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...continued from page 3
Apart from the preceeding categories, there are two other frequent occurence of ninja, but in films you wouldnt exactly call
"ninja movies":
Ninja as Punching Bags
These are the jidai-geki films that often watch a lot like their Spaghetti Western bretheren. They are most often set in the
post-warring states era, the time of the popular myths of lone swordsmen wandering the blood-soaked land getting into misadventures
and double-digit body counts as a rule. Ninja are often hired to take out the grim-faced lead character, and fail in spectacularly
brutal and gory fashion. Will they ever learn?
RECOMMENDED:
Lone Wolf and Cub (film and TV series)
Kage Gari - The Shadow Hunters
Demon Spies
Pre-Craze Ninja Cameos
The often embarassing but sometimes interesting pre-history of the American boom. These mainstream flicks and shows are almost
always guilty of too few ninja and the ninja not being cool enough. Kosugi solved both problems and created practically a
one-man genre.
RECOMMENDED:
James Bond: You Only Live Twice
Shogun (TV mini-series)
Kung-Fu - Season 2 - "The Assassin"
NOT RECOMMENDED:
The Killer Elite
Now, there are two other categories that we are NEVER going to address here, as they were largely responsible for the premature
death of the genre in the U.S. in the late 80's – ninja kids films and basically anything involving a turtle
in any way.
And finally, there is the crime, THE CRIME of perfectly good kung-fu and karate films being re-titled as ninja flicks, despite
there being no shinobi in them whatsoever.
If you're looking for black suits and throwing stars, then you'll want to avoid otherwise alluring titles like:
Jade Dagger Ninja
Leopard Fist Ninja
Ninja Blacklist
Ninja in the Claw of the CIA
Ninja Heat
inja Nightmare
Ninja Supremo
Ninja Untouchables
Screaming Ninja
Sword of the Ninja
...This list will be continually updated here for your protection!
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