Ninja - A Morte Negra

Usually there are those who enjoy bad horror movies and those that enjoy bad kung-fu movies and few movies can be enjoyed by both, but Mafia vs. Ninja is immensely watchable (and laughable) even if you are amongst those that believe America has enough trash without foolish video distributors importing more. The movie is so great because it takes the usual elements of the chop-suey genre and and makes them worse. For instance, the almost required anti-Japanese racism is present (the Chinese mafia are the good guys you see, sure they extort and allow gambling and prostitution, but they draw the line at opium unlike those godless Japanese mafia guys). But not only do we get the anti-Japanese racism, we are treated to special bonus stereo-types in the form of a special all bad guy assassination team , including a black man (guess what kind of hair he has) and an Italian (guess where he has a scar?). The movie's verve extends to the action where the normally unbelievable fight scenes are made even more so via film-reversals, insane editing, and (I kid you not) wires on jumping fighters and thrown knives. Then there are the contrived plot devices, I must admit my favorite part of the movie. Sure, other chop-suey movies might give you exploding fruit baskets (this one does), but can they claim to feature a hero who beats someone with a tree? Lots of flicks feature invisible ninjas... but what about ninjas that literally turn into bushes? I thought not. Mafia vs. Ninja could never be mistaken for a good movie, but it is a kind of bad that doesn't take someone versed in ninja films to laugh at or enjoy. And for God's sake people the American video release features a man with the name of Poon Hung prominently in the credits. I personally can't think of a better reason to see a film. (-3 stars out of - 5).

This is a stunning film in every aspect. A skilled fighter comes to China in order to find a paying job, and is befriended by a coward of a fighter. He and his coward friend somehow help save a Chinese ruler from assassination. They are rewarded jobs in his kingdom and help slay off several archrival Japanese fighters. The Japanese warlord hires four interesting fighters- A master with the knives, a fat Jap with a sword, a black kickboxer, and an acrobatic fighter. The Chinese must take on these fighters and many other Japanese. This film is funny, entertaining, and quite possibly the greatest unknown Martial Arts film ever.

This movie was made to be a film about a war between the Japanese mafia and a group of ninja's and the two yard servants who get in the middle to save their boss, the highest man in the mafia. The fight scenes were filmed slowly, for example when an actor through a punch he made his fist move slowly as if going to pet a strange dog. The editor later added sound effects and speeded up the film to give the illusion of extremely fast fighting. The novice camera tricks in this movie give it a hilarious touch. Wires used in fight scenes made me laugh for hours. When you finally meet the ninja warriors in the end, you'll stare in awe as they use "ninja invisibility" in the fight. It's one of my favorites.

I am a huge fan of anime and manga, and my second fav genre is Chinese martial arts films. Over the years, I have watched hundreds of Chinese martial arts movies, and I've seen many good ones, but Mafia vs Ninja comes out on top.

One of the things you gotta love in Chinese martial arts movies is their low budget, since it is the reason behind funny special effects. This is one of the funniest movies I have seen, I really enjoy it every time I see it.

The movie is about the lives of Jack Doe and Charlie Wu, two sewage workers who want a better future, and luck is on their side. They later become bodyguards to William Chung, the wise and fatherly leader of the "good" mafia of Shanghai, by a mere stroke of luck, as I said. This "good" mafia protects the people of Shanghai and does nothing wrong, and they're the only thing that stops the Japanese from taking over the city.

As always in Chinese film, the Japanese are the bad guys, and in this movie, they are a clan of drug-dealing Shinobi who also run whorehouses and gambling centers. Their goal is to kill Mr. Chung to be able to seize the city. They manage to kill him by hiring 4 deadly hit men, and Jack and Charlie vow to get their revenge.

Then the movie shows how Jack and Charlie kill the hit men one by one, to avenge their fallen master. There are so many fun scenes in this movie, the action and laughing is non-stop. The special effects are typical for a Kung-Fu movie, you can see lots of editing cuts, the strings that hold the actors, dummies getting punched, funny fake blood and bruises, and the punch and kick sound fx we all love.

The fights choreography is excellent and the action scenes are very good. The music is good and fits the scenes' mood accordingly. The characters are enjoyable, specially when you see their powers or their KungFu. KungFu is the center of the movie, and the Japanese have even their special version, the Ninja KungFu! The movie is dubbed in English, but it's Chinese voice actors speaking English! This results in an incredibly hilarious voice acting! You will never find better quotes or voices in another KungFu movie! "I'm gonna kill ya, bastard!!"

Nothing in this movie is wasted, and though it is low-budget, it is an awesome film, every Chinese film fan I know love it, and I am no exception. It's my fav KungFu movie, I first saw it back in 1993 and taped it when I got the chance...but I lost it. It is so good, that I spent years searching it on the web and I finally found the home video on Ebay and bought it!

There is so much fun in this movie, lots of great action scenes, great characters, incredibly funny voice acting, and a great storyline...Obviously, this is not Citizen Kane, but it is the best KungFu movie ever, and I really doubt there will ever be a better martial arts movie than Mafia vs Ninja. Fantastic and endlessly enjoyable.

The best of the genre, unsurpassably good, 1000 out of 1000!

Gee! I remember how I watched this movie as a kid before 20 years in cinema and had fun like never before! Since then I tried hard to get any possible copy of it and now it is available on DVD... now, after 20 years, I think this is truly one of the silliest martial art flicks I've ever seen - and I've seen tons of them. This one has it all - from bizarre realization to insane look, feel and really memorable stunts and action that sometimes goes truly over the top - especially in great finale that comes with so insane fights that you must watch it to believe!

Truly recommended as a pure fun movie which value is in stupid dub, silly dialogs, trashy look, great action with obvious usage of dummies and wires... And after 20 years it just got better than the first time I watched it!

And dad! I still want that leather knife case! :)))

10/10 from me!