Director: Isaac Florentine
Cast: Scott Adkins, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Mika Hijii, Miles Anderson
Country: United States
Rating: R
Run Time: 86 min
Ninja is a direct to video film from Israeli director Isaac Florentine, well known for his martial arts films and many collaborations with British action star Scott Adkins (Special Forces, The Shepherd, Undisputed II and III, Close Range, etc). It's worth noting that Ninja was released straight to video one month before Warner Bros' big budget and similarly titled ninja film, Ninja Assassin, in 2009. Therefore, one might assume that Ninja was trying to ape off of Ninja Assassin's success and release Asylum Pictures style. And while that assumption is somewhat true, it's worth mentioning that Ninja and Ninja Assassin are entirely different from one another, other than that they are both Americanized efforts at ninja entertainment.
The film tells the story of a martial arts dojo in Japan whose sensei protects the Yoroi Bitsu, a case concealing the weapons and armor of the ninja warrior. The sensei's top two students, Casey Bowman (Scott Adkins) and Masazuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara) both clash with one another in their task to learn martial arts and to earn their master's respect. However, Masazuka's anger gets the best of him and his sensei bans him from the school for life. In fear of the Yoroi Bitsu's safety, the sensei sends Casey and his daughter Namiko (Mika Hijii) to America in order to protect the case. After Masazuka returns to the dojo and slaughters everyone, he heads to New York City in order to kill Casey and to steal the Yoroi Bitsu.
Ninja is a flawed, albeit solid, direct to video actioner that ranks higher on the direct to video scale than many of Seagal and Van Damme's earliest DTV efforts. It pays tribute to the ninja craze of the 80s with its hokey plot elements and copious amounts of ninja sword play. The ninja sub-genre is mainly remembered due to Cannon efforts such as Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and the American Ninja series. Even though Ninja isn't all that much better than those 80s films, few Americanized ninja films were ever good. Therefore, remove your nostalgia glasses and remember that ninja cinema has always been low budget and hinged upon basic as nails plots.
Florentine hinges his ninja antics on a fairly routine plot that is serviceable enough to draw the viewer in but never enough to keep them fully engaged. The film meets the bare minimum of what an action film should do thanks to its plentiful action sequences, distinct mythology, and heroic characters. It's downfall lies in its low budget and hokey plot that prevents it from being a theatrical quality effort. Stock music effects, obvious sets, and weak green screen make for the film's most painful moments. One can see how Florentine and Adkins could be disappointed in the film due to these budgetary restraints. I can partially forgive bad green screen effects (such as the moment when Ihara ziplines from atop a building), but the repeated selections of stock music and sound effects simply grated my ears. The film also features several hokey plot elements, such as a cult-like monk clan that makes up for the film's cannon fodder and the ninja ability to squirrel glide off of a building, that make for a good self aware laugh or two.
Fortunately, Florentine apes Warner Bros.' Ninja Assassin with a selection of fairly practical action sequences that mainly rely upon stuntmen and acrobactic actors over computer generated gore and digital nonsense. The always fantastic Scott Adkins shows off his impressive moves throughout several solid fight scenes, especially in a massive brawl against the entire gang of cult-like monks. Whenever Ninja tries to ape Ninja Assassin's heavy gore with digital blood and limb dismemberment, it falls apart. On the other hand, when Ninja focuses on pure hand to hand combat and physical brawls, it excels where its theatrical counter part fails. Florentine and Adkins aren't just a throwaway duo of action filmmakers; they are two of low budget cinema's very best and arguably Ninja's greatest asset.
Ninja also excels because it provides its hero with a note worthy villain. Tsuyoshi Ihara (13 Assassins) gives the best performance as the jealous Masazuka that he possibly can with the material that he has to work with. Even though his character is one noted, he is also menacing and determined, which is more than you can say about most DTV villains. Masazuka steals the show as an unstoppable force of evil whose quest against Casey and Namiko resembles the T-800's goal in The Terminator. After all, Masazuka scores most of the film's kills, endlessly chases after the duo, and massacres a police station full of officers, just as the T-800. Florentine is lucky to have scored an actor such as Ihara because he brings major acting chops to the film's hokey low budget proceedings.
