemporary Bret Easton Ellis.

I find Ransom to be a decent work, but looking over some of the reviews of the time, it seems that some critics felt that McInerney had taken a step backwards after the blistering energy of Bright Lights, Big City.  Is there some validity to their criticism?  Yes, although there’s some background information that might explain away some of their concerns.  The fact is that McInerney actually started Ransom before he began expanding his New Yorker story “It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are” into the Bright Lights, Big City.  Much of McInerney’s early material has autobiographical elements, and his second novel actually uses experiences from the mid-to-late 1970s that occurred before he became known as the quintessential Manhattan writer of the 1980s.  One complaint from a reviewer was that it was trying to be too serious without the verve of his first novel.  This was likely deliberate as the protagonist of Ransom, Christopher Ransom, comes at life with an entirely different perspective than does the unnamed protagonist of Bright Lights, Big City.

Ransom takes place primarily in 1977 Kyoto, Japan, though there are interspersed flashbacks to events in 1975 on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border that the reader will eventually see as part of the cause in making Ransom the man he is in 1977.  Unlike the protagonist of his first novel, Ransom is found to be seeking an inner peace rather than fueled excitement.  This is not say that he isn’t ambitious.  Ransom is a student of karate at a dojo, where the sensei was at first hesitant to teach a gaijin; he longs to improve his skills, and thus reach the level of attaining a black belt.  However, his goals are more spiritual than material.  We see him as a man on an internal quest, and whether he’s striving toward or running away from something, or perhaps a combination of both, we’re with him until the dramatic conclusion.

Interestingly, the story doesn’t just revolve around internal conflict.  Ransom has to deal with the bullying and increasing aggressiveness of a character named DeVito, a man who seeks to best Ransom as the most skilled Western martial artist in the city.  Also, Ransom gets caught up in an attempt to save a Vietnamese refugee, who is the lover of a brash Texan friend, from an obsessive Yakuza member, or so he thinks as the narrative treads on.  Finally, we get an emotional showdown between Ransom and his father, a man whom is distant but ever-present in Ransom’s consciousness.

Although one appreciates the engrossing nature of the narrative, one can see a potential problem with Ransom.  There are just so many things happening to Christopher Ransom, that at times it seems overwhelming.  It’s to be admitted that the novel is longer and paints a wider canvas than Bright Lights, Big City; however, the reader ends up feeling less sorry for Ransom than he or she does for the protagonist in McInerney’s first novel, even though Ransom is less at fault for the troubles he encounters.  To be honest, at times, I felt more interested in the learning more about the backstory of DeVito, even though he is a rather vile character.  I was thinking there has to be story more to this person than just being a one-note villain.  I entertained similar thoughts about a number of the secondary characters.  The novel is a story of redemption, but when you later learn about Ransom’s possible past mistakes, you wonder if he’s being a bit melodramatic in his attempts to find himself in Japan.  What happened in the past was awful, but all involved were adults, and thus it seems a little ridiculous for Ransom to bear the entire burden of guilt.

Perhaps, it’s unfair to compare this work too much with Bright Lights, Big City.  In terms of form and narrative, it’s a leap from his preceding work; not a leap backwards nor one forwards, but one sideways to a more conventional novel.  A highlight is the detailed description of the martial arts.  It shows that McInerney actually spent time in Japan learning Karate rather than gathering crumbs from the contemporary cultural landscape that was obsessed with anything that came from the land of the rising sun.  I don’t know if it influenced the reception of the novel, but at the time, The Karate Kid was still riding the waves of the big splash it made in cinemas (released a year prior to Ransom).  The Karate Kid is a good film, but compared to Ransom, in terms of martial arts knowledge, it seems somewhat slight.  What makes The Karate Kid more delightful is that we want to cheer Daniel-san on to victory in overcoming his emotional difficulties and defeating the bullies.  He has heart as does his mentor Mr. Miyagi.  I believe that Christopher Ransom has determination, but I’m hesitant to say that he has heart.  I don’t believe that he is supposed to have heart as written, but him not having it makes the reader less sympathetic to the predicaments that he finds himself in.  Still, give this slice-of-nostalgia a shot, and then decide if you want to follow where McInerney goes next.

