Ninja Vengeance (1988 available On-demand for those w/Comcast)- first actual post has to start with this bit of the lovely. For those of us who fondly remember the Sho Kosugi movies of that era and expect same from this based on title and production dates alone... not quite, unfortunately, the title is rather misleading. There are clear connections, the most marked- denizens of this movie are so acting averse it can only be the 80's, and a ninja movie.
Although featuring Stephen K. Hayes via flashback/training montage sequences in what feels a series of mash notes to the bearded, black-clad one- the bulk of this piece (probably written and produced by students of Hayes') revolves around one lone 'ninja' (with a penchant for rolling) who due to mishap, ends-up in a little town with a huge (at least proportionally) KKK presence and corrupt yet inept police department. So this young feller happens into town and witnesses a murder and befriends a woman who was close to the victim. Okay, so far, so good, yeah? Uh, No. This can't seem to make up its mind: is it a Nice Guy (with secret super abilities) Pushed Too Far action film? A meditation on the role of 'martial arts' student in modern society*? A request for tolerance and decency? None of the above really, not by a stereotypically racist, backward country mile...
So where were we? Oh yeah, so, Our 'hero' (if that word translated from Greek means, 'one who rolls') goes on the lam with his 'woman friend.' The people responsible for this murder must be brought to justice, and who else can do it? Hint- not the main character. Can he take a beating? Heck yeah, he can even roll a lot while doing it. Can he dish one? ...well, this is part of the problem. The kanji (Japanese characters) shinobi means to 'endure hardship'. Nothing about being able to fight; this is a good thing because with few exceptions, he gets chased and beaten, but a least there is lots of rolling.
There was nothing convincing about any portion of this movie, not the acting or the motivations of the individual characters to do the things that they did, with one exception- I believed that the protagonist needed to roll. 100% sold, signed, sealed and delivered.
I don't wanna rate this film, but it was bad enough to watch in FF while not quite hilariously bad enough to be actually watchable (that said, the experience may be enhanced greatly with the creation of a drinking game... I'm thinking drink every time the hero gets hit or rolls, golly, good times).
So why start with a review of a 'should miss'? 'Cause that's how I roll, beetches. Seriously though, when you can watch a movie for free, in fast forward, reducing the experience from 1.5 hours to just under 24 minutes and still get it the whole thing with time left over to actually work, life's pretty good.
*Let's just go OT for a moment. Any movie that highlights combative arts is bound to go for style over substance- informed viewers have to go in with a willingness to suspend disbelief about some stuff. It is also refreshing to see little bits of philosophy injected into stories (provided it isn't so hamfisted or wrong as to be embarrassing). The producers of this film go out of their way to offer the overly romantic 'ninja' (read: Takamatsuden-as-filtered-through-SKH) philosophy, to the point of silliness.
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