Ninja easily could have been a cheap copycat of Ninja Assassin in both its title and genre-infused goals. Fortunately, the film was handled by genre pros Florentine and Adkins and makes for an underrated viewing experience that all action fans should give a whirl at least once. While far from theatrical quality, Ninja is one of the better DTV films to have been made in the last 15 years.
Director: Isaac Florentine
Cast: Scott Adkins, Kane Kosugi, Mika Hijii, Shun Sugata
Country: United States
Rating: R
Run Time: 95 min
*SPOILERS BELOW*
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear finds both Florentine and Adkins returning to the series after the release of several of Adkins' highest profile projects such as Zero Dark Thirty, Expendables 2, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Stripped of the previous film's attempts at cashing in on Ninja Assassin, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (or Ninja II) is more of a stripped down revenge thriller in comparison to its hokier predecessor. The sequel is more of an honest collaboration between Florentine and Adkins due to the film's grounded plot and plentiful fight sequences. Unfortunately, Ninja II is nothing but a brutal and dour revenge film in which Adkins' character murders many unnecessary people on his quest to avenge his wife's murder. Say what you want about Ninja, but at least that film was more fun to watch than this downer of a revenge film.
Ninja II picks up a few years after the events of the first film with both Casey and Namiko married and running her father's dojo together. When Casey goes to a jewelry store to buy his wife a commemorative pendant, two thugs attack him and a fight ensues. Later that night, Casey goes to the store to buy some food for his wife, and returns home to find her murdered. Distraught, Casey seeks solace in his old friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi), a sensei of a dojo in Bangkok, Thailand. Nakabara believes that Goro, a powerful drug lord, is to blame for Namiko's death and that he is enacting vengeance on her and Nakabara's family names due to past grievances. Therefore, Casey straps on his ninja suit and goes after Goro.
Even though Ninja II features far more grounded fight sequences and extremely minimal digital effects, the film's action still leaves something to be desired despite the simplistic plot that surrounds it all. Ninja II is jam packed with wall to wall action for the entirety of its 95 minute run time. Unfortunately, many of its fights serve the plot in no way at all. Take the fight between Casey and a group of unknowing dojo members or his brawl in an outdoors bar against several drunk patrons. Both of these fights may be technically sufficient, but neither are necessary in an otherwise overly action packed sequel that exists purely to deliver punch after punch.
The character of Casey Bowman is completely revamped for the sequel in which he turns into more of an anti-hero who murders and beats down people undeserving of pain. Whereas Adkin's Casey was a bad ass cornball in the previous film, here he is nothing but a vessel of pain and unsuppressed rage. In retrospect, Casey's quest for vengeance is entirely misguided because he takes Nakabura's information at face value and ends up massacring countless police officers, criminals, and drug lords who had nothing to do with his wife's murder in the first place. The film's "real" plot doesn't kick off until the halfway mark in which Nakabura uses Casey to massacre his drug lord competition. Ninja II, much like Taken 3, purposefully misdirects the viewer in order to throw a last second twist in there to make the film appear clever. Talk about a slap in the face.
I hate when action films pull the rug out from under the viewer like this because it makes most of the film's body count and action entirely useless in retrospect. A straightforward and predictable revenge thriller would have been more serviceable than trickery such as this. The entire plot is ultimately an excuse to come up with a reason to pit Scott Adkins, one of direct to video cinema's greatest stars, against Kane Kosgui, the son of ninja cinema's greatest star, Sho Kosugi. By the time Casey and Nakabura went head to head for their final showdown, I could not give a care in the world about the outcome because I felt lied too and ultimately deceived.
That Ninja II is technically superior to its technically flawed predecessor is ultimately depressing. It's a shame that Ninja II couldn't pair a great story and character motivation to its rather excellent fight sequences that continue to prove that Florentine is one of action cinema's greatest directors. The sequel, although tonally different and far grittier, simply proves to be a showcase of a misdirected and gullible man who goes on a murder spree. It remains to be seen whether or not Adkins and Florentine will return to the Ninja series, but I give them my permission to bid the series farewell. Unless the two can conjure up a story that doesn't betray the viewer and their character, than I'm out.
Rating: 5/10 - Despite a massive selection of A-grade fight sequences, Ninja II crumbles under its misleading plot and ninja-like deception.
No comments:
Post a Comment