Los Angeles Streetfighter

Young (Jun Chong), Tony (Phillip Rhee) and three friends start up a security business and this results in them getting in fights a lot. The main plot doesn't kick in until an hour has passed when Young steals a ton of drug money from a client who hired them ("It was bad money and I would put it to a good cause"). Naturally, the dealer wants it back so he hires two assassins - Japan's Yoshida (Ken Nagayama) and New York's Kruger (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace) - to retrieve it and teach the boys a lesson.

This is an odd, yet enjoyable 80s action flick. Odd in the sense that it has no plot for the first hour and that lead tough guy Jun Chong spends a lot of time crying about his drunk mom not loving him. Oh, and there isn't a single ninja in NINJA TURF (its original title was LOS ANGELES STREETFIGHTER). I'm not sure if it hit theaters or not, but RCA/Columbia did release it on VHS. Director Woo-sang Park (under the name Richard Park) directs the action scenes well with an emphasis on the marital arts talents of the leads. This was Rhee's first lead role and he went on to star in the popular BEST OF THE BEST series. Brinke Stevens shows up as a drug dealer's girlfriend and supplies the film's only nudity. I was surprised when I looked up Chong's filmography to see I own 5 of the 6 films he's made, with 2 of them unwatched now. Why I was surprised is beyond me.

Looking up the supporting cast, it seems they have a real superstar in their midst. Mark Hicks is a member of Young's crew (aptly named Mark) and he achieved internet superstar notoriety as the famous Afro Ninja, the guy who attempts to do a flip with some nunchaku and falls on his head. I'm sure you've seen it.

The acting in the film is beyond dumb. I'll admit that. I mean, how do you have Jun Chong, who was in his 40's when the film was made, play a high school student? Anyway, IMHO, the fights truly made up for the film. Kwon Young Moon (the 70's chop socky star) truly had the stars of the film display taekwondo & hapkido beautifully. Jun and Phillip Rhee really were great in terms of the fights. Look for action stars Loren Avedon (as one of James Lew's gang), Thomas Wilson of Back to the Future (as one of the redneck gang - he fights Phillip using a mallet or something), and Mark Hicks of Gen-Y Cops (as one of Jun Chong's crew) in the film.

Now here is an unusual film.....

Where to begin?.....Well intrinsically what we have here is a tale of high school student angst and gang related tribulations....well....sort of anyway.

What we actually have is some hilariously poor directing, actors who have no idea of the concept of timing their lines correctly or of any remote cognisance of acting ability in general for that matter and a tacked on 'plot' that doesn't really kick in until almost an hour into the films running time!

Basically the story involves Young, a pupil at high school (and an hilariously inappropriate name as the actor playing him is at least in his forties!!!) who befriends Tony and introduces him into his gang (although note that this is in fact a 'good guy' gang as opposed to the various stereotypical 'bad guy' gangs prevalent throughout the movie) In honourable capitalist style, the gang in question actually earns honest cash by taking on various security assignments.

On one such assignment however, Young decides to indulge in a bit of theft and high tales it with some drugs money, thus prompting the dealer to send a Ninja and another sadistic character played by legendary kickboxing champion Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace after him.....Okaaayy......

Actually as previously said, this actual story doesn't occur until almost an hour into the proceedings. Up until this point we are subjected to lots of impromptu gang fights and some hilariously woeful attempts at serious interpersonal drama designed to make us sympathise with the various protagonists' plights. For example, in one such supposedly touching scene we witness one of the 'good guy' gang members crying when he is presented with a birthday cake, the emotional gratitude just too much to bear....ahhhhh..... Far from wringing any empathy from me however, I found that such scenes curiously only induced uncontrollable laughter, certainly not what the makers would have wanted, for the film tries so hard to be taken seriously that it's just painful to behold.

Still credit where credit's due, at least the makers of this tried to do something different from the usual martial arts revenge plot (the staple of about 99.9% of ALL martial arts films!)

The ending is especially noteworthy in this movie in fact, and is surprisingly downbeat (and gory to boot!)

Another accolade must be awarded to the martial arts choreography on display throughout, which is admittedly top notch.

Overall then, whilst the disorganised and oddly structured nature of the film would ostensibly donate that the director was absent for most of the filming, this is actually against all odds, a rather entertaining movie with a particularly intriguing final half hour. Well worth a watch if you can track down a copy (note: The movie also goes under the alternative title of 'Ninja Turf')

DANIEL MANIA! COMMENT

I thought that Ninja Turf could have been done alot better. Personally I would have worked on the cinematics because you could barely see the fight scenes and I also would have done the entire ending to this film differently. For one thing I would have had the rival gangs join forces with the drug dealers and have the main characters fight them all in the same building floor by floor. I also would have made it a lot more bloodier and made the choreography a lot more furious,complicated,wild and sophisticated. I gave this film a 7/10 because it could have been so much better and it was poorly written.

When I began to watch the movie, I had to try not to laugh...and nothing funny was going on! The bad lip synch of the entire movie made me want to vomit. God. The acting was crap, some martial artists have some acting skill (ie Jackie Chan), but if you think these guys will give you a good show, you'll be sadly mistaken. The fight sequences seem so planned. Very little seems to set off the characters. The camera is wobbly and...God, just for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE (unless you want to laugh at one of the worst movies of all time).