You know, Enter the Ninja was so damn good that I decided to give you all a second helping of ninja with an unofficial sequel to Enter the Ninja. If there is one thing Hollywood loves, it’s sequelizing the hell out of movies. This is no exception to yesterday’s love fest as Revenge of the Ninja is about as balls out crazy as the first movie of the trilogy. Yes I said trilogy as there is another movie called Ninja III: The Domination, but I just want to focus on the even crazier sequel Revenge of the Ninja cause there is more sword clanging, ninja star throwing, and ninja goodness that you won’t believe. I would venture to say that despite the absence of an amazing death scene, Revenge of the Ninja is the equivalent The Dark Knight in terms of sequel success. Yeah that’s right, this movie is the Dark Knight of the ninja franchise.
Sam Firstenberg directs Sho Kosugi in the martial arts action film Revenge of the Ninja. Kosugi plays a former ninja assassin whose family is killed by other ninjas. He begins life anew in America, but unexpectedly comes to work for drug traffickers who he must face off against. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
That’s all the story you are going to get with this movie. I mean retired ninja takes vow never to kill again and is dragged back into the fray once some evil ninja goes rampant and he is the only one who can stop him. Pretty basic ninja revenge plot line I guess, but what makes this movie truly amazing is everything in this movie. I can’t even begin to just count the number of awesome things this movie offers. First you have a ninja grandmother whooping ass and then you have a ninja kid who beats up bullies and a grown woman. Next there are so many different ninja tools that are pulled out of nowhere. You got a guy who can shoot flames from his wrist, smoke bombs, copious amounts of ninja stars, a ninja star belt buckle and so much more. There is ninja hypnotism which I didn’t know existed. Amazing catching abilities since everything that is thrown at the ninjas are caught and then thrown back. And finally an epic one on one ninja showdown between the head honchos.
Revenge of the Ninja is just riddled with insanity from the start of the movie. All the dramatic moments of the movie get their over amped musical cues and are just slowed down a bit to enhance the effect. There is a lot of terrible dialogue, but that is expected since the crown jewel of this movie is the action and fight scenes. I will say that along with increased fight scenes, this is a bloody and violent movie. I said earlier that there is a lot sword clanging and star throwing going on in this movie and that means that people are having to catch the brunt of that violence. The violence in this movie is incredible with people being used as dartboards and a massive amount of sword stabbings. My favorite moments are when the ninjas throw around these little sharp caltrops like throwing change at a beggar. The hapless thugs are catching face fulls of sharp objects like their face was a damn magnet. And the ninja star throwing is done with sniper precision as well. Dudes heads are just zeroed in with ease and there is so many head shots that it gets surreal after a while.
I got to say that despite the absence of the greatest death scene in movie history, Revenge of the Ninja makes up for it with gratuitous violence and an awesome closing battle scene. Sure the grandma ninja fighting the boss and a the kid martial artist fight scenes are entertaining, but the finale of the movie is where it’s at. I did a bit of reviewing of this movie to charge my memory and the director was quoted as saying the final battle is a fight between good and evil. No fucking shit man. I didn’t go to film school or anything, but I am fairly certain that all fights are between good and evil. It’s kind of the point of having villains and heroes. That cavalier of a statement just makes me love the final 10 minute ninja battle all the more. Nothing beats a rooftop fight scene.
All in all, Revenge of the Ninja is incredible. A worthy sequel to the first film, Enter the Ninja, and well worth your time to check out. I have even embedded two videos, one a compilation of the best scenes from the movie and then the entire movie for your enjoyment. Peace!