Tonight, we’ll be visiting the grave of a daring hero form far-off Japan. It never really made it all the way west, but it had ambitious beginnings and deserves a place in video gaming history. It was Sega’s first earnest attempt to go head-to-head with the mighty Nintendo, and despite its fall, it paved the way for future success by whetting the teeth of those involved. This entry into the Console Graveyard is… the Sega SG-1000.

A bright and sunny little thing, all too blissfully unaware of its imminent fate.

The “third generation” of console video games began a bit earlier than a casual observer may think. When Nintendo broke its champagne bottle over the Famicom and let it set sail, times were actually fairly lean in the console market. Launching a new video game system, no matter how innovative, could have been seen as a rather bold move. However, Nintendo had faith in their device, and it proved to be well warranted; by 1987, Nintendo dominated around 65% of worldwide video game console hardware sales.

Little do many know that Sega made a valiant attempt to compete with the growing monolith. When the arcade market that had been such a comfortable home for them took a downturn in ’82, Sega began developing the SG-1000. The company had recently sold off some licensing, and was split in to a North American R&D arm and its Japanese corporate branch. The president of the Japanese company, Hayao Nakayama, lobbied hard for Sega to apply its proven clout in the arcade realm to a home console. The end result was the stout little SG-1000, a strange creature that sort of bridged the gap between the Atari 2600 and Nintendo’s Famicom system.

A strange but colorful ad for the SG-1000. I say “strange,” but stranger has come and gone, to be fair.

The first iteration of the SG-1000 was a squat, bright white affair, very simple in its presentation but almost cheerful looking. The controller looked a lot like Atari’s, taking the form of a compact little joystick with broad orange buttons on either side. The graphics gently outperformed the 2600, but couldn’t quite compare to those of the Famicom system, with a modest 256×192 resolution and a 16 color palette. Part of the falling-short could be blamed on hardware component choices; the Zilog z80 CPU and Texas Instruments video and sound chips were the same ones used in the ColecoVision… a then-outdated system. In fact, an unlicensed system called the Telegames Personal Arcade was produced later on that could play both SG-1000 and ColecoVision games.

Screens from Flicky and Girl’s Garden, two of the more memorable titles for the SG-1000.

Despite these shortcomings, the system fared decently at very first, at least in domestic Japanese sales. It was also marketed in Spain with some initial success, but the American market never saw the SG-1000. However, a damning set of circumstances brought about the slow demise of Sega’s new baby. First off, much like some later consoles I’ve covered in this series of articles, Sega attempted to address flaws by simply redesigning and re-marketing the console in new forms. In July of 1984, another corporate buyout was followed by the release of the SG-1000 II. This new packaging included slightly improved controls and the ability to play Sega Card games as well as cartridges, but the console sold poorly out of the gate. An additional computer-keyboard style attachment did little to buoy sales, and the SG-1000 series was discontinued by October of 1985. The series was also badly hit by the crash of 1983, not to mention competition outside of Nintendo in its native Japan. While Sega had lost this battle with Nintendo, they learned a lot, and doubled down on their development of console hardware. The Sega Mark III was released that same year, and it evolved into the well-known Master System, a console that was finally able to compete well in the now-growing market. By 1988, the Genesis was emerging on the scene, and the wars of the fourth generation were in full swing.

Left to right: the Mark II, the 1100 keyboard attachment, and the SC-3000 (a last ditch effort to repackage the system as a personal computer).

While researching this article, I was able to find very little information of much detail on the SG-1000, which leads me to believe it is often overlooked out of hand. However, as we pay our respects at this dusty crypt, we see upon closer examination that we stand at the grave of an unsung hero. I hope at least a handful of our readers discovered something they hadn’t seen or known here today. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and may we never forget the little consoles that fell into the spaces between.

