Capsule Reviews - 3 Ninja Movies

Red Blade (2018)

Starring: Yuka Ogura, Himena Yamada, Kanon Hanakage, Tak Sakaguchi, Satsuke Mine, Joey Inagawa
Director: Takahiro Ishihara
Action Director: Makoto Sakaguchi, (opening sequence) Yuji Shimomura, Tak Sakaguchi, Yoshitaka Inagawa, Ryoma Muto

I didn't really know what to expect when I sat down to watch this. So, I was pleasantly-surprised when I got something close to the "Ninjas Only"-era version of Dr. Wai and the Scripture with No Words (or a shot-on-video version of The Pagemaster, but moved to the Sengoku era). I am real sucker for these kinds of stories where normal people from our world get a chance to go on fantastic adventures (or perform martial arts in the same forest where most Japanese action films made after Versus are set).

Mako (Yuka Ogura) has a crappy life. She gets bullied at school by queen bee Miki (Satsuke Mine) and her gang. Her parents are always arguing. Her personal issues are ruining her track-and-field performance. And things reach a tipping point when her dad agrees to be the fall guy for whatever corruption his company is guilty of*, which makes the news and gives her bullies even more reason to be assholes. Mako's only solace is cutting class and going to a library. She finds a light novel (or manga) about ninjas doing ninja things and becomes enamored with it.

One day, she meets a pair of kunoichi from the novel: Hiro (Himena Yamada, of Shogun's Ninja) and "Ultraman Blazar") and Yu (Kanon Hanakage, Rise of the Machine Girls). Suddenly, she is transported into book world where she meets their master, the super-deadly ninja Saizo (Tak Sakaguchi, who needs no introduction). He agrees to teach her ninjitsu and months pass--albeit little time in her own world (similar to The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guinn). After completing her first job, she returns to our world. But then she discovers that the main villain of the book, Kansuke Harada (Joey Iwanaga, of The Furious and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final Battle), is also the same corporate cutthroat that got her dad arrested. And she must stop him in order to keep the worlds from merging and changing everybody's destiny.

Like I said, I'm a sucker for these sorts of plots, so I was invested. I did find it amusing that the book characters realize that they're in a book and interact with Mako as such. There is a training sequence which shows Mako failing to do the most basic ninja arts and then gradually getting better. It's not Invincible Shaolin or 36th Chamber level of creativity, but it follows the logical progression. I also like that the three ninja girls (including Mako) have their ninjato (ninja swords) and their own personal weapon of preference: Yu has a pair of twin daggers (or kunai, the video quality was such that I couldn't really see), Hiro wields a pair of kama (or sickles), and Mako wields a knotted rope weapon, probably a kyoketsu-shoge. Watching her twirl the weapon around is always fun.

The fight scenes were staged by Makoto Sakaguchi, who also staged the action in Rise of the Machine Girls and Sion Sono's Prisoners of the Ghostland. The fight sequences are generally pretty good, although nothing spectacular. The last fight was pretty cool, although it gets a bit melodramatic, before leading into a final twist. My major issue with the action is that the foley team and sound effects editors did an awful job of inserting sound effects for the impacts of punches and kicks, and then mixed it so you can barely here the effects in the first place. It makes the fights feel very weak.

Also, the action never gets better than the 10-minute opening sequence in which Tak Sakaguchi kills about three dozen ninja. That scene is choreographed in a way similar to vintage Japanese chanbara films in which it is attack-block/evade-death blow. Very quick and direct, like most samurai films tend to be. But the camerawork and overall staging is dynamic and the action sequences with our ninja girls never reach that level of excitement. This sequence was designed by Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura, with help from Yoshitaka Inagawa (Re:Born) and Ryôma Mutô (Demon City). After this scene, the rest of the film is fun fluff, but keep your expectations in check.

Black Fox: Age of the Ninja (2019)

Starring: Chihiro Yamamoto, Maimi Yajima, Sakurako Okubo, Mami Fujioka, Yasuaki Kurata, Yûki Kubota, Hideo Ishiguro, Kanon Miyahara, Masayuki Deai, Kôji Nakamura
Director: Koichi Sakamoto
Action Director: Koichi Sakamoto

As I have surmised elsewhere, I wonder if Koichi Sakamoto's approach to filmmaking is to use Tokusatsu as his bread and butter and then use the money he makes from those to fund his own martial arts-heavy fare. Black Fox is interesting in that it gives me the feeling of a pilot to an unmade martial arts show with Tokusatsu overtones, right down to the fact that the main bad guy is sorta shown, but is still hanging around and ready to send new villains after our heroines.

