Is the Ninja Movie Back? A Spate of Recent Ninja Releases Raises the Question

Ninjas movies have fascinated American audiences for decades. When the Kung Fu boom of the 1970's began to die out, the ninja movie quickly stepped in as the next wave of martial arts film. American Ninja(1985) preceded the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies (1990-1993) and soon after the heroes in a half-shell faded from popularity, we went back to a Kung Fu phase led by Jean Claude Van Damme.

Today, martial arts films have melded with gangster and action films to form something like a new genre, one that strongly resembles the 1980's ninja movies.

It comes as no surprise then to see a new wave of ninja films hitting the screen (and going straight to DVD).

Ninja (2009) and Ninja Assassin (2009) are two films that bring the semi-classic genre into contemporary cinema, with mixed results.

Ninja plays like a B-movie, much like the American Ninja movies of the past. And Ninja Assassin comes across as a big budget fight movie, often evoking thoughts of The Matrix, and using enough computer generated blood to fill a swimming pool, to quote a proverb.

If you are going to watch one of these movies, Ninja Assassin is the clear choice.

What set these movies apart?

The narrative of the films make these very different movies. Ninja Assassin takes the strategy of breaking up the protagonist's back-story and spreading it out over the first two thirds of the movie. As the tension and conflict of the "present day" story of the film is rooted in the protagonist's history, this method of storytelling is effective.

A natural benefit of this strategy is the ability to see the mature ninja fight at the height of his skills throughout the film. We don't have to wait for him to get really good at killing people. In the "present day" story he is a skilled assassin, and we see how he got to be that way in the flashback narrative sequences.

Ninja opts for a voice-over introduction followed by a brief scene of the protagonist's childhood.

In both Ninja and Ninja Assassin, the main characters are orphans trained to uphold the honor of their clan. In both films the protagonist is pitted against another ninja for the chiefdom of the clan. However, in Ninja, the protagonist is Caucasian, not Japanese.

Ninja presents a character who is unwilling to kill, at first, and who seeks to protect a young woman. Ninja Assassin presents a character all too willing to kill, who also protects a young woman.

A crucial difference in the stories of these films comes in the female character. In Ninja, the young lady is a trained ninja who is shown to be equal to the white guy ninja in martial arts skill. The female lead in Ninja Assassin is a forensic expert with no martial arts training.

Clearly the self-described "glorified librarian" needs protection while the deadly lady ninja...doesn't.

Watching Ninja, you would think that the director forgot the young lady's back-story when she is repeatedly made out to be nearly helpless and in need of rescue.

Martial arts are central to each of these ninja movies and fighting takes up about half the screen time. Though neither film is truly satisfying as a fight movie (or in general), Ninja Assassin presents a much more slick and entertaining style of martial arts cinema than Ninja.

The actor playing the lead part in Ninja Assassin, a man named Rain, appears capable of doing the stunts in the movie. Special effects are stamped all over Ninja Assassin, but there is never doubt cast directly on the actors as to whether they can really flip and jump as we see them doing on screen.

Ninja is the exact opposite. Not only is the white ninja unconvincing in his martial arts skill, the method of filming is to slow-motion every "impressive" move he makes in a way that renders it all very unimpressive. He is not a fighter. He is a body builder and it shows, for good and bad.

A final difference between these ninja movies can be found in the sets. Ninja Assassin achieves a real-world, expansive feel by shooting some scenes in the city of Berlin as well as on some outdoor sets. Along side the dynamic camera work, the sets and locations of Ninja Assassin draw you into the story.

Ninja seems to be shot entirely on a sound-stage. This wouldn't be a bad thing if you didn't expect the fake buildings to start falling over during the climactic fight that caps the movie.

Ratings and Recommendations

If you are going to see one of these ninja movies, watch Ninja Assassin. On a five star scale, Ninja Assassin gets two stars. Ninja gets ones star.

Rotten Tomatoes critics rate Ninja Assassin at 25 out of 100, which is pretty low, but they don't even bother to rate Ninja.

If you really want to see a white guy do martial arts in a movie and win in the end, the early Van Damme movies are perfect for you. Kickboxer and Bloodsport are both decent, conventional "fight tournament" movies, complete with extended training montage segments over-dubbed with energetic music.

Alternative films to watch instead of Ninja Assassin might be Troy(highly stylized camera work and fight scenes) or Old Boy (a gritty, intense Korean martial arts thriller).

Reference:
IMDB.com
Rotten Tomatoes dot com