Les maîtres ninjas

Starts off with a soft-core ninja training sequence that includes barely clad girls: mud wrestling, being dipped into ice water, having their bodies forced into contortions and learning the arts of seduction. Meanwhile an unscrupulous businessman who is hated by everyone, including his angry drunken wife and his hot-headed fight expert sister in-law, is being targeted by killer ninjas. The police are having no luck at catching the clever, secretive ninjas and ask for help from a Kendo teacher who gets romantically involved with the sister-in-law. Lots of great fight scenes including the end fight between the ninja leader (Yasuaki Kurata) and the Kendo teacher (Chen Kuan Tai). Some of the laughs come from: the use of cheap camera tricks showing the quickness of the ninjas, the female ninjas using their naked breasts to `relax' their foe and the ridiculous ghoul-face deaths induced by the poison the ninjas use to kill their victims.

While generally labeled as a contemporary Hong Kong kung fu film, A LIFE OF NINJA (1983) is actually something of a rarity for the genre—an adult suspense thriller with ninja fight scenes integrated into the plot. The wide-ranging ninja action gets a little far-fetched at times, but the filmmakers take care to establish some history and provide a context for it to play out in a modern urban setting in a dramatically plausible way. The story's also filled with mature characters who behave like real adults, all played by strong actors. The first hour of the film is more concerned with plot and character and the build-up of suspense, while the last third crams in the ninja fight scenes at a fast-and-furious clip, culminating in a major showdown between the hero and his ninja counterpart.

The plot has to do with a corrupt, philandering Hong Kong businessman, Chan Ming-fu, who finds himself the target of a ninja clan after launching a deal involving a Japanese company. He has problems with a wife angry over his unfaithfulness and her sister, Sun Chi Mei, who runs competing business ventures. The hero, Chow Han Wei, is a kendo teacher with ninja training, who begins a romance with Chi Mei, the business-owning sister-in-law and an accomplished fighter in her own right, and is ultimately recruited as a bodyguard for Chan Ming-fu. A police detective investigates murders of various associates of Chan Ming-fu and asks for help from Chow Han Wei as well. A female ninja infiltrates Chan's business operation and succeeds in bugging his office to monitor his plans. Chow manages to fend off ninja attacks on his client, his girlfriend and himself, all of which involve an intriguing array of ninja weapons and techniques, and he eventually takes the fight to the Iga Ninja Clan's elaborate cave headquarters on an island near Hong Kong, where he engages in a frenzied sword fight with attacking black-clad ninjas and finally takes on the clan leader in an intense one-on-one kung fu bout. There are flashbacks to Chow's own ninja training as a youth with a Japanese teacher who was slain by the Iga ninja chief.

There's a PSYCHO-style shower murder early in the film in which a ninja stabs a woman with a stiletto made of ice. Under the opening credits, there are scenes of female mud wrestling and other questionable "training" techniques, in addition to brief scenes of female nudity later in the film. The more outlandish ninja fight scenes are provided by a prominent wrestler in the cast named Wong Kin Mi, who plays one of the ninja killers. He has one crazy scene where he takes on a carful of men (and their car!) in an underground parking garage. He later engages in a grueling fight with the hero, who, while doing many of his own stunts, may have taken some real punishment.

The plot moves well, the ninja scenes are imaginatively staged and the actors take it all seriously. The big revelation for me among the cast members was Elsa Yeung Wai San, who plays Sun Chi Mei and creates quite an interesting and attractive character. We first meet her when she enters Chow's fencing school clad in red cloak, white blouse and tight black leather pants and challenges him to a sword fight to see if he's good enough to teach her. Later, she has a fight in a bar with a group of rowdy men trying to grope her drunken sister. She's good enough to make us wish she were in more fight scenes. Chen Kuan Tai, in his post-Shaw period, plays Chow as a handsome leading man, a confident hero with a romantic touch, mellower and more mature than he was in his fiercer Shaw roles. He even has a (fully-clothed) love scene with the lead actress.

Yasuaki Kurata, a Japanese actor active in Hong Kong films since 1971, and a favorite of many kung fu fans, plays the elusive ninja leader who fights Chow at the end. Chen Hung Lieh, a regular in Shaw Bros. costume adventures in the 1960s and early '70s (he was Jade-Faced Assassin in COME DRINK WITH ME), plays the short-fused businessman who hires Chow to protect him from the ninjas. Tin Man Chung plays the persistent police captain who investigates the murders and accepts Chow as an ally. I have been unable to identify the actress who plays the female ninja, but she's quite effective.