The first of those heroines we meet is Miya (Maimi Yajima, of Black Angels and Zombvideo), a young lady who is being chased through a forest by a band of warrior monks led by bad-bitch Uto (Kanon Miyahara, of Shogun's Ninja and Tatsujin Warriors). Miya apparently falls to her death and Uto leads her band of ass-kicking monks in rice hats out of forest. Miya survives her fall and makes her way to the inner sanctum of the Fox Ninja Clan. The first person she meets there is Rikka Isurugi (Chihiro Yamamoto, of Under Ninja and "Ultraman Geed"), the granddaughter of the clan leader, played by the legendary Yasuaki Kurata. We learn that Miya has been looking specifically for the Foxes in order to request their services in eliminating the Warrior Monks, who are all under the command of Lady Haku (Mami Fujioka).

We learn that Miya was raised by her father, who had both raised her and experimented on her until she developed the super power (yes, "super power") of firing lightning, Raiden (or Electro) style. But the warrior monks, in the employ of Shigetsugu Kuboto (Yuka Kubota, of "Kamen Rider Gaim"), killed him in order to whisk her away and use her as a weapon for the local Daimyo (who would become the series's Lord Zed had this become a show). The warrior monks storm the Foxes headquarters and a huge fight breaks out. Although Rikka is powerful enough to defeat Uto in combat, she is too kind-hearted to kill her outright. This incurs the ire of her grandfather, who refuses to accept the notion of a merciful ninja. He eventually sells out Miya when he finds out who Shigetsugu is working for.

So, Rikka is left with no choice but to rescue her new friend by herself. But her late father, an inventor, left her with a special inheritance: a black leather ninja outfit that feels like the Sengoku equivalent to a Super Sentai costume and a non-lethal energy sword. Will Rikka, her martial arts skills, and her equipment be able to defeat all of the Warrior Monks, Shigetsugu's legions, and Kuboto himself? And what exactly are Kubotu's plans for our Nihongo Storm girl?

I was expecting more and better action from a Koichi Sakamoto film. The film has its moments, but those moments are often overshadowed by 90s-TV-show CGI effects, especially once the titular Black Fox starts fighting with her energy katana. There is a warrior monk, Jin (Masayuki Deai, of "GoGo Sentai Boukenger"), who does a lot of kicking in his fights, but he doesn't get much altitude in his bootwork. The final fight between the Black Fox and Shigetsugu is pretty decent and I like her patented multi-stroke finishing move (the kenjutsu equivalent to the Power Rangers joining their weapons and firing them at the end of each fight). The build-up to that fight, which involves Miya and her lightning abilities, does strain credibility, however. Yasuaki Kurata gets to fight a little bit during the raid on his headquarters, so watching him crack a few skulls is welcome.

In the end, Sakamoto fans may get a little out of his patented choreography style, but he's done far better work elsewhere.

Ninja vs. Shark (2023) 

Starring: Julia Nagano, Koshu Hirano, Kanon Miyahara
Director: Koichi Sakamoto
Action Director: Koichi Sakamoto

Ninja vs. Shark feels like one of those "Ohtaku Fan Wank" films that Japan was churning out by the dozen at the end of the aughts. You know, the sort of fan-service film that felt deliberately made and marketed to Western fanboys of Japanese pop culture and trash cinema in general. Although you can argue that it started with Versus (2000), the sort of film I'm referring to really got moving in 2008 with Tokyo Gore Police. Four the next four or five years, we got a slew of films starring pretty girls (often AV actresses) in school girl outfits showing their tits, being bathed in fake blood, and fighting ninjas, zombies, monsters, or any combination of the three. So, stuff like The Machine Girl; Robo Geisha; and Dracula Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. This film feels like a return to that sort of film in a lot of ways.

The film opens with a girl being murdered at sea and her mutilated corpse washing up ashore. She is a member of the Okitsu Village, who has been plagued with disappearances and sea-related killings. Although everybody knows that the devil-worshipping ninja cult known as the Crimson Devil Clan, led by Mizuchi, the villagers like to use Sayo (Julia Nagano) as the scapegoat. She is considered to be the village jinx after she murdered her drunken, abusive, and incestuous father for killing her mother--I guess it didn't help that dad was the mayor's brother. Anyway, Sayo's only friend and protector is Shinsuke (Shun Nishime), but only he can do so much.

