They really bust out all the ninja toys here too. It amps up the violence and streamlines its story down to something pretty silly (which helps set up the opportunity for more kills and some good stunt work). REVENGE OF THE NINJA does just was a sequel should do (though it doesn't really tie into ENTER THE NINJA directly). Oh and Susan George is easy on the eyes so that gives this one a little boost. Regardless, I think those that remember this one fondly will want to be picking up this disc. There are some script/structure and directorial problems too. I love the guy and he and his persona are a great fit for Italian crime films and spaghetti westerns, but I think perhaps that martial arts isn't quite his genre. Maybe it has to do with the casting of Franco Nero. In watching this new Kino Lorber Blu-ray, I found it more engaging and entertaining than that previous view, but it still is missing something. I think it was a classic case of having built it up a bit too much in my head after so many years.
#Enter the ninja blu ray mod#
It had been hard to see for quite a while and I think had only just gotten an MOD DVD release around that time. I rewatched ENTER THE NINJA some four or 5 years ago on MGM HD and I must admit to being slightly let down by it. I had gotten used to only seeing Stormshadow in animated form and so these real life interpretations of the ninja garb left an impression. I seem to recall it being pretty neat to see guys dressed in white and black ninja costumes though.
#Enter the ninja blu ray movie#
I have little to no recollection of what my initial takeaway was after I watch the movie for the first time. I may have seen them in passing in a few genre films, but they still weren't on my radar. When I first saw ENTER THE NINJA on my local video store shelf, I had no idea who Franco Nero or Sho Kosugi were. It seems pretty immature now, but back then it was a huge deal to me. Weapons and wanting to know more about them kind of went hand in hand with getting my kicks watching violent movies.
That just had these great appeal to me as a youngster. These ninjas were not only great martial artists, but they were also big on using all kinds of weaponry to dispatch their victims. It was like one step beyond the straight martial arts I was so fond of from guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris (and even Steven Seagal). They were seemingly trained in secret and their tradition went back a centuries. I had a similar fascination with Navy SEALs later on.
These mysterious, highly skilled killers were just the coolest thing to ever exist when I was a kid. I even recall writing a story about ninjas and halloween for one of my classes in middle school. Martial arts, exotic bladed weapons and blood were the currency of this filmic universe and myself and guys my age totally went for it. To me, it was a way to take the dying slasher genre and spin it off into a different, more action-y direction.
They had found a way to make ninjas into unstoppable (and often gruesomely so) killing machines. They brought us ENTER THE NINJA in 1981(one of their first productions) and the superior REVENGE OF THE NINJA in 1983. It wasn't until much later in my movie watching that I started to look back and see how much fun stuff they had brought into the world.
I must have seen that fantastic Cannon Logo slam together before dozens upon dozens of movies before it started to register. I was aware of them without really knowing who they were and connecting all of their action films together. Their contributions of awesomeness to cinema are innumerable. Our good friends at Cannon Films have brought us tons of great stuff. Ninja stuff was everywhere, and there were lots of ninja movies to appease us. I recall many a sketchy catalog of deadly weaponry (throwing stars being the most popular) being confiscated by school officials from my unsuspecting classmates. Joe and thought Stormshadow was a badass. Some of my friends and I had a lotta love for G.I. Just to sort of set the stage here, be aware that 'ninja fever' was truly a big thing for me in early high school. ENTER THE NINJA (1981 Menahem Golan) / REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983 Sam Firstenberg)
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