Ninja Assassin: Movie Review

Don't go into this film with too high of expectations. From the previews I knew it would be rather ridiculous, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. Essentially, that's all this movie is: just a fun watch. Think of it as "Shoot 'em Up" with swords.

The story is weak, and full of holes: both plot, and historic. There are one or two actors who are actually Japanese; the rest are Korean, and Chinese. That has always bothered me about films with Asians. People of one descent are passed off as another, and I always notice. It's kind of insulting.

Furthermore the actors don't speak Japanese. It's makes things very difficult to take the movie even a little bit more seriously. Part of the story takes place in Osaka. The opening ten minutes revolve around a Yakuza outfit, and they don't utter a word of Japanese. This reminds me all too much of "Memoirs of a Geisha". "Let's throw a bunch of Asians on set, call them Japanese, hire Ken Watanabe for safe measure, and hope no one notices", that's the feeling I get here.

A counter-point to all this is the story never says all the characters are Japanese, but when they have Japanese names, it's probably a safe assumption they are.

Anyway, as for the actual watching of the movie, as I said, it's fun. Go in with that expectation alone, and it should be a good experience for just about anyone. I saw a lot of behind the scenes action in leaked videos from the set, and it was quite cool to see all the rehearsals come to life in the movie. The action is fast, bloody, and cool. Movies such as this one always make me appreciate the hard physical work actors have to put in to their roles. Rain does some pretty impressive stuff, and all I could think of watching him was "damn I need to get in better shape".

So give it a watch if you've got a spare evening.