Ninja

A westerner young ninja named Casey Bowman (Scott Adkins) is trained since chidhood to be a deadly Ninja , studying Ninjutsu in Japan , then he is asked by the Master (Igawa) to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu , an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja . But an angry revenger called Masazuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara) is nowadays seeking a merciless vendetta for his old mates and taking on the former master who trained him . As the ominous Masazuka to return demanding vengeance against the veteran Sensei . Things go wrong when Casey's girlfiend , Namiko Takeda (Mika Hijii) , is captured. At the end the terrible happenings leading to a lethal confrontation with the old fellow Ninja , our tough-fisted hero and other Ninja assassins . A silent warrior. A deadly past. A lethal mission. Revenge will rise . From the shadow of the night, a warrior is born not the weapon but the hand that wields it. Raised to become an assassin... until betrayal made him a target . Prepare to enter a secret world of heartless assassins .

It's a westernized oriental action film with an interesting mingle of suspense , brutal martial arts , sword-play , ancient ritual with typical code of honour and bloody combats . The gory plot is simple and plain , a nasty Ninja confronts the clan that raised him , and starring Casey/Scott Adkins being forced into action and steadily butchering his relentless enemies , while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with the infancy contender. This a nail-biting thriller with ustoppable action , including impressive fighting with a lot of blood and gore . It's a mindless but enjoyable story for martial arts aficionados of the old style , but adding some new technical being made by means of wires , cables and digital computer generator . Abundant fights as swords struggles in which arms , body parts and beheading are slice off here and there and limbs are slit open everywhere or blasted apart . Of course , highlights of the film are the breathtaking and groundbreaking fights with lots of blood dropping here and there . Cruel, savage murders and blood splatter , make only recommended for those adults no squeamish and with strong stomach enough to take it .The motion picture was professionally directed by Isaac Florentine .

This film belongs to ¨Ninja sub-genre¨ that achieved splendor in the Eighties : The first movie was ¨Enter the Ninja¨ (81) by Menahem Golan with Franco Nero , Menahem Golan was director of the first film , and was to direct its sequel also , but shortly before production was to start he decided to turn over directing chores to Sam Firstenberg . It was followed by the martial arts features ¨Ninja II¨ or ¨Revenge of the Ninja¨ (1983) with Shô Kosugi , Keith Vitali , Kane Koshugi and ¨Ninja III , the domination¨ with Lucinda Dickey and again Sho Kosugi . These pictures were well produced by Cannon -Golan and Globus- and all rightly directed by Sam Firstenberg . Following others also directed by Sam Firstenberg for Golan-Globus' as ¨American Ninja¨ , ¨American Ninja II and III¨, ¨Forced vengeance (82)¨ and ¨Avening force (1986)¨ most of them starred by low-grade expert on karate genre and Ninja sub-genre Michael Dudikoff . Following this 2009 ¨Ninja I¨ by Isaac Florentine , along with ¨Ninja II¨with Scott Adkins and Kane Koshugi . Furthermore , ¨Ninja Assassin¨ by James McTeigue with Rain , Naomi Harris .

"Ninja" does something that is hard to do.... it updates something from the past but still retains a nostalgic feel about it. Sometimes it felt like it was 1985 and I was a kid sitting on the living room floor eating popcorn and watching American Ninja. But then I see Scott Adkins do an amazing aerial kick and I know I'm not watching Michael Dudikoff. "Ninja" takes a similar formula and story from those ninja movies from the 80's and combines it with a hard hitting and acrobatic fighting style seen in today's martial arts movies. This movie was a lot of fun and if you grew up watching ninja and martial arts movies in the 80s like me, you will definitely enjoy it.

After getting Ninja DVD sent from my uncle in Russia, I decided to watch this movie. But since there was quite a bit Japanese language being spoken and DVD had no English subtitles, I decided to watch it with a friend who is good at Japanese and is an action movie fanatic.

Now I will say this movie is not perfect, but as a action movie, and Ninja movies fan, I was thoroughly entertained nonetheless. on par with Blood and Bone in terms of entertainment value, falling just a little bit short from Undisputed 2(8.5/10) due to some of its little faults. But despite its faults, I love this film and will be watching it time and time again (actually although I gave both of them same grade, I like this movie slightly better than Blood and Bone, because of my favoritism of Ninja movies ).

'Ninja' isn't a film to watch if you want ground-breaking, thought provoking cinema. However, if you're in the mood for a fast-paced action movie that features martial arts experts kicking the living daylights out of one another, look no further. It's very silly, very violent and at times comes across like a live-action version of a bloodthirsty anime, but it makes for an entertaining evening in front of the telly.

Originally released in 2009, it had the misfortune to come along around the same time as 'Ninja Assassin,' a similarly themed movie with a much bigger publicity budget. This may well have led people to dismiss 'Ninja' as a direct to video knock-off, but it's actually much better than that. This isn't a top level production by any means, but it is way more competent than the atrociously cheap movies that get churned out by Asylum Studios or the Sci-Fi channel. 'Ninja Assassin' is the superior film, but 'Ninja' is easy to recommend and well worth a watch.

The film focuses on Casey Bowman (played by the King of DTV action, Scott Adkins), a westerner raised in a Japanese Dojo. While on a trip to New York, Casey finds himself targeted by an evil secret society and a former rival turned Rogue Ninja. Soon he's fighting his way across the city, taking on gun-toting goons in order to safeguard a chest full of priceless heritage items. And it moves so quickly, there's no time to take a breath and notice how little sense the storyline makes. The secret society are trying to do something with the oil industry and the stock market, but it's not clear if they're a religious order, a cabal of financially motivated evil businessmen or just a band of heavily armed thugs with a taste for the theatrical. The script is hammy, the lead character gets surprisingly few lines and there's more than a faint whiff of cheese about the whole thing.

However, none of that really matters. The focus here is on the fight scenes and 'Ninja' delivers the goods. This is a movie where cars flip over and explode for no reason, limbs get severed and blood fountains from sword wounds in high arcs. Adkins is so adept at leaping into the air and kicking people in the head that the laws of gravity don't seem to apply and his climactic battle in the backstreets of New York is an adrenaline pumping finale.

So yes, it's daft popcorn munching fun. This is a B-movie flick that sets out to deliver an entertaining series of action set-pieces held together with a flimsy plot and it succeeds admirably. The few stabs at deeper mysticism are no more than the fast food equivalent of Eastern Philosophy, but if you want to see a man thrown out the window of a moving train and into the path of another train, 'Ninja' is your film.

The highest praise I can heap upon Ninja is that there is absolutely no fat on this thing. It's lean and mean and gets right down to the point: ninjas! It's a scientific fact that ninjas are way cooler than pirates and robots combined. Even dead people know this to be true. That's why it's hard to even muster the energy to attempt to try to bag on a movie like Ninja. The script is flimsier than a leaf in a hurricane, the dialogue is spotty at best and trying to make sense of every plot detail just outs you as an unpatriotic ninja hater. What the movie does do well is show you ninjas killing the crap out of everyone on screen. Scott Adkins and Tsuyoshi Ihara have a hellacious final duel and everything leading up to it is paced faster than a one hundred yard dash. Let's be honest, you didn't have any interest in this movie for its stern position on global politics and the humane treatment of thoroughly owned ninja victims. You came here for ninja-on-ninja action. It's way better than Casper Van Dien's suckfest Mask of The Ninja and in my opinion slightly better than Ninja Assassin. It is not, however, better than Chris Lambert's The Hunted. That one is the high water mark for trashy non-Japanese ninja movies.