It was shot in Sydney, co-starring Louis Gossett Jr, Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori, Nancy Everhard, and Barry Otto.

Former undercover police detective Frank Castle (Lundgren), presumed dead after his family's murder, becomes the elusive vigilante "The Punisher," targeting mobsters with his skull-etched throwing knives.

As the mob groups weaken under his relentless attacks, the yakuza, led by Lady Tanaka (Miyori), seize the opportunity to invade their territories, threatening the Mafia by kidnapping their children.

While it received a theatrical run internationally, it was released on Home Video in the United States, grossing $30 million.

The underworld families have become so weakened by the Punisher's guerrilla warfare that kingpin Gianni Franco is forced out of retirement.

Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into the Arab slave trade regardless of whether the Mafia give into the demands.

Soon afterward, Franco breaks Frank out of custody to aid him in saving his son from the Yakuza as well as destroying Lady Tanaka’s plans.

The CD includes the complete multi-track stereo recording, and a 22-minute interview with the composer Dennis Dreith and the director Mark Goldblatt.

It premiered in Germany and France in October 1989 and was shown months later at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci-fi Convention in July 1990.

It finally premiered at the 2008 Escapism Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina[6] where director Mark Goldblatt screened his own personal 35mm print.

Whilst some of the source changes (Castle dwelling in a sewer) and lack of skull may have irked some, as a late 80’s action piece, it’s solid.

The end result is that, even if it doesn’t always feel like the Marvel view of Castle, Lundgren’s version of a ghostly, haunted shell of the man he was, is effective.

While he felt that the movie lacked subtlety and could not turn Lundgren into a real actor, he found it highly entertaining and praised the strong female villains who give the hero a hard time.

His final thoughts were "at times a subversive, sub-Marvel thrill, it might be best to come back to this after the glut of goody-goody heroes due to bombard our screens have passed.

[17] Similarities between the film and the 1993 video game The Punisher include the assault on a casino by breaking through the ceiling and the female assassin.

[18][19] In June 1990, a 64-page comic adaption of the film, written by Carl Potts and drawn by Brent Anderson, was released by Marvel.

In 2004 a reboot starring Thomas Jane, titled The Punisher was released by Lions Gate Films and Columbia TriStar Pictures.