The Super Ninja (1984)

The Super Ninja (1984)
Chinese Title: 影子軍團
Translation: Shadow Legion

Starring: Alexander Lo Rei, Eugene Thomas, Chang Yi-Tao, Jack Long, Tong Lung
Director: James Wu Kuo-Ren
Action Director: Chu Ko, Jack Long

My recent foray into Alexander Lo Rei's ninja films (I believe this is the 5th that I've now seen) comes to an end with this one, which could've been my absolute favorite if not for a few things, which I'll discuss in a moment. Lo Rei plays John, a recently-graduated ninja who's working as a cop in the USA (we know it's America because he has a black partner and the every room at the police station has an American flag on the wall). He gets in hot water with his racist white boss for busting a group of thugs trying to gang rape a girl because one of the thugs is the son of a senator (nevermind that the thugs are also guilty of assaulting a police officer). His boss and his corrupt white cop friend frame John for drug dealing at the behest of the evil ninja Mr. Tong (Chang Yi-Tao, who briefly was a Bruce Lee imitator with the moniker "Bruce Lai"). Mr. Tong also commands the super powerful "Five Element Ninja" formation, who carry out most of his negotiating and assassinations. Anyway, after being tortured by the cops trying to extract a confession and watching them molest his girlfriend (I'm told it's a late-period Doris Lung), John escapes from prison and the film briefly becomes a First Blood clone. When the ninja attack his girlfriend and her family, John must use his ninja skills to defeat them.

First things first, the fighting is magnificent. It's choreographed by both Jack Long (who also plays Lo Rei's master) and Chu Ko, who also helped choreographed Chang Cheh's classic Five Element Ninja. I've rarely seen Alexander Lo Rei's tae kwon do skills get such a great showcase, but man, he's great here. He approaches the level of Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee here. The ninja fights are also lots of fun, if a little cheesy, which isn't surprising, considering Chu Ko's involvement in the film. There are a lot of fights and most of them are varied: a Rambo-esque sequence where he hunts the corrupt cops, numerous one-on-one fights, one-on-many fights, two-on-one fights, etc. Alexander Lo Rei gets to match skills with frequent collaborator Eugene Thomas and Korean fighter Chang Yi-Tao, who practically steals the show during the lengthy finale. Great stuff all around. My only caveat with the fighting is that some of it is undercranked to early 90s Donnie  Yen levels, namely his fight against Eugene Thomas.

Ninja fans will get more than there fair share of wire-assisted ninja madness, plus lots of fighting with katana, yari (spear), shuriken, kama (sickles), and sai swords. Moreover, it's pretty clear that Chu Ko recycled his ideas from Five Element Ninja, but slightly different. The five elements here are Metal, Wood, Fire, Earth and Water. The metal ninja, who wears a shiny gold costume, is mainly distinguished by his being highly durable; it takes quite a bit to bring him down. The wood ninja does crazy wire tricks jumping from tree, as opposed to dressing up like a tree in the Chang Cheh film. The water ninja can swim at outrageous speeds and use his sword as a surf board, much like Duel to the Death. The earth ninja can burrow underground, again, like some of the ninja in Duel to the Death. Finally, the fire ninja can set his hands on fire and use them as weapons. It's similar to Chang Cheh's film, but does enough different to set itself apart.

The main problem with the film is its treatment of racism, which is both silly and over-the-top. I'm pretty sure that by 1984, people couldn't call their subordinates 'chink" and "colored people" without suffering some sort of legal retribution. Speaking of legal, at no point is Alexander Lo Rei given any sort of legal representation when he's framed for drug possession, although he's a cop and thus should both know his rights and some of the finer points of the law dealing with this sort of thing. Nor do his wife and her scientist dad consider the legal ramifications of both his incarceration or the policemen forcefully feeling her up. The characters ramble on about it being a 'white man's world" and that's that. Yes, racism still exists, but I'd assume that by 1984, a white person in power couldn't quite get away with the things they could do twenty years before.

Finally, the HKMDB doesn't state who plays the girlfriend, but I've read numerous reviews suggesting it's Doris Lung. If it is her, it's really weird watching her in a martial arts film where her main contribution to the film is an explicit, four-minute-long sex scene that includes loving (heh) close-ups of the actress's breasts and buttocks as she and Lo Rei go through numerous positions. I've read that Doris Lung's career petered out after personal problems made her difficult to work with, but it's a sad cap to a career of a kung fu diva if the only work available is shtupping Lo Rei.

(Obs: There are at least three versions available on Youtube. The English dub, posted at the Wu Tang Collection, is missing all of the interaction between Lo Rei and his girlfriend after he breaks out of jail, including her shower scene and their lovemaking. The Mandarin version, also posted by the Wu Tang Collection, has part of the shower scene and the two's post-coital conversation. Finally, there's a French dub posted that has the girlfriend's shower scene and the love scene in all their sleazy glory)