The village mayor knows that they won't last long against the Crimson Devil Clan, so he hires a wandering fighter named Kotaro (Koshu Hirano) to be their bodyguard (the word yojimbo is used a lot in the dialog). When we meet Kotaro, he has just gotten done raping the wife of the mayor of another village for not paying him for his services. He kills the mayor and his flunkies, which the Okitsu Village mayor is willing to turn a blind eye to in order to secure his services. Kotaro sets up shop at Shinsuke and Sayo's house and starts digging up the bodies from the cemetery to find out what killed them.

When Sayo gets attacked by a shark the next day, Kotaro rescues her and figures out what is happening: the local "Sea God" is an actual entity and can manifest itself as a shark. And Mizuchi has found out how to control it using black magic--he can also transfer his soul into the bodies of younger men (thus the disappearances), Angel Heart style. Mizuchi also gets a new ally in the form of Kikuma (Kanon Miyahara), a kunoichi from the Mountain Ninja Clan, of which Kotaro used to be a member. She wants revenge against him for abandoning the clan and spurning her advances. She and Crimson Devil Clan kidnap Sayo to sacrifice to the Sea God. Only Shinsuke and Kotaro can rescue her...

Ninja vs. Shark feels like the Japanese equivalent of an Asylum film, especially in the sense that the titular battle doesn't account for more than 3 to 5 minutes of actual screen time. And like the Asylum, when that battle does happen, it is mostly questionable CGI. And the denouement is right out of a Sharknado film. However, where this film gets a leg up on the Asylum is the filler: instead of washed-up 80s singers or 90s sitcom actors (or Eric Roberts) standing around staring at screens for 80 minutes, the filler here is ultraviolent swordplay. Koichi Sakamoto and his Alpha Stunts team did the action design and it is "alright" by Sakamoto standards--certainly no Broken Path or Drive. Some of the fighting at the end is pretty good, like when Kotaro uses a katana against Kikuma's two-fisted tanto daggers.

Yeah, this is one of those movies like Machine Girl where you can spout off a list of the off-kilter things that show up in the story and the viewer can decide if they want to watch it or not: Ninja Magic! Zombies! Ultraviolence! Giant Land Sharks! Possession! Swordplay! Shark Men! Zombified Necrophiliac Lesbianism! My thoughts on this are that it was okay, but the version I watched on Youtube (via 24-7 Samurai Ninja channel) had all the bloodiest moments censored, so I wasn't able to appreciate its nuttiness to the fullest.

Capsule Reviews - 2 Ninja Movies

Ninja Busters (USA, 1984: Paul Kyriazi)
Aka: Shadow Fight

Starring: Sid Campbell, Eric Lee, Gerald Okamura, Dalia Guiterrez, Nancy Lee, Harry Mok, Juan Morales, Carlos Navarro, Frank Navarro, Bob Ramos, Fumiko Takahashi
Director: Paul Kyriazi
Action Director: n/a

Interesting attempt at a martial arts comedy at a time that I think most examples of the genre were SERIOUS BUZINESS--or at least were treated as such, despite the final product (Enter the Ninja, I'm looking at you). This was directed by Paul Kyriazi, who worked on the sorta cult film Death Machines, starring Ron Marchini (who had a dojo in my hometown of Stockton, CA). He also directed Eric "the King of Kata" Lee in, who is one of this film's main stars, in Weapons of Death. He then went on to direct Marchini once again in Omega Cop, which was filmed in Stockton--STOCK-STATE, baby!

The film opens with a criminal named Santos (Juan Morales) going to Japan (I think?) to see the Dragon Lady--she's named after the stereotype--played by Fumiko Takahasi (later of The Kôsuke Kindaichi Series 13: The Village of the Eight Tombs). He's complaining about the cost of her protection, which we learn are ninjas. She assures them that they are masters of stealth and will never been seen by their targets. Yeah...right.

