What is it about ninjas that everybody finds so cool? There’s just something iconic about the black clad assassins from ancient Japan that just personifies bad ass-ness. Basically, they’re all encompassing super assassins who have instant credibility as far as exuding menace because of the pervading myth about Ninjitsu and its traditions. While there is much conjecture as to how historically accurate the depictions of ninjas are in cinema, no one can doubt how much fun they are to watch. Even the cheesiest ninja epics from Hollywood in the 1980’s have some entertainment value, though they served to make ninjas more of a joke than viable villains. Certain “heroes in a half shell” also made ninjas popular in households across the world, but making them “kid-friendly” took away from their mystique a bit.
A sequence in Ed Zwick’s The Last Samurai provides the best version of the assassins stateside. The sequence is by far the best portion of the movie and is awesome to behold. Also fun are the ninja sequences in the 1967 Bond film, You Only Live Twice, which features entire clans of ninjas squaring off in battle with Sean Connery standing squarely in the center of the melee.
As far as finding seriously dramatic films about ninjas, good luck. The best seems to be the 1960’s Japanese series starting with Shinobi No Mono. These films actually featured very conservative action and had very little of the antics usually associated with ninjas. Highly recommended are the Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, which feature plenty of ninja bloodshed, but I prefer to stick these films in the Samurai genre.
Perhaps the offerings of ninjas that are the most fun actually come from Hong Kong. Integrating the assassins’ own mystique into their own industries’ Martial Arts films, ninjas once again became the mysterious killers of legend, but this time they were imbued with almost magical proportions of deadliness. Gone were any serious notions of Ninjitsu, replaced with cartoonish, over the top antics that are exhilarating to watch.
Five Element Ninja AKA: Chinese Super Ninjas Starring Cheng Tien-chi, Lo Meng. Directed by Chang Cheh.
Now these may not be the best examples of ninjas on screen, but they are definitely my favorite. First from the legendary Shaw Bros. Studio comes Chang Cheh’s Five Element Ninja. Cheh, who had previously directed one of the most important films in the history of the genre with The Five Deadly Venoms does another impressive job here, bringing his audience a fun, action packed story that’s actually bloodier than Venoms.
The story concerns two schools of Martial Arts, one led by the good Master Yuen (Kwan Fung) and the other, led by the evil Master Kang (Chan Shen). Both are competing to be the best Martial Arts school in the world. Upon competing for who has the better school, Master Yuen’s group crushes the no good Kang’s, but inadvertently starts a war with a ninja clan who has sided with Kang (As you can guess these ninjas are also up to no good).
Soon the disciples of the Master Yuen are hunted by the treacherous Five Element Ninjas. While ninjas have always been noted for their use of disguises and misdirection, this film takes that reputation to ridiculous levels. Using the elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, these fight scenes are creative and entertaining, but still posses a high level of camp. What’s also notable is the heightened level of violence as Shaw Brothers productions in the past were always noted for tons of action, but not necessarily lots of blood.
The campiest of the elements are the wood ninjas, who hide in trees (actually inside the trees) to sneak up on their opponents. For a moment it seems as if these are deadlier version of the apple trees from The Wizard of Oz, as branches with samurai swords attached to them reach out and grab the Yuen students . Close behind in the camp department are the water ninjas, who just seem to be ninjas on little boats. Fortunately, this is just a diversion for the ninja’s true plans as they lure their victims into the water where ninjas wait below the surface to kill their prey.
When Yuen survivors start to learn the ways of the ninja, this film brings an even higher dose of brutality to it that is really unexpected, but helps with the film’s overall appeal. Seeing ninjas in goofy gold and wood costumes is one thing, seeing them ripped limb from limb is another.
Actually, giving the film this level of violence separates it from the rest of the films the Shaw Brothers produced over the years. Bottom line, Five Element Ninja is a ton of fun for any fan of Old School Kung Fu flicks. It’s not on the same level as Five Deadly Venoms but completely outperforms any ninja film produced in America during the same period.
Duel to the Death Starring Norman Chu, Damian Lau, Flora Cheung. Directed by Ching Siu Tung.
Surprisingly, Five Element Ninja isn’t even close to the craziest movie to feature ninja action from Hong Kong. That title would bar none have to go to Ching Siu Tung’s epic Martial Arts film, Duel to the Death. Amazingly enough, a portion of the story is based in fact. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-166 AD), a tournament was held every ten years to crown the greatest martial artist in the world. In the finals, the greatest fighter from China would face Japan’s best to crown the best in the world. This is about where any sort of historical accuracy is stopped in its bloody tracks.
In this film, the swordsmen are Norman Chu’s Hashimoto and Damian Lau’s Ching Wan. Both actually give pretty decent performances, but mostly they’re onscreen for their martial arts work, which is highly impressive.
Hashimoto is noble, but also wants to win at all costs. Ching Wan is your prototypical hero right out of any early Western or Samurai film.
Most of what plot there is deals with Japanese warlords trying to steal secrets of Kung Fu from Shaolin masters. From the first scene the ninjas appear on screen, they apparently aren’t just martial artists; they’re magicians, shape-shifters and suicide bombers. Take note of the first fight, the most conservative of the entire picture featuring the assassins, where the ninjas steal sacred scrolls, seem to be able to make a flame independent of any type of fuel source, confront Shaolin monks on a beach, and then grab hold of the monks as each ninja explodes. Anyone thinking that Kill Bill was the “end all/be all” of Kung Fu craziness hasn’t seen Duel to the Death. This opening fight is the only time in the film where we see any sort of dynamite or fuse as the ninjas explode. For the rest of the picture, this detail is excluded as the ninjas seem to explode at will.
Did I mention the ninjas could fly in this picture? Several scenes feature them flying Crouching Tiger– style, but that isn’t the half of it. One sequence features an army of assassins sneaking up on one of the martial artists traveling toward the tournament location. As the hapless victim turns to face his attackers he sees seemingly hundreds of the black garbed villains on giant kites flying toward him.
Another virtuoso sequence has a giant ninja attacking another Shaolin Monk. The monk looks on in horror as the giant ninja then turns in eight separate ninjas. After a flurry of fighting, all but one of those ninjas explodes for no reason, leaving the last ninja alone to fight the monk. That ninja’s clothes then rip apart, revealing a naked woman who subdues the stunned monk. This is not one of the most conventional fight scenes ever caught on film, but definitely one of the most fun to watch.
The final battle, featuring the noble Hashimoto and Ching Wan standing together to take on the ninjas, is an orgy of blood, guts, and explosions. Who couldn’t love a film where a man stabs the ground, only to see a fountain of blood squirt up for no reason, or seeing a ninja get cut in half, revealing another ninja behind him who consequently gets stabbed only to see him explode? The fight also features a man getting decapitated. His head then lands on a branch, where he says his final words, and then (of course) explodes.
To further the film’s greatness, Hashimoto and Ching Wan still do the honorable thing and duke it out to see who the greatest truly is. This fight is awesome to behold as the two fly about, swords clanging, and limbs getting lopped off. I won’t tell you who wins, but after losing an arm and all the fingers on his other hand, its hard to say that he completely won out in the end. Duel to the Death is exhilarating Martial Arts mayhem that should be a must see for those wanting some ninja craziness.
Yes, these films are lacking in serious drama, but who has time for drama when ninjas are flying in on kites or transforming from giants into naked women! The Japanese have reacted in the last few years, producing films that could rival these pictures along with the Lone Wolf and Cub films of the 1970’s, by combining the styles of their own Samurai genre, Hong Kong Martial Arts flicks and Anime, but nothing has so far reached this level of madness.
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