Thanks for reading!

I write a lot about games I love. Writing for NRW has given me the platform to do that, and it’s wonderful. However, I can’t neglect the games I absolutely hate. Ranking high on that list is Ghosts & Goblins, a game whose enduring success baffles me to this day.

Ghosts & Goblins is an arcade platformer that not only enjoyed success in coin-op form but was ported to numerous systems over the years. Initially released by Capcom in 1985, the game did well enough in American arcades to be considered memorable. I’m willing to wager the majority of my readers will remember one of the console ports; the NES and Genesis both got one, and the SNES received a sort of sequel.

The X68000 (left) and NES box art. Click to enlarge.

In Ghosts & Goblins, you play as Sir Arthur, a remarkably brave but fragile knight whose lady friend has been kidnapped by “Satan, King of Demon World.” Satan gets the drop on you and your maiden fair “Prin Prin” while you two are bonding in the cemetery.

Nude in a graveyard. She’s fully clothed. I’m not sure what’s supposed to be happening here, but tragedy will soon strike. Not that it probably wouldn’t anyway.

Arthur must battle through six stages of random and numerous monsters to reach the throne room of Satan. On his way, he can find… well, surprisingly little. There are some better weapons than his lance lying around, chiefly a cross and some fire. There are a lot of things you can pick up that give you points, too, like treasure. Once in a while, you might even find a replacement suit of plate mail if yours falls off from being hit once by a monster. Don’t get hit while you’re in your underpants or you die! That’s right, G&G not only murders you repeatedly, it kills you while you’re in your undies.

It doesn’t look like Lucifer’s wearing pants either. I guess when you have a second huge terrifying face for privates, that gets kind of cumbersome. Elastic waist only. If ever.

I’d like to stress: we’re not dealing with normal, “reasonable” difficulty here. This game is insane. It’s sadistic. Once you get rolling, there’s no such thing as a safe spot to collect yourself. You’re constantly assailed on all sides, your armor absorbs one hit, and (SPOILER) if you beat the game without using the cross or flame weapon, you get a message like this:

This happens to me all the time in real life, except I’m usually in front of a keyboard. I am still usually in my underpants, though.

I think I’d rather allow a bullet ant to bite me than play this game for an hour, but that hasn’t done much to stymie its popularity. The Wii/3DS Virtual Console and Game Boy Advance have ported it in recent years, and it was released on several home computers in its day, including the ZX Spectrum, X68000, MSX, and Amstrad. G&G was also part of Capcom’s Arcade Cabinet release for the Xbox 360. The franchise continued with multiple sequels under the Ghouls & Ghosts banner, with the game formula barely changing. Two spin-offs were made, Gargoyle’s Quest and Maximo. Characters from the games are featured in Marvel vs Capcom 3.

I will say this: the original arcade cabinet looks gnarly. I see actual ghosts and actual goblins. 

I’ll be generous and give Ghosts & Goblins 5 out of 10 stars. It’s one of those games I fail to understand the appeal of, but it’s not total crap. It’s just weird and hard and kind of… creepy in ways it maybe didn’t mean to be. In any case, it’s part of our hobby’s history.

As a bonus, here’s a speed runner completely tearing ass through the whole game, which is vindicating for me. It’s like watching my dad beat someone up. Not that he ever did that. My dad’s nice… that’s where I got it from!

]]> https://newretrowave.com/2016/05/20/ghosts-goblins-capcom-1985/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2015/09/23/berry-gordys-the-last-dragon-1985/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/09/23/berry-gordys-the-last-dragon-1985/#respond Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:36:05 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/09/23/2015923berry-gordys-the-last-dragon-1985/  Yes it is time. Not for a retro review. It is time for the long awaited objective retrospective of the Cult Classic, The Last Dragon or as I call it, The Tragedy of Sho’nuff.