We then meet our protagonists, Chic (Sid Campbell, of Death Machines) and Bernie (Eric Lee). They are laborers at one of Santos's warehouses and their shtick is to get into trouble and then try to impress or intimidate people by declaring that Bernie was "Bruce Lee's first student" and that Chic "taught Bruce Lee to do his Tiger yell." All this gets them is a nice ass-whooping on several occasions. They eventually decide to...well...y'know...actually learn martial arts. They go to a karate studio run by Gerald Okumura, in probably his biggest role in terms of fighting and screen time. They spend much of their time ogling the pretty Asian girls at the dojo and Bernie eventually gets a girlfriend in the form of Tina (Nancy Lee, Weapons of Death and Hammerhead). At some point, they decide to tone down their shtick and start taking their training seriously; at one point, Okumura inexplicably brings in a bunch of masters of other styles to tutor our heroes, which is why Bernie walks out of a karate dojo performing kung fu.

It isn't until well into the second half of the movie that we actually have a plot. You see, one of Santos's rackets is arms dealing and his latest clients are a group of black militants--dressed in leopard-print jumpsuits and berets--who want to start the Revolution. Amusingly enough, during the deal, Santos points out to them that starting the Revolution is silly and they'd be better off just trying to work and make money. In any case, the militants try to stiff Santos and his men during the deal, but Santos has the entire junkyard (where the deal is going down) occupied by ninjas. A huge fight breaks out and Bernie and Chic end up being witnesses to the violence. Santos sends his ninjas after the two and fights break out at the Dojo, at the Salsa Club that belongs to one of the other sensei (Carlos Navarro, of Weapons of Death), at an aerobics class, and finally at the warehouse from earlier.

The first half is a lazy comedy about two ne'er-do-wells trying to pick up women. It isn't funny and it gets old very quickly. And their attempts to turn Bruce Lee's legacy into a running gag just fall flat. The film is very much starting to wear out its welcome--and to some, may already have--by the time the action kicks up in the second half. First, we get a fight between Eric Lee and another student, a former-biker named Sonny (Frank Navarro), who uses a combination of karate and break dancing moves. It isn't bad (well, I guess it kinda is), but some of the wider circular movements of kung fu don't look good onscreen when inserted into American fight choreography. The big brawl between the ninja and the black militants display how utterly inept these ninja are. To quote John Goodman from Speed Racer: "More like a NON-ja. Terrible what passes for ninja these days." The last several fights are a little better, mainly on the novelty of seeing Gerald Okumura kick so much butt. But really, you're better off sticking with The Octagon, Revenge of the Ninja, or even the first two (or three) American Ninja movies instead of this.

The Ninja Mission (Sweden, 1984: Mats Helge)

Starring: Krzysztof Kolberger, Hanna Bieniuszewicz, Bo F. Munthe, Curt Broberg, Hans Rosteen, John Quantz, Sirka Sander, Mark Davies, Wolff Lindner, Mats Helge Olsson
Director: Mats Helge
Action Director: The European Ninja Center

Swedish-made Cold War action film made during the Ninja Craze of the 1980s. It is sorta a ninja-martial arts movie, but most of the action revolves around automatic weapons, so don't go in expecting anything resembling the ninja films of Cannon (or Alexander Lo Rei, or Chang Cheh, or Robert Tai, or the TMNT). What it is, however, is a film that depicts the Soviet army as being such incompetent boobs that it is little wonder those punk-a** b*tches lost the Cold War.

So, a nightclub singer named Nadia (Polish actress Hanna Bieniuszewicz) is being chased all over Stockholm by a bunch of shady men, whom we learn are the KGB. She is rescued by a mysterious, handsome young man named Mason (Krzyszstof Kolberger, also Polish). Mason turns out to be part of the C.I.A. and is part of a mission to help Nadia's nuclear physicist father, Dr. Markov (Curt Broberg), defect out of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Markov is about to make some sort of discovery regarding nuclear fission and if it falls into the hands of those dirty, Godless Ruskies, the tide in the Cold War will be turned. Anyway, the KGB agents attack the nightclub where Nadia works and kidnap her, notwithstanding all the efforts of Mason and his ninja mercenary team.

Meanwhile, another group of C.I.A. agents are helping to get Markov out of the USSR, but are betrayed by Markov's assistant, Natassia (Sirka Sander), who is better at killing "our boys from Langley" than she is at killing "Moose and Squirrel." Natassia smuggles Markov into a helicopter which takes him to an isolated mansion which he thinks is in Sweden, but is actually located in Russia near the Finnish border. There he will be reunited Nadia and finish his work "in peace" under the supervision of double agent Ableman (Hans Rosteen). So, Mason gets his ninja team together and sneak into Russia and kill dozens and dozens of Soviet soldiers as they try to find Markov and get him out Mother Russia.

