Michael_Elliott Revenge of the Ninja (1983)*** (out of 4)The second film in Cannon's ninja trilogy finds Cho Osaki (Sho Kosugi) taking his young son to America after his wife and family were murdered by ninjas. In America Cho thinks his best friend (Keith Vitali) is helping him with a good job but it turns out that the friend in an evil ninja using Cho for a heroin smuggling ring. While the friend starts to take out members of the Mafia, Cho on the other hand starts to realize what's really going on. REVENGE OF THE NINJA is perhaps the best American ninja movie ever made. With that said, don't go into this thing expecting the work of Kurosawa because you'd only be getting your hopes way too high. This is a Cannon movie after all so you should expect a lousy screenplay, silly action, bad acting and of course some fun. There really not a single good thing about this movie but thankfully director Firstenberg is smart enough to just deliver one long action scene after another. The entire story is rather stupid and there are countless plot holes from start to finish so this here should just be thrown out the window. The main reason to watch this movie is for its over-the-top violence, which starts off crazy and just grows nuttier by the second. The opening ninja sequence is quite brutal as they kill Cho's family members and that includes the children and old ladies. One of the next scenes takes place six years later as Cho's son (played by Kosugi's real son) is walking home from school when some bullies decide to pick a fight with him and he must teach them a lesson. This here is followed up with one of the craziest action scenes in the history of Cannon, which is saying a lot. A group of men in a van steal some priceless dolls so Kosugi must chase them down, jump on the van, fall off the van, catch up with the van again and start fighting with the men in the van again. This is one of the craziest sequences you'll ever witness but it is fun. The final fifteen-minutes of the film finds both ninjas in the Mafia's building. The Vitali ninja is trying to kill off the Mafia members while the Kosugi ninja comes seeking revenge. This leads to one of the longest ninja fights in screen history and just about every weapon and move is used by the men. Needless to say, it's best that you turn your brain off because there's very little common sense going on here. If you're a fan of 80s action then REVENGE OF THE NINJA is pretty much unlike any movie ever made. Most will see that as a bad thing but fans of the genre should have a good time as long as they don't take it too serious.

bob the moo When his family is butchered in Japan by ninjas, Cho moves to America with his young son and mother to escape the conflict and start anew. He opens a Japanese doll shop and continues his training without ever having the need to use it. Unbeknownst to him though, his imported dolls are being used as a cover for heroin smuggling by his "friend" and business partner Braden – who is also secretly a deadly and powerful ninja. With Braden knocking off his mobster partners, the police turn to Cho to help them identify the martial arts secrets being used, drawing Cho back into a deadly battle he had sought to escape.Someone pointed me to this film as "a great ninja movie" and, despite that, I approached it with a certain amount of caution mainly because I think few things highly praised live up to the hype. So it was with Revenge of the Ninja but not to the point that it wasn't actually a pretty enjoyable film for what it was. The first thing to point out is the very thing you will not need pointed out – it is dated. Really dated. If you were a film designer looking to set a film in a cheesy version of the early 80's then you would do well to watch this film and take notes because it really is of its time. This is not its fault of course, it is only down to its age but it is unavoidably a problem with watching this film today. It is not just visually that the film is cheesy though, because the film is dated beyond just costume and style. The plot is a simple affair but I was pleasantly surprised by the action sequences they produced. Yes they are delivered to terrible TVM musical accompaniment but they are done reasonably well with quite a violent edge to them that belies the 80's presentation. They are not helped at all by director Firstenberg's TV direction but they are still quite enjoyable in a cheesy way.The cast match the cheese with their performances. Shô Kosugi has got moves but he is straight from the "intense stare" school of martial arts acting. Roberts helps make him look good with a performance that highlights when his stand-in was used. Behind the mask in the action scenes "he" is impressively fluid and natural, take those away and he is a big bit of beef and as wooden as you like. The rest of the cast follow this lead, all being pretty poor at acting and generally there because they (a) are Oriental, (b) are muscular goons or (c) are blonde, have 80's underwear and are willing to show their t*ts to camera.Revenge of the Ninja is terribly dated and cheesy but it is hard to deny that it does deliver some solid ninja action. More of a guilty pleasure than a pleasure mind you but genre fans who know what they are in for should find it worth seeing.

mandelmanden The only thing worse than acting was, the fightscenes. And of course the plot was a laughing matter. Poor choreography, poor dialogue, poor acting, a 6 year old that defeats adults with his martial arts skills and in general so many laughable clichés (the mafia guy has an Indian chief (who's the most non-native-American looking guy in the world) and so many poorly executed scenes make this movie a complete farce... 1½ hours of time wasted and a good evening ended because the poor quality of this movie hypnotised everyone to sleep.The only redeeming quality I can think of was the healthy amounts of blood when the evildoer is finally brought down by our courageous hero. Of course not until after the evil boss guy has defeated him time and time again almost casually. Several times fooling him with the help of mechanical dolls of himself that somehow materialise out of thin air when needed the most.I've watched I don't know how many kung-fu, samurai and ninja movies and I can honestly say that none of them has been as poor as this one.

disdressed12 the second in the "Ninja" series,though really nothing to do with the first one,this movie is another Cannon Group production.ultra cheap,of course--the cannon trademark.lots of action,but some of the fight scenes between the 2 ninjas looks to stagey,too choreographed,compared to the first in the series "Enter the Ninja".this 1 has some definite unintentional comedic value.and some of the action scenes are much too far fetched.again the acting is not stellar,but this isn't Hamlet,so the acting proves adequate.there's bit of a plot,but it's pretty thin.some of the death scenes are a bit gruesome,owing to how cheap they look.but i enjoyed it for what it was,a classic,though brainless piece of entertainment.i give "Revenge of the Ninja" 8/10