Revenge of the Ninja (1983)

Fantastic!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Although it doesn't have as much action, as say for Pray For Death, where there's a similar premise, this one comes off a not a bad rate movie, where Sho is battling a more deadlier enemy of his own stature. The cover of this movie is fantastic, all the way down to it's impactful title'd font, with those deadly little spikes, that shoot out different colored smoke. An impressive fountain scene, involving them, I liked. Again, we're not asking for Oscar calibre actors, but we just surrender to the thrilling action, punctuated between not so happening but involving moments, one chase scene, that might leave your knees a bit raw and grazed. Like I said earlier, there are a few familiarities here that are akin to Pray For Death, even in it's opening. Even that flashback in PFD is similar to a scene here. Check out the start of the other I've mentioned, and you'll know what I mean. Sho and son, Kane, have come to America for a better life, but there's a deadly enemy stalking Sho and son, where unbeknown to Sho, used as a patsy, the inside of his dolls is housing cocaine. ROTN is a real kind of 80's film making I liked. It's a real quality movie of a different and more spectacular action. The couple killed screwing in a hot tub, and can't be pulled apart give a new meaning to the term, inseparable. Pity too, though like in Ninja 3, that incidentally came out only months later, as a double feature with Swordkill, we have to put up with that awful music. A small price to pay for exciting action like this. Just don't expect constant action, as for some Ninja fans, this could prove a bit of a down sight. The climax is engagingly intense. Good stuff.

My friend's quote is that this movie is funny, but not for the right reasons. There is no date on the cover of this video, but we assume that it is the early eighties, at the time when the ninja movies were popular. I will give a brief rundown on the movie and then consider what was so popular about ninja movies. Finally I will end with my opinion.A ninja in Japan is determined to live on his land and fight off all of those who wish to attack him, but an American wants him to come to LA to open up a gallery. At this time a whole heap of ninja attack and kill his family, all except his mother and child. He then decides to go to America. What we find out is that this American is an evil ninja and is using the gallery to smuggle in heroin, in fact I think the American sets up the battle at the Japanese's house to lure him to America. So they fight and the film ends.What is it about ninja films? Well, I guess in the western eyes we see the ninja as the mysterious and unbeatable assassin. There is something romantic about an assassin who uses tricks to get in and out of his missions and execute them with accuracy. We also see the ninja as being unbeatable, and as such we like to fantasise over this by watching the movies. The popularity seems to have died down now (probably because the 80's ninja movies were so bad) and thus we hardly see any of them anymore.I sort of snoozed through this movie as it was a bit pointless. The plot was quite clichéd and the acting was bad. On top of that the stunts weren't that well done. I do believe that I have seen far worse acting in even worse movies, so I guess I can't say anything else about this.

I can't say I remember too much about the film except it has all the normal ninja stereotypes in it with lots of blood. If that is what you want that is what you'll get. Don't get me wrong, when I watch a ninja movie I'm not looking for Shakespeare. I'm looking for sword slashing, shrunken throwing and bear claws to the face fun. And maybe a few heads getting lopped off. It is what it is. The cool thing is how movies can bring back memories and I remember going to the movies with my mom and older brother and somehow convincing her that this particular movie was the one we were going to see. I'm not sure why she agreed to it and I'm sure she regretted it afterward as she is a conservative Christian woman. I was only 10 at the time and whining like crazy for us to see it. LOL I guess she thought, "It's about ninjas, how bad could it be!?" WRONG! This was the first rated R movie I saw in fact. All I have to say this movie is part of my life narrative now. Thanks Mom. I still remember the ending, but I won't spoil it for you.I'm probably one of the few people who actually saw this in a theater.

Sho Kosugi stars as a ninja who had his whole family wiped out by a rival clan (We even witness his son take an arrow to the back) and when his entire family is killed, except for his mother and youngest son he decides to hang his jammies up and live out his life as a businessman however when his partner runs drugs and Kosugi's son witnesses it, Kosugi must protect his son and take on his equally proficient pal in the art of ninjitsu. Revenge Of The Ninja is quite possibly the best ninja movie ever made. (Ironically the best and worst ninja movies have Sho Kosugi. Worst one being 9 Deaths of The Ninja) In it we witness everything that makes a ninja movie so appealing, lots of cheesy zen philosophy, tons of fight sequences, lots of carnage and just tons of cheese in general. Revenge Of The Ninja also remains probably the best movie to date from Sho Kosugi and indeed it is just unfortunate he had his son also partake in what could have been even better without the kid. Still Revenge Of The Ninja is a very enjoyable movie and that is not even including the granny ninja.* * * out of 4-(Good)