Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 28, 2026

Roaring Fire is one of a handful of introductory releases from fledgling imprint Toy Robot Video, a subsidiary of Arrow Video, and in that regard it may be salient to note that a film with at least some ties to this one, and one which is actually overtly mentioned in a supplement on this disc, was just released — by Arrow Video. Some marketing or branding mavens may wonder why Shogun's Ninja was released by the "parent" company while Roaring Fire is a Toy Robot Video outing, and a clue may be in the official press release from distributor MVD Visual, where among the various packaging blandishments Toy Robot offers there's a passing mention that Toy Robot's offerings will be "film masters transferred from the best elements available". That "best elements available" turned out to be a bit problematic with the recently reviewed Guyver: Dark Hero, and the fact that unlike the back cover of Guyver: Dark Hero, there's not even the "best elements available" disclaimer (let alone the kind of detailed information that regularly accompanies Arrow releases, if admittedly not Shogun's Ninja, which was another case of a "pre-delivered master") may cause some momentary concern (see the video section below for more information).

As is discussed in some of the really enjoyable supplements on Roaring Fire, this is inarguably a bat guano crazy outing that reunites Sonny Chiba and Hiroyuki Sanada from Shogun's Ninja, though Chiba is probably even more of a sidebar here than he was in the earlier film, despite his billing in both. What's kind of curious about Clément Rauger's discussion in a supplement is how he repeatedly mentions that Roaring Fire was an attempt by Toei to correct perceived "strategic errors" with regard to at least the marketing of Shogun's Ninja, when Rauger himself offers comments in a supplement on Shogun's Ninja which overtly mention how that film helped to revitalize the fortunes of the studio at a perilous time. One way or the other, the tethers to Shogun's Ninja probably only extend to the casting and studio involved, as this is a (then) contemporary set tale that features a Japanese expat living in Texas named Joji Hibiki (Hiroyuki Sanada) who, in a kind of unavoidably comic info dump before and during the credits finds out the guy he thought was his father is in fact not, and that Joji has a missing twin brother in addition to a sister. It's not much of a spoiler to mention the film actually begins with the murder of Joji's twin brother, in what was probably a somewhat shocking opening vignette for fans expecting Sanada to survive for longer than a couple of minutes, and knowledge of that death is also imparted to Joji.

When Joji rematriculates to Japan in order to find his missing biological family, he is at least able to reunite with his (blind) sister Chihiro (Etsuko Shihomi). The underlying conceit of a guy sucked into a maelstrom in order to achieve vengeance for his family is frankly almost buried beneath the sheer onslaught of lunacy Roaring Fire offers, not the least of which is Sonny Chiba as a magician and ventriloquist (I kid you not) named Mr. Magic (albeit one with a possible alter ego up his sleeve along with all those multicolored scarves), Abdullah the Butcher as a menace named Spartacus, as well as sidebar plot machinations that include everything from a, well, "cheeky monkey" to Japanese Nazis (there must have been a lot of those in the eighties, don't you think?) to priceless jewels. The real draw here is of course the action element, which is persistent and admittedly often very effectively staged.

Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Roaring Fire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Toy Robot Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As mentioned above, this release doesn't even have the "best surviving film elements" disclaimer on the Guyver: Dark Hero packaging, though it, like that other film, is making its high definition disc debut with this release. I'll cut to the chase and say while this is not an optimal presentation, I'd actually rate it as more organic and filmlike in appearance than Guyver: Dark Hero, which had a distinctly digital look at times. That said, the absence of any transfer or element provenance information may inherently give rise to that aforementioned concern on the part of fans, whom I suspect would be more than happy to grant Toy Robot some slack if the "best available elements" offered transfers culled from interpositives or even prints, as some of those old Olive Films Blu-rays were in days of yore (Olive could also tend to use at times pretty dated masters). One way or the other, while this has a more natural grain field than Guyver: Dark Hero, the palette can look a bit faded at times, with flesh tones skewing toward browns. There's also some minimal but still observable age related wear and tear on display (see the scratch a little to the right of the middle at the top of the frame in screenshot 5 for just one example). Detail levels are quite appealing throughout, though the action scenes are often so frenetic that fine detail understandably ebbs because there's so much motion. There's some brief black and white footage during the credits which acts as a kind of flashback info dump.

Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Roaring Fire features a nicely spry sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original Japanese. There's some artful layering of effects despite the narrowness of the track, as in the opening vignette documenting the murder, where everything from heavy breathing to scuffling footsteps to a jet taking off to, of course, repeated gunfire assault the listener. A rather fun score by Kentaro Haneda also sounds problem free. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with film historian Brian Bankston is accessible under the Audio Menu.


• Fire-Storm! (HD; 23:11) features Japanese film critic Ashiko Ito discussing Sonny Chiba. Subtitled in English.


• A Roaring Success (HD; 20:28) features critic James Mudge with an overview.


• Wrestling with Fire (HD; 16:56) features pro wrestling critic (!) and film wrtier Chris Lines discussing Abdullah the Butcher.


• A Buffet of Comedy and Action (HD; ) features Clément Rauger and is kind of interesting if slightly baffling companion piece to the supplement featuring Rauger on Shogun's Ninja, as detailed above.


• Theatrical Trailers (HD; 3:30)


• TV Spot (HD; 00:31)

Toy Robot is helping to establish its nascent identity with consistent packaging, and this features a reversible sleeve (with information printed sideways on the back cover), art cards, a slipcover and a quasi Obi strip which is actually more of an Obi sleeve in that, unlike Radiance's releases where the strip folds around the spine, this one actually fits over the full sized slipcover on the left side.

Roaring Fire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cult film lovers are almost sure to enjoy this absolutely gonzo outing which while supposedly in the mold of Jackie Chan action comedies is arguably a good deal more surreal than even Chan's wackiest adventures. Technical merits are decent if improvable (video) to fine (audio), and Toy Robot has assembled some really interesting supplements to accompany the main feature (it may or may not also be salient to note that they bear the imprimatur of Arrow Video, unlike those on Guyver: Dark Hero, so maybe this release was shunted over to Toy Robot from Arrow at some point). Recommended.