]]> or “The Tragedy of Sho’Nuff”

Yes it is time. Not for a retro review. It is time for the long awaited objective retrospective of the Cult Classic, The Last Dragon or as I call it, The Tragedy of Sho’nuff.

Directed by Michael Schultz. The film stars Taimak, Vanity (Denise Katrina Matthews), Julius J. Carry III, Chris Murney, and Faith Prince. It was released in theatres by TriStar Pictures on March 22, 1985.

The film received a mixed response from critics. Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the movie 2 (out of a possible 4) stars, calling it “…Juvenile, campy and heavy-handed…Strictly kid-stuff, except for one gag: the name of the Chinatown warehouse.”

In 2002, a paper in the Journal of Asian American Studies applauded the strong character development of the black hero, who reverses the stereotype of the typical Asian in an action film. The hero, while learning from an Asian Zen Master, learns to use his internal strength and aura to overcome obstacles. And I say “Wrong – wrong – wrong – wrong”. Why? Bruce Leroy is actually the villain of the film. Yes, the bad guy wins and gets the girl.

Now – I am not trying to troll any of you. This is my objective take on the film. This is not click bait. I’ve seen this movie hundreds of times and can quote every line in the story. I love it. Unfortunately to hasten the read, I will have to only dissect the character of Bruce Leroy.

Last Dragon is the story of a young man in Harlem, during the “bad days”, living in a tenement with his parents and two siblings. His father is a hard working business owner, running a NY style pizzeria with his wife. His little brother is a young scrappy teenager who enjoys hanging out with his friends and attending the set of a dance party type music video show hosted by the singer/VJ Laura Charles.

Bruce Leroy is usually described as a young man; a reluctant hero type; naïve and innocent. Things that are a complete contradiction to what the character does in the film. Bruce Leroy is at its source the cause of much of the misery that happens in the movie. He is part con-man, coward and suffers from a case of fanboy bordering on self-delusion. He doesn’t shatter Asian stereotypes; he is an Asian stereotype. He is so wrapped up in his put on persona that it prevents any connection to anyone throughout the film.

The film starts with Leroy’s “master” trying to murder him with a bow and arrow. We don’t know how they met or if they even have a good relationship. All we know is that Leroy has been going to this man’s boathouse to train in the martial arts for quite some time. After dodging all the arrows except for one, Leroy is instructed by his master that he has reached the final level and can no longer continue to be his student. Leroy falls to his knees and begs for forgiveness; the same way the actors in Kung Fu movies do. The old master begins laughing. Why, because he can’t believe this kid. The master instructs Leroy that he must leave now that he’s reached the final level. Leroy is still dumbfounded that he can’t train at the boathouse. The master insists, “I am no longer your Master!”, then brilliantly devises a plan to be rid of Leroy for good by giving him a fancy gold medallion that belonged to Bruce Lee and it will lead him to his new master that will teach him “The Glow”. “Go. Go. Go. Go”, says the Master.

Leroy leaves.

Begin montage of Leroy walking around New York City dressed as a rice farmer. Then we are taken to a movie theater screening Enter the Dragon. The theater is filled with a rogue’s gallery of Manhattan’s riff raff and dregs. Leroy is even here watching the movie and eating popcorn… with chopsticks, smh. Lights flicker and the movie stops. Enter Sho’nuff and his unnamed gang of cronies.

Sho’nuff is a local martial arts master who is “back on the scene” to remind everyone he is the top of the Kung Fu food chain. Where has he been? My theory is that the Shogun has been in jail for an unknown amount of time. While serving his bid, he must’ve heard these fantastical stories about this new Kung Fu fighter in Harlem; a real master; he even catches bullets with his teeth. Sho’nuff now being a free man and reunited with his gang is on a mission to debunk this Bruce Leroy once and for all. Sho’nuff is actually the protagonist.

