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...continued from page 2
Chinese Venoms vs. Ninja Invaders
After dominating martial arts cinema for two decades, the kung-fu genre establishment (primarily the Shaw Brothers) could
not ignore the 80's ninja boom, so they co-opted shinobi as convenient enemies of their tried and true genre heroes. There
are two main tenets of these films: 1.) Ninja are the harbingers of the world's most evil people - the Japanese, and 2.) Ninjutsu
itself is the ultimate perversion of the martial arts, and must be overcome by pure Chinese styles. Just as the fading kung-fu
boom was battling for screens against the ninja invasion, so to did stars like Gordon Liu battle them onscreen. The actors
fared better than the studios...
RECOMMENDED:
Five Element Ninjas (aka Chinese Super Ninja)
Ninja in the Deadly Trap
Heroes of the East
Duel to the Death
HK Kung-Fu Ninja TO THE EXTREME!
Hong Kong exploitation studios cash in on the 80's ninja craze hard! Opposed to the categorical villification ninja received
from the Shaws, these lower-end flicks are often shinobi-positive. The 80's saw Alexander Lo Rei star in more ninja flicks
than any other martial artist on any continent, and were these flicks OVER THE TOP! No authentic shinobi-skills here, just
a lot of kung-fu and shiny weapons, and the occassional spider-life-raft squadronand tons of fights. Bizarre, baffling, and sometimes just BAD. But always fun as all hell!
RECOMMENDED:
Ninja Death (aka Ninja Kids, Venom of the Ninja)
Ninja: The Final Duel
A Life of Ninja (aka Deadly Life of a Ninja, Secret Life of the Ninja)
Challenge of the Lady Ninja
Hong Kong Cut-Togethers
The bottom of the barrel of ninja-sploitation for sure, and some of the most amazing watching, for all the wrong reasons.
Joseph Lai, Godfrey Ho and ilk would take a low-end Hong Kong crime flick, shoot new footage of garish clad ninja flipping
around some public park, edit in an expatriate actor like Richard Harrison "interacting" with the other characters by phone,
then augment it all with a 'ninja-ized' title and box art that was cooler than the movie by far. When you see the assassins
actually wearing low-end ninja suits from mail-order catalogs, and the "ninja" logo headbands, you know you're in for some
deep hurting!
"RECOMMENDED":
Ninja the Protector
Ninja Commandments
Full Metal Ninja
Ninja Terminator
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