Film Review #114

The very, very cool cover...

Ninja (2009)
Director: Isaac Florentine Starring: Scott Adkins, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Mika Hijii, Togo Igawa, Todd Jensen, Miles Anderson, Garrick Hagon,

Certificate: 18 Running Time: 83 Minutes

Tagline: "A silent warrior, a lethal mission"

I don't think there has ever been a time in human history when ninjas haven't been cool (except as far as anything to do with Google is concerned, of course) but their heyday, at least as far as films and videogames and stuff are concerned, was definitely the 80's. Perhaps in an attempt to renew their popularity, however, a small American studio called Nu Image conjured up this direct-to-video effort. It features Scott Adkins in one of his first lead roles as Casey Bowman, an American orphan who was adopted into a martial arts dojo in Japan. While there he adopts the way of bushido and earns the respect of his sensei, Master Takeda (Igawa). His dedication does not, however, earn the respect of the dojo's top student Masazuka (Ihara), who is jealous of the attention Casey receives from Takeda, and also from his hottie daughter Namiko (Hijii). And where jealousy exists, conflict is rarely far behind.

Casey v Masuzuka in a 'friendly' sparring match...

Unsurprisingly, that idiot Masazuka lets his emotions get the better of him and winds up expelled from the dojo that has been the only home he's known. Left with nothing and nobody, you might think he ends up begging for change, sleeping in doorways, and the other things so many homeless people are forced to do, but instead he opts to use his skills to become a contract killer working for Temple Industries, a company fronted by the seemingly upstanding Mr. Temple (Anderson) who is also secretly head of a... umm, secret underground criminal cult known as 'The Ring' whose members all helpfully wear distinctive matching jackets so you can spot them in a crowd. It's by using these bumbling oafs that Masazuka hopes to obtain the 'Yoroi Bitsu' which Takeda had Casey and Namiko take to the US and hide.

Everyone is after poor old Casey and Namiko!

The Yoroi Bitsu is a special chest which supposedly contains the suit and weapons of an ancient ninja. It's never really explained why Masazuka is so keen to snaffle it but it obviously doesn't take him long to track it to New York along with Casey and Namiko, and his enthusiasm to get his hands on it basically involves a series of fighty action scenes as you may expect. These mostly take place in and around NYC as our heroes attempt to evade capture, first by Temple's goons who are surprising in both their number and their fighting skills, and then by Masazuka himself, and they are, let's face it, the main reason anyone will be watching the film to begin with. But unfortunately, they aren't quite as thrilling as I'd hoped.

The very, very cool ninja outfit worn by Casey...

There's no doubting the fighting skills and athleticism of Adkins who was fantastic in the Boyka films and is in great shape here too, and Ihara looks convincingly skilled as well, especially for an actor with no martial arts background (as far as I know). The locations make for some pretty good sequences too, particularly the subway train rumble, and the choreography is fairly eye-catching and creative. There's just something missing. It doesn't help that the acting, the two leads aside, is rather ropey, and it's all very predictable too. I guess that goes with the territory though, and the trim runtime and near-non-stop action go some way to negating that. Basically, if you are (or were) into 80's/90's style low-budget chopsocky films, this isn't bad. Everyone else should steer clear. Ninjas are still very cool though.

RKS Score: 5/10