Godfrey Ho is amongst my most watched directors, so there must be something that keeps drawing me back; perhaps it's to see just how awful his films can get.
Shadow Killers Tiger Force is certainly pretty bad, another one of the director's clumsy cut and shut jobs, but like many of his films, there are moments of sheer lunacy that just about make it worthwhile for fans of grade-Z trash. Most of the film comprises of scenes taken from Taiwanese women-in-prison movie Prisoner 407 (1976), which are far from the best that that particular genre has to offer; instead of super sleazy, they're simply tedious. The remainder consists of hilariously bad ninja footage, in which Deborah Grant, as Jenny the ninja, jumps around a lot while battling bad ninjas.
The story that Ho weaves around this Frankenstein's monster of a movie goes something like this: nasty ninjas are abducting women and taking them to a work-camp where they are forced to dig rocks and dirt, and sew mail-bags (for what purpose is never revealed). Jenny the ninja is hired by a millionaire to find his missing daughter Sylvia (Dorothy Yip), who has been taken captive by the nasty ninjas and is scheduled to be sold into slavery in the Middle East. Allowing herself to be captured and incarcerated, Jenny tries to help Sylvia to escape.
Amongst the dumbest moments are a ninja launching a torpedo at a rowboat, the female prisoners receiving mail even though no-one is supposed to know where they are, the camp commandant declaring that he will halve the prisoners sentences if they co-operate (sentences? according to this film's plot, they've been kidnapped!), and a couple of instances of the distinctly average-looking Jenny luring guards from their duties by acting sexy. For the most part, though, it's strictly dullsville, at least until the final act, which needs to be seen to be believed...
Jenny the ninja battles the main bad ninja, both warriors walking through a solid brick wall. Jenny does some sexy dancing in a sheer outfit before cutting off the bad ninja's head, only for it to reattach itself. Then both ninjas teleport to a forest, where the fight continues. Jenny looks as though she is going to lose when Sylvia's father and his men turn up and pump the bad ninja full of lead. But bad ninja doesn't die so easy: he kills several of the gun-men and turns his attention to Jenny, but finally meets his match when a ninja-seeking missile finds its target, blowing him to pieces. These final ten minutes or so are a lot of fun, and leave the film on a high, but getting there isn't always easy.
4.5/10. rounded up to 5 for IMDb.
