YMMV / The Punisher (1989)

• Awesome Music: One must admit that the music used as the main theme for the Punisher is fitting in expressing the upcoming doom that awaits his victims, along with the ensuing chaos that follows.
• Complete Monster: Lady Tanaka is the leader of the Yakuza and intends to muscle in on The Mafia's territory. To do this, Tanaka has the bosses' young children kidnapped with anyone who might interfere murdered, including a harmless babysitter. Tanaka promises to return the children, but her true intention is to sell them into child slavery. When Frank Castle is captured along with his friend, Tanaka has them tortured on a modern-day version of the rack. At the end, when the most powerful mob boss has teamed up with Frank to get the kids back, Tanaka holds a knife to the child's throat and orders his father to kill himself.
• Special Effect Failure: Frank and Gianni shoot up an entire room full of mooks, and not a single bullet hits the paper wall behind them.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This film is often criticized for not having Frank wear the iconic skull on his chest.^note More than fidelity to the comics, the skull shirt worn by the Punisher is a tactical decision as it draws criminals' attention there more than to his unprotected head - the comics' hero suit is often made of kevlar, and when it's a simple shirt, there's often a bulletproof vest underneath. So ditching the skull, in the end, would be even more dangerous to Frank.

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