If this film has a so-bad-it's-good reputation, it earns it, I guess. The plot is pretty simple and the story breaks into a prolonged shoot-out at regular intervals. And the final half-hour is almost non-stop action, so there's that. It suffers from bad lighting--although that may be the fault of the VHS transfer--that often reaches the levels of, "Before Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, there was The Ninja Mission." The martial arts action is limited and almost always framed, shot, and edited in ways that you cannot see what the actors are doing, thus obscuring the choreography brought to you by the good folks at the "European Ninja Center."

The action gets impressively graphic in the last reel or so, with a bloody ninja decapitation, LOTS AND LOTS of squibs, and a fun sequence where the ninjas start firing explosive darts at their enemies, which cause heads and limbs to start exploding. And yes, this film suffers from an egregious case of "guns with bottomless magazines." Good gosh, they get a lot of mileage out of those machine guns. Maybe they should've sold the secret of those to the Soviets.

Capsule Reviews - 2 Mainland films

Real Kung Fu of Shaolin, Pt 1 (1980/1984)
Aka: Shaolin Dragon Snake 
Chinese Title: 忍無可忍
Translation: Enough is Enough

Starring: Siu Yuk-Lung, Yin Long, Jiang Lili, Weng Yu-Lin, Leung Siu-Wah, San Sin, Lee Fat-Yuen
Director: Kao Yang
Action Director: Zaung Sea-Yang

This was one of the earliest Mainland kung fu movies, predating Jet Li's Shaolin Temple by two years. It got a release on VHS by Ocean Shores and later by Tai Seng and let me just say that I really dislike some of these 1980s Ocean Shores dubs. The problem isn't so much the voices, but the mixing. The volume of the dubbed voices is much higher than the original background music and sound effects, so it feels completely unnatural and distracting.

The film revolves and Siu Ching (Siu Yuk-Lung, who mainly had bit roles in Shaw Brothers films before this), a young man who was brought to Shaolin as a child by his mother. His father was murdered by the evil Mr. Wu, who is evil because...I don't know. I think it has something to do with Warlord period of the Republic Era of China, but other than talking about buying copper and asbestos for military use, we never see him do warlord stuff. Siu Ching grows up in Shaolin and learns numerous styles: the Iron Head technique, Finger Boxing, Qigong, Kitchen Fu, and Broom Fu. He eventually finds out that his mom is living in a village not too far away and Siu Ching fights the Four Guardians of Shaolin in order to get released from the temple.

Once he is reunited with his mom, he discovers that Mr. Wu and his flunkies, led by the wicked Mr. Jyiu, are trying to steal the commoners' land by beating them to death if they don't just up and vacate. Siu Ching and his mother go to stay with his uncle, who now runs a restaurant. Siu Ching gets a job as a waiter and falls in love with his cousin (Jiang Lili), who is also the subject of the lecherous designs of Mr. Wu's son (Leung Siu-Wah, of The Black Belt and Land of the Brave). Siu Ching beats him, beats the corrupt Red Monk, and brawny Korean fighter named Pak. Mr. Jyiu forces Siu Ching's uncle to sign over his restaurant while Mr. Wu kills Siu Ching's mother and Wu's son tries to rape his cousin. Time for our hero to dispense some kung fu justice.

Real Kung Fu of Shaolin, Pt. 1 is interesting because it doesn't feel like a Mainland film. It is filmed in China, but it lacks those sweeping Chinese vistas that fans of Mainland films enjoy so much. The story and its execution feels a lot closer to a Hong Kong film, bereft of the pro-CCP propaganda that shows up in a lot of 80s wushu films. Overall, it just lacks the scale of a lot of the Mainland films made in the 1980s, feeling closer to a low-budget Taiwanese movie in terms of overall feeling. That said, the story lacks a real sense of urgency or even much development on the part of the villains: we never learn what they are really about and what their endgame is.

There is a fair amount of action, choreographed by Zaung Sea-Yang, whomever that is. It is obvious that most of the actors are wushu stylists. On the other hand, the lead actor is a Hong Kong veteran and it's clear he is using more Southern styles in his fighting than the usual Northern Wushu we see in these movies. He gets to fight with a sword and his fists and is certainly less flowery in his presentation than most Mainlanders in these movies. There is a villain who gets to use a rope dart, if only briefly. The hero's mother uses the double daggers, wushu style. The female love interest does some nice cartwheels and acrobatics, even if her actual fighting lacks real power. The fighting on the whole is pretty good, although the climax could have benefitted from more choreography and less running. Old school fans should check it out, if for nothing else than for its historical value.

