Brutal to the bone, DISTANT JUSTICE is one of those slapped-together international co-productions that will probably emphasize Asian star Bunta Sugawara's kick-ass demeanor even more in overseas playdates. As it is, there's already too much of him in this version.
Visiting America for the first time with his wife and daughter, Inspector Rio Yuki (Sugawara) discovers the hard way how vicious major cities like Boston can be. After she inadvertently photographs a drug buy, Rio's wife is gunned down and his daughter Sakura (Sakura Sugawara) is kidnapped.
Despite assurances from his police buddy, the soon-to-retire Chief Bradfield (George Kennedy), Rio decides to take the law into his own hands. Backed up by Charlie Givens (Eric Lutes), one of the precinct's few uncorrupt cops, Rio manhandles street trash, leading him not to his daughter but to
another victim whom he rescues from gang rape. After finding a roll of exposed film from Mrs. Rio's camera near an abandoned factory, Charlie pinpoints the location of the transaction witnessed by Rio's family. The photographic evidence implicates city official Larry Menza (Peter Kovner) and
crooked politician Joe Foley (David Carradine). Rio blackmails them into providing the names of his daughter's captors. A high-speed chase of a wounded hitman leads Rio to an abandoned sugar factory. Here, after the assassin who iced his wife gets torched, Rio causes Boston druglord Roy Pennola
(Jim Lovelett) to plunge to his death. With the help of Bradfield and Charlie, Rio rescues his daughter.
Like any self-respecting DEATH WISH clone, DISTANT JUSTICE plays on audience fears that depravity lurks around every street corner, a grim prognosis unalloyed by crooked guardians of the peace. What the film fails to do is bring any suspense to drive this over-plotted story. The
been-there-done-that ambiance isn't lightened by big bear Kennedy, cast simply for star power to bring in an audience that won't recognize the names of other cast members. Although Lutes energizes the sluggish narrative flow, the villains are all hams overbaked in too many cloves of evil. And
worst of all is star Sugawara, who comes across like Gedde Watanabe doing an impression of Toshiro Mifune. (Graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, substance abuse, profanity.) leave a comment