This doesn’t seem heroic on the surface. But, let’s look at Leroy. He isn’t a master and doesn’t consider himself a master. However, whenever he is around people who are ignorant to the martial arts Leroy acts enlightened, holier than thou, speaks in riddles and even has the audacity to run his own school. Yes, the student is running a Kung Fu school. He is charging kids money to teach them martial arts that he doesn’t even consider himself an authority on. His oldest student can’t even fight. He is so wrapped up in this image of being a Shaw Brothers hero that he is completely detached from reality, except when it comes to ego and making a profit.

Sho’Nuff spends the rest of the movie openly challenging Leroy to fight him. Not to the death. Not to maim. He just wants to fight. But, Leroy takes every opportunity to evade and dodge him. This continues to enrage Sho’nuff, who is forced to come up with more and more ways to instigate a fight. He challenges him at the theater – Leroy sneaks out the side door. He shows up to his dojo, insults, humiliates and threatens one of his students – Leroy kisses his Converse after damn near almost fighting one of the Shoguns girls but, not Sho. Sho’nuff even went as far as vandalize Daddy Green’s pizza and dumped his brother into a garbage can of marinara sauce.

What does Leroy do? He see’s the Shogun’s van across the street and waits for them to drive off before running into his dad’s establishment. The situation when he entered was awkward to say the least. He is then exposed for his cowardice by an angry Richie. But does he go looking for retribution? No – Leroy goes to his dojo to cry into a punch a bag that “Don’t hit back”.

Leroy refuses to fight Sho’nuff out of some sense of discipline. However, Leroy has no problem fighting the hired henchmen Eddie Arcadian.

In the aftermath of the pizzeria incident, Leroy is approached by Ms. Charles (the VJ that he has saved numerous times) to be her bodyguard. He refuses, in spite of the fact that he only knows her from saving her. As if, “Whatever. I got my medallion back. I’m on a quest. Bye Felicia”, is what he was thinking.

Laura is attracted to him but, like Sho’nuff she can’t get a reaction out of him. He’s too locked into his fantasy. She even goes on to play by his game. She creates a music video collage of Bruce Lee gifs synchronized to Willie Hutch’s “Glow” just for him in private, in the dark. It works. He comes out of his idiocy while watching a kissing scene from the music video and kisses Laura deeply. But, it’s all ruined when he sees another scene and is drawn back into his fantasy. “Thanks a lot, Bruce”.

Another example of the main characters selfishness is his form of disguise. He needs to infiltrate the SUM DUM GOY warehouse and get passed the workers who turned him away earlier in the film. Obviously, they are not on his level. So, he disguises himself by what? He steals his little brother’s clothes and steals a pizza pie from the Daddy Green’s pizza that was just vandalized. He brings a pizza topped with beansprouts. Why beansprouts? Well, because Leroy is an idiot.

His plan fails. In his confusion he runs back to his Master’s boat house and finds him packing his possessions. His master starts to laugh, “So you didn’t find the master”. He hands Leroy an empty fortune cookie and tells him everything he needs is inside. Leroy practically broke his own fingers opening the damn thing. Nothing was inside. Leroy looks stupid.

The master then giggles and pocks him in the middle of his head, like look here. He then reveals that the gold medallion is really just a belt buckle. Maybe his plan was to slip out of town before Dumb ass found out it was a wild goose chase.

“Are you going on a journey of Knowledge” says Leroy.

“No. I’m seeing my mother in Miami”, says the old master.

Leroy you jackass…

The climax of the film is a gauntlet battle to save Laura and his brother with an expected rescue by the Kung Fu school. The school of youngsters beats up a group of murderers, criminals, sociopaths and a white MR.T on Eddie Arcadian’s payroll. Go figure.

Finally, Leroy is almost murdered by an enraged Sho’nuff who easily dismantles him and only wants one thing – recognition. Leroy can’t answer because he’s Leroy. Sho’nuff loses grip on sanity and is about to punch a hole through his head until Leroy’s life flashes before his eyes as he is drowning in water and he finds his identity. The Glow is manifested and his invincible fists defeat Eddie and Sho’nuff… Even catches bullets with his teeth.

