I went out to see Ninja Assassin, at a time when action movies seem to
be at an all time low, and with zero expectations, and actually enjoyed
it.
Ninja Assassin took me back to the 80’s when HBO and Cinemax would run movies like
Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination, Pray for Death,
and Rage of Honor. All those films starred Sho Kosugi as a ninja master in a hero
role. Ninja Assassin stars Sho as the bad guy, and Sho does a great job making that
work. Kosugi can be a ruthless sensei when the need arises.
The film’s hero is Rain, a Korean K-pop idol singer and actor who has
starred in several Korean TV series, movies, and has several CDs out.
Rain is in excellent shape and fits the video game/comic book image of a
ninja, lean, smaller structured, definite muscle tone, and the ability
to both withstand suffering and dish out emotionally driven fight
scenes. I’m not sure of Rain’s martial arts background but he probably
learned a few tricks from Tae Kwon Do or Tang Soo Do, both Korean arts.
Rain does perform some jaw-breaking aerial kicks that look believable.
Rain plays, Raizo Yamaguchi, a young orphan, who is taught the ways of
the ninja by the strict and abusive Lord Ozunu, (Sho Kosugi) of the
Ozunu Clan. The Ozunu Clan carries out deadly assassin missions all over
the world. Raizo is encouraged by Lord Ozunu to beat down his fellow
ninja for any show of failure. The only real love that Raizo receives
is from Kiriko, (Anna Sawai) who shapes his future goals to eventually
break away from the Ozunu Clan and to escape to Berlin where the
majority of the film is set.
This is not a love story, and the real focus is action. Raizo uses a
Kyoketsu Shoge, which is a long chain with a double-edged blade at the
end. He also employs dual katakana (a la Miymoto Musashi, the famous
Japanese swordsman who never lost a single duel in over 60
confrontations,) and the most popular ninja weapon, the shuriken. Lot of
cool scenes with several shuriken being thrown at moving cars,
adversaries, and embedded in walls that are sure to please the most
hardened action fan.
There is an interesting bloody opening sequence and I noticed that a
couple got up and left, which I snickered at. If you are going to see an
action movie expect to see blood, people in pain, violence, and
everything that goes with the genre. The man looked very disappointed
when he was forced to leave by his girlfriend/wife/etc.
The action scenes are cleverly done with people talking and then boom,
the lights go out and then all hell breaks loose. This is how a ninja
movie should be done. It shouldn’t show a bright-lit room and then a guy
in a black ninja outfit suddenly popping into the frame. I was glad to
see the element of stealth that is missing from other ninja films.
Usually in these comic-book movies, ninja are portrayed as super heroes
in black pajamas hiding in strange locations and springing out in an
unrealistic fashion.
The fight scenes were all fast-paced and well-done with amazing martial
arts skills combined with gymnastics. Sometimes the best action shots
weren’t even shown to the viewer such as the scene where Raizo meets a
woman at the Laundromat and he asks her which clan is she from. This is
followed by a white sheet covering the two actors and then the woman’s
bloody head and other remains spinning around in a washing machine. It
would be easy to show the viewer everything but little scenes that force
you to imagine can work well if tastefully done as in Ninja Assassin.
While the actions scenes, Berlin location, and stealth shots work in
Ninja Assassin, some things you just have to take for granted when
viewing this type of action film.
One is the annoying long flashback scenes used to pad the film. This has
been done in Jean Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport and Steven Seagal’s
Above the Law and is generally viewed as necessary back-story. Sometimes
these scenes happen one right after another until you can time when the
next big flashback is going to happen. This type of technique is used a
lot to show the hero reflecting back on training, or a good or bad
sensei teaching moment, or a brief love interest in the dojo. One
cliché I have noticed is the love interest never really gets far in
these films because the woman either gets killed, raped, or shies away
from the male hero. The male hero doesn’t really pursue women so it
becomes platonic. This has been done in numerous Bruce Lee films and
Sho Kosugi 80’s ninja movies. It would be an interesting twist if the
hero did get the girl in a martial arts movie. Raizo and Kiriko develop
a small interest that is cut short. Also Raizo and Mika Coretti, an
agent who is researching ninja-related deaths in Berlin, never really
develop either. There is a hint at some type of romantic involved but
the film never explores this angle and just drops it out along the way.
However, this lack of showing real love doesn’t really take anything
away from Ninja Assassin because it is action-driven.
The other trend I have noticed is lots of blood being sprayed out of
victims that no human body could possibly squirt out. I started seeing
this after both Kill Bill movies came out. Also the CGI blood does not
look as good as the old days when a special efforts artist like Tom
Savini would fill fake blood into condoms and then detonate it. Those
effects still look better to me then the CGI blood. Ninja Assassin does
have scenes of excessive blood-spraying that I liked but would have
loved it if the CGI was replaced by the old school Savini method.
Third, when anyone can be made to look like a martial artist in today’s
movies by using wires and camera tricks, the real martial artists aren’t
out there. Some day someone will come up with a solid real martial
arts background, and start making interesting action movies again. For
now, I have to try to learn to like what is out there.
Overall, Ninja Assassin does work as a good ninja/comic book/action
movie that you won’t feel cheated after seeing. I wasn’t as angry as
when I left the theater after Paranormal Activities and wished I had
never sat through that.
Ninja Assassin is currently in the top ten at the box office and I hope
that the action movie will make a much-needed comeback in 2010 and
beyond. If people start going out to see this type of martial arts
action movie maybe directors will take notice and produce quality
results in the years ahead.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2009 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
