Red Hawk: Weapon of Death

Title:Red Hawk: Weapon of Death
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: R1 License - Manga Entertainment
The Camellia Blossoms gang (think of the Mafia in fictional ancient times and you will get the picture) plague the innocent with fires, death and using counterfeit coins to cripple the economy. Within this gang are the Five Dragons, a group of men and women trained in deadly martial arts. When the youngest and fifth ranking member of the group simply can‘t take anymore of the death, he rebels. With the aid of his brother, Muklyong, he escapes certain death. However, his brother must pay the price; with his soul...

Three years later, the counterfeit coins are taking their toll on the innocents of a small village. When a craftsman is killed, her daughter and her love interest, Junchung (Red Hawk using a fake name), begin to suspect there is a connection. Joined by the mysterious Yungyung, they travel to where he was last seen to unravel the mystery. And maybe the mysterious Red Hawk will make an appearance. (summary from ANIDB)

R1 Licensed by: Manga Entertainment.
This is a Korean anime movie,
86min Movie (released 1995).
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 8 8 1 6 KBanger1 [series:1862#1694]
First off, I really believe Red Hawk deserves a review in here. Now if you don't know, this was a Korean produced anime which was dubbed for English from Manga Entertaiment. I personally did not know this until I looked up the actual information. Even though it is Korean, Manga wouldn't have picked up the right to it if it didn't have any promise. Sad to say, it really didn't have much to begin with. The story is about Junchung (pronounced dan yong for some reason in the movie), a young man who's real identity is the infamous Red Hawk. Red Hawk is like a superhero to the people. A skilled fighter with a butt ugly mask. The story behind this is that he part of the infamous Camellia Blossoms gang and he was opposed to the senseless killings he had witnessed. For his act of betrayal, he was to die in the hands of his former partners. He was saved by his older brother and was literally blasted out of trouble. Three years later, a lone warrior starts punishing bandits and outlaws in the name of justice and his name was Red Hawk.

The story after that is cut and dry. I didn't like the story at all as a matter of fact. It was too basic and way too predictable. Junchung is like Clark Kent from Superman. He acts like a weakling until he has to don the red butt ugly mask. What got me wondering was the way that some of the characters have unique powers that were out of the blue. For example, there is a girl warrior who gets into a fight in the middle of town. She has tremendous skills and beats the crap out of her opponents. As a finish to the last opponent (here's the thing that bothered me) she lets loose an energy beam out of nowhere. I mean, take a look at the picture above of Red Hawk. Looks like a normal fighter, right? This guy can bulk up like Goku, use energy beams...hell he can levitate. All these friggin powers and no explanation. It's like a villager all of a sudden jumps on Red Hawk and delivers a Kamehameha shot and walks away. It's too out there for me. One major killer was the corny music. Now, that was just too lame. It's like someone broke out the little keyboard and started playing MIDI sounds. Yes, that bad.

What I did like about it was the fact that the animators didn't slack with the characters. What I mean is that in some anime, you see things done that looks like the animators just rehashed some old backgrounds or some old animated cells because they didn't want to do a new scene. This is why I wanted to do this review. It was a refreshing change, albeit a weak story. It did however had solid characters and very good animation. It was almost like watching a He-Man episode for the 80's. The animation was so close to what the animators did for He-Man that it could almost pass off as an episode.

I did purchase this title a long time ago out of curiosity. I would have never known that this was a Korean movie had I not looked it up. I'm not saying it was a bad pickup but if I had the chance to turn back time, I probably would have skipped it. I would say watch this title because of the animation and compare it to some of the anime out there. You may not find anything different, then again you may see something that catches your eye.

Last updated Monday, July 14 2008. Created Friday, July 11 2008.

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Red Hawk - Weapon of Death (Korean movie) http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=4129
ANN's Red Hawk info page

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