Flash forward to 7th Heaven during the White Party. Laura is looking unloved when Leroy shows up looking dapper with flowers. Could this be Leroy’s after-life after the Shogun killed him? No, it’s real. The movie ends and it’s a happy ending.

Although this film isn’t the greatest thing since silk pajamas… it’s a good time and harmless fun.

I’d love for everyone to take the time to watch this Cult Classic film from the 80’s and look at it from my angle. It’ll make you appreciate it more and you’ll enjoy it more doing so. Have fun with it and take the piss out of life.

So meditate, focus, breath, practice and seek peace in your shelter. This is the Last Dragon retrospective and you have the glow. Keep kicking, punching and blocking and axe kick that rewind button.

 

]]> https://newretrowave.com/2015/09/23/berry-gordys-the-last-dragon-1985/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2015/05/03/the-adventures-of-hercules-1985/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/05/03/the-adventures-of-hercules-1985/#respond Sun, 03 May 2015 18:11:39 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/05/04/201553the-adventures-of-hercules-1985/ "The Adventures of Hercules".. Released October 1, 1985, directed by Luigi Cozzi. Music by Pino Donaggio. Runtime 88 minutes. 

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Utoob’s annoying policy of enforcing copyright laws and insisting on charging to view films that hardly anyone remembers is a major annoyance of mine. Many a scathing rage induced reviews and cinema autopsies are yet to be shared because of corporate greed. If you can still buy bootleg dvds out in public in broad daylight and ex-convicts and distorted personalities can dress up like your favorite cartoon & muppet characters, shaking people down in the street, fight cops, poo-poo on your childhood in smelly suits, then you should be able to watch your favorite retro movies on YouTube. 

 

3 of 3 of the lemon parade – 

“The Adventures of Hercules”.. Released October 1, 1985, directed by Luigi Cozzi. Music by Pino Donaggio. Runtime 88 minutes. 

Dear lord, the opening credits are the same as the Chris Reeves Superman movie. “This film is the sequel to the first?”…  This is a sequel and people actually watched the first one and this one.

The Greek god Zeus has lost his seven mighty thunderbolts. All seven were stolen by jealous Olympians.  The world is in disaster. The moon is knocked out of its orbit and is hurtling towards the earth. Urania and her sister Glaucia [not diseases] figure the only way to save the earth is by calling upon the mighty demigod Hercules to return the thunderbolts to Mount Olympus. Here is the catch – each of the thunderbolts is hidden inside of a monster, just like a video game.. 

However, the evil gods have an ace up their togas and his name is King Minos [not king midus]. King Minos with the help of Dedalos (Daedalus in the first film) use History Channel Ancient Alien type science to try and thwart our hero. 

 

Best / Worst Moments:

• He kicks Bigfoots ass.
• King Minos was resurrected in what looks like a beach cooler with cherry jell-o and kool-aid mix, water & dry ice.
• Hercules saves the two chicks from a tribe of booger monsters. Fights a cave filled with glowstick people. Then fights a gorgon in a scene ripped from Clash of the Titans with horrible inner monologue informing you of what he is obviously doing in the scene.
• He fights a #sjw “White Knight” to the death. And we all hate white knights don’t we?
• Drag queen summons a, [ala Final Fantasy] VHS tracking static, scrambled cable feed, monster to kill one of these broads as a sacrifice. Our hero screams “I am ready for you”? Then Lou Ferigno is directed to just punch air and mime.
• Hercules awkwardly chokes one of our beauties in a strange scene until she reverts to her true form of a coochie monster.
• Main Villain in his rennaissance faire/saturday morning outifit confronts our champion and shouts,”Get rid of yourself'”, and seriously I wish I could have from this movie.
• Athena gives Hercules a magic hubcap to do battle with evil science.
• Animated space battle ; neon gorilla vs yellow dinosaur.
• Tsunami’s, earthquakes, flooding, chaos, it’s either the moon effecting our environment or somebody turned on the HAARP system. 
• What the Hell is going on?!! 