Ninjas & Dragons (1984)
Chinese Title: 忍者潛龍
Translation: Ninja Hidden Dragon

Starring: Junya Takagi, Dong Li, Xia Qing, Sun Genfa, Xu Li, Song Wenhua, Chu Ah-Lin, Lu Yun-Ling, Rong Ro-Pei
Director: Ding Cheuk-Lun
Action Director: Kazuyuki Saito

At first this looks like what may be a Mainland Chinese rip-off of Ninja in the Dragon's Den. But it's not that. I'm not quite sure what it is (or when it's supposed to be set...perhaps the Yuan Dynasty?). The tone is often a lot lighter than most other Mainland kung fu films of the era, save Kids from Shaolin. But it ultimately suffers from a distinct lack of action.

So, there is a Japanese ninja named Hayate (Junya Takagi, who had previous sung on the soundtrack of Kabamaru the Ninja) who has come to China looking for the Oni-masked ninja, Kensuke, who murdered his father and most of his clan. Hayate has also been hired by a general--a Mongol general? a Khitan general?--to serve as a bodyguard against possible inside jobs against his life. And lo! and behold, one of the other generals, Hurasi (I think is Sun Genfa, of South Shaolin Master), does assassinate his brother and then has Kensuke murder him so that Hurasi can get his official jade seal. Why? Well, I guess he wants to send his armies into China, something that the previous general was hesitant about. And Hurasi is supported by his scheming, ambitious "mother" (Xu Li, another South Shaolin Master alumni); her ugly daughter Ying Yong; and her creepy baby midget helper.

Hayate is captured during the coup and he'll be out of commission until later. There is also the righteous Liang family, which includes the patriarch, the filial son, and the daughter Ching (Xia Qing, of Eastern First Assassin and Bi Xue Bao Dao). Ching has a suitor in the form of the righteous martial artist, Lin Feng (Dong Li, of Revenge of Swordsmanship). Anyway, Liang opposes Hurasi's military aims and has enough sway in the region that he can get the martial talent together to block the transport of supplies to the front lines of the area. Hurasi and his "mother" have Ching kidnapped and try to force her to marry him. And when Ching and some of the villagers save her (and Hayate, too), they just go and kill the Patriarch Liang. It all culminates in a fight near the Great Wall.

The movie jumps back and forth between light comedy and serious historical action drama. Much of the comedy stems from the villain's cousin, Hutuhan, who provides some of the film's basic slapstick. He's one of those characters that is always bragging about his kung fu, but mainly just gets involved in hijinks instead. He ends up taking a liking to Ching and helps her escape a forced marriage by pretending to have r*ped her, thus making her used goods and of no interest to Hurasi. Uh....okay. And it is supposed to be played for laughs. And then Hurasi allows one of his cronies to have his way with Ching, which leads to both men killing each other and all I can think is..."Man, that escalated quickly."

The action was stated by Kazuyuki Saito, whose filmography suggests he was a member of Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club--his credits include Karate Warriors; Dragon Princess; The Executioner; and some of the Sister Street Fighter films. And to be perfectly honest, he does a very decent job with the action. Despite Japan having a slightly different style than Hong Kong or the PRC, Saito acquits himself to "shapes" surprisingly well, like in a playful scuffle between Lin Feng and Ching early on. The main problem is that there is not enough of it. The first fight that really sticks out is a flashback sequence in which see the evil ninja Kensuke killing a bunch of ninjas from Hayate's clan. There is some good choreography all around there.

And then there's the finale, which is your typical Mainland free-for-all of different wushu stylists fighting each other. Ching and a male character with an eyepatch take on Hurasi, who is wielding a pudao, or assault blade (i.e. a less ornate variation of the kwan do). Ching wields a pair of iron-ribbed fans during this fight. At the same time, Lin Feng and Hayate team up against "Mother", Yin Yong, and the creepy midget, who have a nifty three-fighting-as-one technique: the Mother stands in one place with Yin Yong behind her and the midget between her legs and when you attack her, you have extra pairs of hands coming out of nowhere to attack you. And the way in which the midget is dispatched is pretty darn goofy. Hayate fights with a blade and a claw, which you see in the poster. Like I said, pretty decent choreography overall, but I wonder why there wasn't more of it.