Starring: Casper Van Dien, Anthony Brandon Wong,
Kristy Wu, Bellamy Young, Ron Yuan, Yuji Okamoto, Crystal Kwon
Director: Bradford May
Action Director: John Koyama
I normally wouldn't have watched something like this--a ninja movie starred Casper Van Dien can't possibly be good under any circumstance, can it? But earlier this year, I was desperately trying to figure out what my next literary contribution to the kung fu fandom should be, and I briefly considered writing a book at ninja movies. The day I made that decision, I stopped by the video store near my house and a used copy of this was for sale. So I sighed and bought it. Watching it makes me wish I had abandoned the ninja book idea before buying it.
Basically, there's a Japanese industrialist based in the States who is attacked by the Kokushibyou ninja clan and subsequently murdered. Detective Jack (Casper Van Dien) arrives on the scene after finding out about the murder via a convoluted subplot involving a mob informer. Jack fights off some of the ninja and saves the businessman's daughter, Miko (Kristy Wu, who looks like a less attractive Shu Qi with thinner eyebrows). Miko is reluctant to help the investigation in any way, usually letting her friend and protector, Hirohito (Anthony Brandon Wong, who played Ghost in the Matrix sequels) do the talking. A trail of dead bodies and some investigation by Jack's team reveals that the ninja were employing professional computer hackers to try to hack into the company. This leads to a mass slaughter at the guy's company, and then an even bloodier massacre at a police station, as the ninja are looking for something that is on Miko's person (or in it), but that she's unaware of. Only Jack and Hirohito can protect her and STOP THE NINJA!
The movie's rather complicated plot lost me in the first act, when Hirohito is introduced as--and I swear I'm not making this up--the "family Shogun." I guess I shouldn't be surprised that such tosh would come from a white guy who wrote Vipers with Tara Reid. The fact that the vast majority of the Asian actors are Chinese and not Japanese would indicate that nobody knew or cared that having a "family shogun" would be akin to having a "family emperor". "Yeah, mom calls the family shogun order whenever we need precedence in oppressing the farmers who live nearby, or when she needs a bit of authority to order the housemaids to commit ritual suicide."
The action is brought to you by Hollywood veteran John Koyama, who has trained in jeet kune do, kali stick fighting, boxing, and escrima. Koyama did fight choreography chores for low-budget fare like Operation Endgame and Deadly Impact, plus more prestigious fare like After Earth and Furious 7. I think he "might" be a decent action director, but the fight scenes in this flick are completely ruined by the usual suspects: quick cuts, close-ups, and worst of all, unnecessary shaky-cam. The action is primarily swordplay, which might be fun, if you could see it. Beyond that, there are many interesting ninja tricks to be seen here: the ninja mostly use swords, and occasionally use shurikens, crossbows, and metal fans tipped in venom. Ron Yuan gets in some decent hand-to-hand, although he's put on a bit of weight these days.
If the action isn't visible, the filmmakers make up for it by making it rather violent. The film is surprisingly bloody for what is apparently a direct-to-TV film. While there aren't many severings--just one at the end--there are a lot of stabbings, throat slittings, a grisly torture sequence, and just all-out carnage. The police station raid was particularly gory, especially the two female police officers who who get their throats stabbed and sliced, and the camera focuses on them as they bleed out and start twitching, before the evil ninja stab them even more. It almost came across as unnecessarily mean-spirited. Being an exploitive ninja movie, there's also a bit of sleaze, although it doesn't come from the sadistic ninja girl, from some random Asian prostitute servicing the computer hacker early on.
So yeah, this wasn't a very good ninja movie...or martial arts movie...or action movie in general. I suppose it's better than the 4th and 5th entries in the American Ninja series, but that's not saying much, is it?
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