 

Whatever else that happens is beyond my comprehension of schlock. I stopped laughing after fifteen minutes; Seriously.

That’s this months retro movie folks. So keep flexing. Hold tight and upright. I’ll see you in June with warm tropical breezes. All those lovely things to look forward to after we wash our eyes of this lemon. Keep cool and keep your finger on the rewind button. 

]]> https://newretrowave.com/2015/05/03/the-adventures-of-hercules-1985/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2015/03/03/pray-for-death-1985/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/03/03/pray-for-death-1985/#respond Tue, 03 Mar 2015 17:05:03 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/03/03/201533pray-for-death-1985/ This lemon first premiered during the infamous Ninja Craze of the mid-eighties when martial arts ads were everywhere... Ads like "Ninja Power" or "Art of the Assassins" with pictures of masked caucasians with black masks, dressed like members of the caliphate, holding sharp swords, shurikens, posed beneath 1-800 numbers, next to other ads for weight-sets and muscle gain creams. You saw them in your comic books. 

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Part 1 of the 3 months of lemons series begins with the 1985 Sho Kosugi film “Pray for Death”, directed by Gordon Hessler.

 

            This lemon first premiered during the infamous Ninja Craze of the mid-eighties when martial arts ads were everywhere… Ads like “Ninja Power” or “Art of the Assassins” with pictures of masked caucasians with black masks, dressed like members of the caliphate, holding sharp swords, shurikens, posed beneath 1-800 numbers, next to other ads for weight-sets and muscle gain creams. You saw them in your comic books. You saw them in your Kung-fu magazines. You even saw them Saturday mornings fighting Chuck Norris. Everyone had to have some type of Bandanna or some type of ninja related item to go with their Ninja flicks and “How to Martial Arts at home” videos.

Pray for Death was one of the many films that made Sho Kosugi the first Asian action star in America after the death of Bruce Lee. His more well known films were produced by the infamous GOGO duo of Golan & Globus of CANNON FILMS; otherwise known as “The Bad News Jews” according to Electric Boogaloo: The untold story of Cannon Films by Mark Hartley (2014). This film however isn’t’ one of those therefore, dare I say it, it might actually be better than a dud.

From the opening title sequence and the first chords of the theme song you will know exactly what to expect, if not the menu screen of a SEGA Genesis game. Or a slight chuckle.

            More than a dud but not great. Cool but not amazing. Moments of nostalgic cringe but totally entertaining. It’s the kind of movie that you loved when you were young but don’t talk about much nowadays because of the lemon zest.

           Sho Kosugi is a master of ninjutsu living with his family in Japan and after a dispute with his brother forces the two men to cross swords. Sho is forced to kill his brother and because of guilt swears to never take up the sword again. He moves his lovely wife and two songs (played by real life sons: Kane & Shane) to America. The culture shock is sudden but, with a few adjustments and goodwill they start to acclimate themselves to the possible American dream ahead of them.

            Eventually, like all movies of these types, paths are cross with the seedier side of America. And the family is put into a life and death situation that forces Sho to choose the sword in order to protect his family from Limehouse Willie. Limehouse is a mob enforcer played by the films writer James Booth, what a coincidence.

            So, do you like kids about to be blow torched (Yes!), do you like evil villains with Mr.Rogers Neighborhood type names (Eh!), a useless police force that’s only purpose is to show that they are completely useless (Well!), do you like heroes dealing out justice dressed in cool ninja outfits before you know who ruined it recently (Wink, Wink!)? Well here it is. The first of the three. Prey for Death.

            Next Month will be part 2 of 3. Gather your jutsu. Light the incense. Sharpen your swords. and keep your fingers on the rewind button.

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