Ninja - Die Killer-Maschine

This action film is about a westerner named Cole(Franco Nero) who has learned the ways of the Ninja, until a Hosagowa(Sho Kosugi) has bitter frustration against him after he realizes that Cole having the right to be a "Ninja Warrior". He later visits an old army buddy Frank(Alex Courtney) who is having some personal problems of his own with a greedy landgrabber named Charlie Venarious(Christopher George). However Cole has to take the matter of taking on the landgrabbers as well as Hosagawa who was just recently hired by Venarious to help eliminate Cole. The ending is very fascinating and the battle scenes between the Ninja warriors is the best sequence in this film. The cast is excellent in the film. I give it ******** out of **********.

Lets see what can i say about this one....when i saw it for the first time especially the first 15 minutes during the first action sequence of the ninja test...with the white ninja against all the rest, I wanted to go to japan and be a ninja my self..great action movie..

The film begins with a very impressive display of weaponry skills by none other than Sho Kosugi in full Ninja uniform, including sai, shinobi-gatana, tonfa, nunchaku, manriki {bola}, blowgun, shiroken, bow & arrow, and spear-staff. Blend into white ninja {color indicative of novice/apprentice} amidst the wilderness undergoing his final "law of the jungle" test until recognized as full Ninja calibre; he is attacked by several red ninjas on his way back to the dojo, expertly defending himself until facing the Shidoshi himself, shockingly beheading him before entering in for judgment.

"Enter The Ninja" was released during the latter part of the martial arts pop-fascination of the 70's and early 80's, and distinguished itself by presenting Ninpo principles such as the afore-mentioned Kuji-Kiri, indigenous weaponry and some techniques, all under the expert supervision of Sho Kosugi, an actual Ninpo practitioner, who along with Frank Dux, earned some ire from traditionalists in the old country, but did manage to add an enhanced perspective on this enigmatic historical character known as Ninja. Although, the film is long in the tooth and features way too much plot, but the film does deliver a decent amount of butt-kicking and several cheesy moments that will get giggles of joy from bad movie fans. The last half is far more interesting than the first; the action scenes are competently done, though it's obvious Golan was not the action director Firstenberg was.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

As far as Ninja movies go, this is THE Ninja movie. All of the classic elements are here: smoke bombs, climbing claws, shurikens, villainy... you name it, it's in there.

The movie opens with an excellent trial, where Cole must defeat legions of opposing ninjas (fellow students), then make it back to base and calmly recite the Nine Levels of Power in front of Master Komori. To this day I have a .wav file of the Nine Levels of Power... it is a cool scene.

MINOR SPOILER FOLLOWS

The bulk of the movie is setting up the rivalry between Hasegawa and Cole. Hasegawa, being the evil, black-clad Ninja that he is, causes as much mayhem as possible culminating in the killing of Cole's buddy Frank. Cole, being the good white-clad Ninja, must now (of course) avenge his buddy's death and face Hasegawa one-on-one.

I won't tell you the outcome of the final battle, but I will say that it is a classic Ninja battle. You won't be disappointed.

Sure it is a silly movie, but you aren't watching it for its screenplay, are you? You may never want to see it more than once, but Enter the Ninja is definitely worth seeing.

"Surrender or Die!"

OK it's pretty funny. And, there are some funny action sequences that make you think of 70s style martial arts movies. I really like the bit where there is a ninja scene where they are all in different coloured costumes - it's like the Power Rangers!

The part where he has to cross the bridge is good too. I like how they are attempting to act as well.

The budget must of been huge on this film as there are heaps of actors! Anywho, the script was written (I think), in a day, with another day set aside for spell-checking.

If you've read this far, then watch the freakin' movie.