White Phantom

Another movie that I had never even heard about prior to sitting down to watch it for the first time here in 2025. But I can't say that I harbored the biggest of expectations to the movie, as the 1980s ninja movies were rather cheesy. But I still opted to watch the movie on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Writers Chris Gallagher, David Hamilton and Dusty Nelson put together a rather generic and monotonous script and storyline. So it wasn't particularly entertaining or enjoyable to sit through this 1987 movie. And the movie advertised ninjas on the cover, but there were hardly any ninjas in the movie. So that was majorly disappointing.

The only familiar face on the cast list for me was actor Bo Svenson. The acting performances in "White Phantom" were adequate when taking into consideration the limitations imposed by the script.

The action and fight sequences in the movie were fair, but again take into consideration that this was some cheesy late 1980s cash-in on the success of the ninja movies.

This is hardly a ninja or martial arts movie that I would recommend for people to rush out and track down. Nor is it a movie that will ever grace my screen a second time.

My rating of director Dusty Nelson's 1987 movie "White Phantom" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

This & other gems of ninja wisdom are sprinkled over you in "White Phantom." It starts out with a ninja striptease. Then you meet "Ears", the gangster who is never seen without his headphones on (and that stylishly-knotted Hawaiian shirt!) Of course he gets trounced by the harmonica-playing flying/dancing White Ninja (who uses the startlingly effective Rocky Balboa punching puppet to K.O. him). The White Ninja is a strange creature...I mean, gee, what's that big white thing over there in the bushes? All he needs is a set of bunny ears! Add ninja rafts & mysterious multi-color modular future homes, & you've got one of the best bad ninja films ever (take that Godfrey Ho)!

This movie appears to be a sort of unofficial sequel to the vastly superior Sakura Killers.

Again, the story here revolves around the criminal exploits of the evil Sakura Foundation. This time they've managed to procure i.e steal, a consignment of weapons grade plutonium, enough to level an entire city in fact!

And so enters the eponymous hero of the title to save the day.

Sadly however, rather than donning full ninja gear and kicking some major gluteus maximus, most of the films running time is squandered with our hero in the disguise of a sort of streetwise....erm....well arsehole frankly who gets repeatedly drunk and 'parties' the nights away with the local prostitutes! The reason for this decidedly undisciplined behaviour is ostensibly so that he can get familiar with the girl friend of the main villain in the film.

My advice if you wish to watch this, is to fast forward to the final ten minutes or so to view the inevitable climatic showdown between the good guy and his nemesis.

This scene is really the only decent one in the entire movie.

Overall then, viewed as a sequel (of sorts) to the earlier mentioned Sakura Killers, this movie represents a sadly missed opportunity.

Interestingly, the climax of this film leaves open the possibility of another Sakura Foundation oriented flick, although this never actually materialised.

I believe that it would be entirely equitable to say, that in light of the overall quality of the movie reviewed here, the idea of yet another sequel is perhaps best left on hold.

This movie is not terrible. I've seen worse. In the late 80's, ninja movies were in and this was one of them. Sure the fight-choreography is slow, but the dance choreography rocks. Page Leong is sexy in this!!! It could have had a little nudity, but eh, what're you gonna do? Also the story is better than a lot of the cgi loaded garbage that is in theaters these days. This movie is campy and fun. I'll bet Quentin Tarantino likes this movie. Bo Svenson ruled as Colonel Slater. If you like pro wrestling, you'll like this flick. Storytelling for it's own sake. Like Shakespeare said, "The play is the thing.". This movie is probably hard to find, but if you can find it I'd recommend picking it up.

My review was written in October 1987 after watching the movie on Vidmark video cassette.

"White Phantom" is an okay followup to the action film "Sakura Killers". Pic is well-lensed, boasts an evocative, varied musical score and better acting (with well-recorded English dialog) than the usual martial arts fare, but an almost nonexistent plotline keeps it routine (it debuted on video cassette with no U. S. theatrical exposure).

As with "Sakura Killers", Pic opens with a raid by ninjas of a U. S. scientific installation, with five megatons worth of plutonium stolen. Military colonel Bo Svenson's mission is to retrieve it. Action shifts to Taiwan where scruffy young hero (in a N. Y. Yankees cap) Jay Roberts Jr. Is eventually put on the case. Again it's the Sakura family of Japanese gangsters running a local protection racket who are the villains. Dance Pge Leong is an undercover agent who also is fighting the Sakura family.

Roberts, dressing in a white ninja outfit, displays good martial arts skills, but film's premise of retrieving the plutonium gets lost in the shuffle. Similarly, Leong, alluring in her dance routines, is pointlessly written out of the script before the finish. Pic's highlight is a very impressive strobe-light sequence integrating Leong's flashdance routine with an outburst of violence.