Taiwan-based director Lee Tso Nam also made such exemplary old-school kung fu films as THE HOT, THE COOL AND THE VICIOUS, EAGLE'S CLAW, FATAL NEEDLES FATAL FIST, CHALLENGE OF DEATH and GREEN JADE STATUETTE.

This is the story of a family under siege by ninjas. A rich man has split his company between his two daughters. One (who drinks to excess) is married to a womanizing sleaze who built the company up to ten times its value. The other seems to spend her time and money trying to master sword fighting techniques. No one gets along. The family begins to be besieged by attacks by a band of ninjas. It begins with am attempt to frame the husband for the murder of one of his flings and escalates from there. The unmarried sister asks a sword teacher friend to help protect the family once the attacks become more deadly.

How do you define disappointment? I suspect that this movie is a good definition. This movie begins with one of the best sequences ever in an exploitation film, the ninja training school. We get some of the funniest scenes ever put on film as the ninjas go through their paces, are bent into odd shapes, and engage in mud wrestling. Yes, mud wrestling. Who knew ninjas trained by mud wrestling? Its absolutely jaw dropping in its exploitation silliness (and makes this one of the best sequences in any exploitation film ever). Nothing that follows, not even the women being dunked in the water with ridiculous huge ice cubes floating near by, can compare with this sequence. Everything, the entire 90 minutes, that follow is all down hill from there.

Where the movie falls down is that after the ninja training the film basically becomes a reasonably straight forward martial arts mystery. Actually it's a rather dull martial arts mystery. The people aren't particularly likable, the action is run of the mill and while there are a few twists and turns there is nothing to liven up the proceedings. Its really dull. Frankly, I found it hard to stay awake, not because I was tired, but because I was bored. Certainly the film gets a few points because I was kind of curious to see what the ultimate outcome was, but it really wasn't worth the effort.

This film isn't worth bothering with unless you need to see every ninja movie ever made. That said, if you know anyone with a copy, you will want to borrow it, or ask them to show you the opening five minutes, that is worth seeing (though not worth the price of a rental since it is so short)

Only A Life Of Ninja (or Nin Za as the odd subtitle states) can get away with having an extended montage of outrageous ninja training sequences that involve a blend of sumo and judo (we'll call it sudo), scantly clad women mud wrestling, extreme torture, running across blocks of ice floating in water, and other mad scenarios!

In fact, its probably director Lee Tso Nam who could only get away with it...

The same man behind classics such as Kung Fu Wonder Child, The Leg Fighters, and Eagles Claws, has always had a keen eye for bringing something new and different to the screen, and A Life Of Ninja is one of his wildest. This was a favourite of mine in my early teens, wearing out my video tape from repeated viewings. This Vengeance release offers a Mandarin or English dub, and presents the film in a letterbox format which is great.

Unfortunately, its still got the jumpy video quality too!

There's a lot going on in the 1983 production, from battling ninja clans to assassinations; drug addicted sisters to forbidden romances. And while it has some very crazy moments, the film is actually shot quite well with some decent suspense and drama throughout. The strong main cast members also help make this crime thriller an even better watch. The fantastic Chen Kwan Tai, of Shaw Brothers fame, leads the way playing a ninjitsu trained martial arts teacher hired by the cops to help them solve some killings possibly done by ninjas. I've always been a big fan of Chen's and really enjoy seeing him in this early modern day role, as opposed to the usual traditional kung fu flick. He's a great screen fighter as well as a top actor, and gets some great fight scenes here alongside the amazing Yasuaki Kurata (who looks great as a ninja master) and Elsa Yeung from A Book Of Heroes.

While initially a crime thriller, the ninja scenes that weave throughout are fantastic, and more so when Kurata is on screen! The fights are fast and well choreographed, and show some great ninja action as well as hand to hand combat. The scene with the larger wrestling-type ninja man in briefs crushing people with cars and such, is brilliant. Watching it again after all these years gives me a great nostalgic feeling, and I still enjoyed it just as much as my teen years!

The action is delivered by Pang Gang, an actor and often assistant action director on many of the Lo Wei Jackie Chan movies as well as other classics such as Ninja In The Dragons Den, Snake Deadly Act and The Chinese Stuntman...

With sound-bites from classic Shaw Brothers movies and outrageous, non-stop ninja and martial arts action, including a fantastic end fight between Chen Kwan Tai and Yasuaki Kurata - you can't help but enjoy A Life Of Ninja.

Overall: Well made, old school fun that entertains in every way and one of my favourite Chen Kan Tai movies!

I wish that there was a possibility to vote -1. Quite possible the worst excuses for anything put on a video cassette. I'd rather watch a random person's home movies.

I could only make it about fifteen minutes, but i'm sure the rest is the beginnings of a masterpiece.