Red Sun Rising (1994) on Netflix
Thomas Hoshino, a Kyoto detective, tracks his partner's killer, Jaho, to Los Angeles. He is paired with Det. Karen Ryder, who hates Japanese people, and with Buntoro Iga, a former Shinto priest.
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- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb5.3/10823 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
Detective Thomas Hoshino works in Kyoto, where Jaho kills his partner. Jaho knows the ancient death touch, and the local force looks down on Hoshino for being hafu, so he takes the trail to Los Angeles. The LAPD is about to question Yamata about his crimes in America, and Jaho is already in the city, setting two street gangs at each other and freeing a Yakuza boss from police custody. Hoshino is paired with Det. Karen Ryder, whose irrational hatred of Japanese people makes the partnership difficult, and he finds an ally in Buntoro Iga, a former Shinto priest with a local business. Hoshino must calm the tensions between the gangs and stop Jaho before his power grows.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Red Sun Rising (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Don 'The Dragon' Wilson says he had to use his creative-control clause to force the casting of Terry Farrell and James Lew as the film's leads, against producer Paul Maslak's preference for more stereotypical looks, and the clash ended their relationship after the shoot.
- Chris Penn was originally going to co-star as the American cop opposite Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, but he dragged his feet on his contract after landing True Romance and told Wilson his agent had urged him to avoid lower-budget films, so Ashok Amritraj recommended Terry Farrell instead.
- Producer Ashok Amritraj first suggested Jet Li, then not yet widely known in the U.S., to play the main villain Jaho, but Li was not available for the part.
- Michael Ironside agreed to play Terry Farrell's police superior as a favor after mutual friend Steve James contacted him on Wilson's behalf, yet the Canadian actor was still paid $10,000 per day.
- Michael Ironside rolled his Mercedes-Benz on the way to the set but escaped unscathed, and star Don 'The Dragon' Wilson also shot the film while fighting off an illness.
- The death touch moves seen in the film were invented by fight coordinator Art Camacho and actor James Lew; Camacho insists some lethal punching techniques exist, though Wilson acknowledges the dim mak is fictional.
- The Kyoto-set prologue was not filmed in Japan but at the Japanese Garden of the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, while production used a studio inside the former Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.
