REVENGE OF THE NINJA
(1983)
What can I say? This film is my favorite ninja film of all time. It stars Sho Kosugi, real life martial artist, ninjitsu practitioner, expert in 9 different styles of martial arts, and a vast collection of 650 weapons, 120 of them are throwing stars. He does most if not all of his own stunts, and almost killed himself 4 times. Welcome to a trip down memory lane, let me take you back to a time where Sho was the king of ninja films, the golden age of ninja films.
The film starts off with some action right away, evil ninjas attacking Sho and his family. Sho with the support from Keith Vitali decides to move to America. Keith Vitali btw, is a columnist on Black Belt Magazine, and a US National Karate champion for 3 consecutive years.
Anyways we find out that Keith is an evil ninja, who uses Sho to transport drugs over to America by smuggling them inside fancy Japanese dolls that Sho is trying to sell.
Keith in the meantime goes to war with the local mob and has hypnotized a blonde bombshell named Cathy to keep an eye on Sho and spar with him wearing a red gi top and pantyhose. One of the memorable and humorous scene was with Grandmother, who has a fantastic fight scene with Keith who wears an awesome silver Hanya mask (Hanya is a Japanese female demon). Gotta love the acrobatic ninja Grandmother! Another scene to look for is the fight scene between Sho and a Native American henchman which kind of brings back memories of Storm Shadow versus Spirit from the 80s GIJOE cartoon! Tomahawk nuff said!!! Eventually Sho's real life son Kane gets kidnapped, and Sho brings out the weapons and outfit to save him. In the end there is a worthy final boss fight between Sho and Keith that will not disappoint, starts with some awesome Kuji-kiri (ninja finger weaving) and we get to see weapon vs weapon combat with various deceptive ninjitsu tactics as well.
What can I say the film is cheesy and great, they sure don't make them like this anymore, you will see Sho use a ninja star belt, don't forget the torture in a jacuzzi scene, and even a short appearance by Professor Toru Tanaka who was SUBZERO from The Running Man.
This film made me want to watch the other Sho Kosugi ninja films, and even though this was the best, I enjoyed the others very much, and became a Sho Kosugi fan!
Revenge of the Ninja review part 5/5
Revenge of the Ninja review part 4/5
Revenge of the Ninja review part 3/5
Revenge of the Ninja review Part 2/5
Revenge of the Ninja review part 1/5
Pray for Death starring Sho Kosugi
Rage of Honor starring Sho Kosugi
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