When I stumbled upon this 1987 movie titled "Treasure of the Ninja" here in 2024, of course I opted to watch it. Why? Well, solely because of the cheesy title, and because the 1980s were the glorious era of questionable ninja movies. And yeah, being 12 years old in 1987, of course I watched all the ninja movies that I could back then. But this movie had eluded me, right up until now.
The movie does start out well enough, if you enjoy thick 1980s cheese.
Writer and director William Lee put together a fair enough script here, if you enjoy campy and cheesy movies. Personally, I have to say that I was not particularly entertained by what William Lee delivered, as I prefer movies with more contents to them. The dialogue in the movie, though, could have been better for sure, as it was rather cringeworthy and wooden.
Needless to say that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list here. The acting performances were fair enough, taking into consideration the material that they had to work with.
The sound effects during the fight sequences are so over-the-top that they add a sense of comedy to the movie, though I doubt that was what writer and director William Lee was aiming for.
The quality of the movie is insanely poor. There was no digital restoration done to the movie. It was a direct transfer from questionable VHS, or even BetaMax, to DVD with all the dark and poor image quality and subpar audio you would expect from a video tape resurfaced from the 1980s. I suppose it has its charm in a way, but it was not easy on the eyes. And I virtually had no understanding of the perpetual sound of helicopter rotorblades whirring was about, and it was present throughout a large portion of the movie.
I would not say that "Treasure of the Ninja" is a movie worth sitting down to watch, even if you have an interest in the 1980s ninja movies. It just simply wasn't particularly entertaining or outstanding. It oozed to High Heaven of a home-made ninja movie project. This is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on.
My rating of "Treasure of the Ninja" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.
