Five element ninjas

Before I even knew the name Shaw Bros. I was a fan. I saw this movie many years ago on a t.v. series Black Belt Theater.

The 5 elements are unique and add some of the fun to this movie.

If you are a fan of old Kung Fu movies, do yourself a favor and pick this up on DVD. The quality isn't great, but it does have a nice mini-filmography of the actors in the movie.

A young martial artist seeks revenge on the Ninja who kills his martial arts brothers and teacher. He finds help in the form of a new teacher (who knows Ninjitsu) and new brothers. Together the four pupils face the Five Element Ninja challenge: Wood, Earth, Gold, Water, and Fire.

From retrospective reviews, AllMovie described the film as "a legend amongst fans of Asian cult fare and for once, the legend lives up to the hype." The review noted that the plot sticks to simple martial arts tropes, while noting that the "actual methods used are so off the wall that no fan will care" and that "the final twenty minutes is the kind of high-kicking bloodbath that is guaranteed to leave any fan of these films smiling and slackjawed. Thus, Five Element Ninjas is the kind of gloriously over-the-top blowout that every genre fan needs to see." Sure, we have that same shallow backdrop we have come to expect from Chang Cheh, and we can say this film is cheesy with all its camera tricks and explosive punches. Haven't we seen this a million times by now? But you know what, this may be among the best of its kind, at least since "Five Deadly Venoms". Ninjas wrapping a guy up in chains and making him explode? Oh yeah, that happens. This is a lot more than punches and kicks, and it seems more like something Troma or Cannon would do. I absolutely love it.

Cheh had a long and colorful career as one of the top directors at the Shaw studio but by 1982 his stock had fallen as trends moved away from the period costume kung fu action films he was so fond of. While fellow kung fu film director, Liu Chia Liang was still able to pull off hits, Cheh was perhaps getting too quirky and obvious with his favorite themes of heroic men in revealing outfits, gruesome fights and few if no women in the story. A few films followed in this year with one released the next, but none rival Five Element Ninjas. Cheh was out of the Shaw studio by 1983 and working in low budget Taiwanese cinema he never was able to achieve anything remotely near his past successes. This is his swan song at the Shaw studios,

The plot is absolutely silly and full of absurdities even for your average Chinese made Ninja film. It's as if Cheh saw the competition and said, "Oh yeah? Well watch this!". Except for Venom star Lo Meng, the cast is composed of Shaw second stringers but that doesn't mean the action is anything less then excellent. This film has the best fight scenes in a Cheh film since "The Crippled Avengers" of 1979. Everyone is fighting with weapons in mass fight scenes that are incredibly choreographed. Unfortunately, many production credits are not translated and I don't know who was the genius behind the fight scenes. Lo Meng is the only one doing open hand fighting and he fights a samurai in the first extended fight scene! Granted the samurai sword skills on display are from outer space but it goes with the absurd nature of the entire movie. So much of this film is wacky that it's a waste of your time to recount it. It's as if everything you'd expect from a late Cheh film (good and bad) was turned up to "11" including the pace.

Bloody and nuts. Just the way a good Cheh film should be. See it.

The Garrish colors add to this awesome action flick. The choreography is beyond superb (almost no wire use, no stupid CGI, Joel Silver not in presence.) King Fu films are like gene Kelly films or Fred Astaire films- you watch them for the beautifully choreographed moves. The Kung Fu here is among the best of all kung fu films (not classic fung fu films--ALL Kung fu films) The crap Hollywood is spewing now and calling kung fu is just their shallow brainwashed doctrines of how anything that doesn't encompass CGI or a woman for PC reasons is cheap. This is a must for your King fu collection.

How do you go about making an old school Shaw Brothers kung fu flick even more entertaining? Simple… by chucking in a whole load of crazy ninjas with special fighting skills and have everyone who dies do so in a shower of bright red blood.

Directed by Chang Cheh, Five Element Ninjas opens as two kung fu schools go head to head to see who is the best. One team, who wear natty matching white outfits, are clearly the superior fighters, even beating the samurai brought on as guest fighter by the other side. As the defeated samurai commits seppuku, he throws his ring at his opponents, warning that when they see another ring like it, it will mean their death.

Sure enough, a note arrives soon after with a ring attached, a challenge from the five elements ninjas. The guys in white barricade their headquarters and send eight of their finest fighters to confront the ninjas. Two of their men go up against four Gold ninjas, who wear lamé outfits and use metal hats that fire blades from the rim; both meet bloody fates. The duo who face the wood ninjas (who disguise themselves as trees!) also die in gory fashion. Another pair battle Water ninjas, who lurk under the surface of a pond, ready to strike; they fare no better than their companions. A lone fighter faces the Fire ninjas, who wear red and are equipped with smoke weapons; no prizes for guessing how he gets on. The last of the eight is attacked by the Earth ninjas and their master, who appear from and disappear into the ground; he also dies.

Meanwhile, sexy female ninja Senji (Pei Hsi Chen) infiltrates the base of the white guys (who I think are called The Alliance of the Martial Arts World, but 'white guys' is quicker to type); she sends plans of their building to her ninja pals who launch an attack, killing all but Shao Tien-hao (Tien-Chi Cheng), who makes it to the home of a martial arts master who teaches him how to fight against the ninjas. Together with three equally adept pals, Shao Tien-hao goes looking for revenge.

With all manner of cool weaponry, and superbly choreographed fighting throughout, all taken to crazy extremes by director Cheh, Five Element Ninjas is a seriously enjoyable movie, with a satisfyingly brutal finalé that sees all of the ninjas being kicked, punched, sliced, diced and literally torn limb from limb by Shao Tien-hao and his buddies. Anyone who doesn't find this a whole lot of fun should forever be forbidden from watching any film with 'ninja' in the title.