Shaolin contre ninja

I'll be completely honest here straight away.....although there is a plot of sorts present within this film, it really only serves as a superficial excuse for a showcase of one and a half hours worth of some truly awesome martial arts displays.

This is first and foremost a fighting movie, and as such I believe it most equitable to judge it predominantly upon those merits as opposed to acting, character development etc.

As such, and upon the proposed criteria, I must say that the film in question does come out as a top class act indeed.

There is some truly astonishing martial arts choreography in this, especially the weapons displays during the tournament between the Japanese stylists and the Shaolin Monks.

If there is one criticism I would launch against this film however - and it is a factor which does deduct from the overall entertainment value, it would have to be the rather tiresome stereotypical portrayal of the Japanese protagonists as villainous barbarians with inferior martial arts and moral values, an all too common and sad trend in many kung fu films.

Still, overlooking this factor, for those seeking to witness the veritable beauty of some of the orients fighting arts and the skills and dedication of the practitioners of them, this movie is definitely well worth a look.

Great fights throughout, any viewer looking for excellent choreography, this is a must see.

The movie itself is not very good. The problem with this movie is that we don't have a main character to follow. There's too much look alike monks and it's kind of hard to know who is who. The ninjas are a little bit boring in this film , but watch out for the shaolin monks...they rule. I watched it in french and the "Praise be to buddha" thing was incomprehensible. Maybe this expression has not been translate in french...You may give this movie a 4(out of 10), like me, if you watch it for the fights.

The title tells all you need to know about this film. It's a mix of Chinese Kung Fu movies and Japanese samurai-ninja movies. Though it has a very messed up plot and some of the most pointless dialogs of Kung Fu cinema, but there is a lot of great fighting scenes. Personally, I think that more than a half of this movie were fighting scenes. There were lot's of impressive acrobatic stunts, some chopped of limbs and blood fountains typical for a samurai movies and some fighting scenes using different weapons. It's a martial arts madness. If you are looking for some good classic martial arts movie, this is one of the best choices, it's unbelievable.

In a plot to rob a Chinese Shaolin Temple of its great wealth, Shaolin monks find themselves framed for the murder of the Japanese Emperor's head monk, apparently the doings of a secret ninja force, and now must find a means to prove their innocence before bloodshed erupts between their Japanese Shaolin counterparts and themselves.

Where this delivers is in terms of its fighting. There's an impressive tournament challenge at one point conducted between the Chinese Shaolin and their Japanese counterparts that proves very exciting and showcases tremendous martial arts fighting skills both with and without weapons. Whenever fighting is on screen, this one tends to deliver the goods and then some. Where it falters is in terms of its story as there's really no sympathetic heroic lead and the many plot twists and turns tend to get a little confusing. Still if you're a fan of good Martial Arts fighting, you should find much to enjoy here.