O Ninja Branco, O Inimigo da Escuridão

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.

A Slap-happy yokel in a beige overcoat, who is supposed to be the stories hero, spends most of his time tipping his Yankees hat to kids and strangers while strolling from brothel to basketball court to strip joint playing his harmonica as he enters every scene.

Immediately upon seeing the White Phantom the first time, I'm was laughing and hoping that he will shave at some point in the film. I'll leave that for you to find out for yourselves. I will say this, his nutsy patchy attempt of a beard didn't make the it to the box cover.

The film doesn't establish it's location very well. It begins with a noisy eating guy with California plates who gets his cargo ganked. It cuts to a steamy ninja dance and the real action begins. I can only assume from the street signs that the new location, which is for the remainder of the film, is in China or perhaps Hong Kong. The confusing part is every character that doesn't speak English speaks Mandarin. To confuse this further, the film is rife with ninjas, which ninjas are from Japanese culture. So Japanese Ninjas in China who speak Chinese? The White Phantom doesn't appear until midway through the film and when it comes to action, he's so ninja he uses his fists to fight off 50 camouflage ninjas with swords.

If this hasn't convinced you that you should rent or preferably BUY this film, then maybe the mention of multiple games of Rock, Paper, Scissors are played in Chinese. That's hot action! Also, there are some minor bare foot shots for those who might be interested.

If you like campy fun, you can laugh your way through this. 'White Phantom - Enemy of Darkness' has earned a special rank in my collection of bad films. The camera work is respectable, the story ridiculous, the characters silly. In summary, this film proved to me why White Ninjas are always unhappy - they can never get those pesky dirt, grass, and blood stains out!

SLAM DUNK!

I do NOT understand all you guy's fuss... This is a NINJER movie! Look at all the other ninjer flicks at that time. None of them showed ninjutsu, most of them didn't even show Japanese Styles. At least this movie shows something familiar to Japanese arts.

Other movies take themselves way too serious (American Ninja, anyone?). White Phantom is low level fun, but without ridiculous exaggerated action every two scenes, and to me, that is worth a LOT! No wire fu, no flying ninjer, no ninjer who can teleport or make themselves invisible.

So in short: White Phantom offers a bit of fun, Japanese style of Martial Arts, no exaggeration and no "too serious" feeling. I don't see the problem at all.

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 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.