Shurikens and masks at the ready, because it’s time for ten essential ninja movies!
They glide through trees and leap between buildings. They blend with the shadows. They wear really cool outfits and fight each other with swords and shuriken. Back in the golden 8 and 16-bit eras, there were innumerable and awesome games dedicated to being a ninja. There were also a slew of movies.
These masked assassins, whether the heroes or villains of the story, make for compelling action films built on centuries of real tradition, lore, myth and literary fantasy.
There have been countless terrible ninja movies, but even the bad ones have a certain goofy charm. There have, however, been some pretty enjoyable ninja movies which revel in their B-movie trappings. Here are ten essential ninja movies…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
For many, their introduction to ninjas and ninja cinema would have been with Raph, Leo, Donatello and Mikey. Cartoons, toys and a fiendishly difficult NES game aside, the big standout vehicle for the TMNT was their first big-screen adaptation.
It’s recently been re-released, and watching back in retrospect, the film holds up really well. It’s got great action, the Turtles look great (in the first film), the voice actors nail the job, the villain is iconic, and the soundtrack and score are great. Apart from the comedy hijinks and fighting too, the film actually has a little heart in it, and it’s dark in places for what was a kids’ film. That led to the sequels becoming far more sugar-coated and leaning even more on screwball comedy, but they paled in comparison to Steve Barron’s original film.
The Hunted
Christopher Lambert’s post-Highlander popularity led to his appearances in several action films throughout the 1990s. Whether they passed quickly through a theatrical run or hit the video shelves early, Lambert was prolific and largely reliable.
The Hunted ranks as one of his stronger films of an enjoyable era. Now, he did another film the same year you may know of (Mortal Kombat), which featured ninja characters, but honestly, The Hunted is way better. Lambert is an American businessman who runs afoul of ninjas and witnesses them kill a woman (Joan Chen) he’s just met. Marked for death, Lambert gets help from Ijuro (Yoshio Harada) and Mieko (Yoko Shimada), who are trying to take down the ruthless Ninja cult (led by John Lone). Some really decent set pieces ensue.
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine were proving an excellent combo in straight-to-video action, notably with the Undisputed sequels they paired on. After one Ninja movie, which didn’t quite live up to their previous collaborations, nor the potential of an Adkin’s ninja movie, they tried again with a sequel.
Right off the bat, with Adkins as a Western ninja seeking to avenge his murdered wife, everything hits with more precision. Loaded with great fights, even if the ninja aesthetic largely takes a back seat, Adkins is at his blistering best, and Florentine plays completely to his strengths.
Kane Kosugi (son of legendary Ninja actor Sho Kosugi) makes an excellent foe for Adkins, particularly when they inevitably face off. The Thai locales also look great, adding production values that felt lacking in the first Bulgarian-produced (unconvincingly doubling for NYC) film.
The Killer Elite
Sam Peckinpah, a director who re-wrote the way many action directors shot and cut action sequences, was best known for heroic bloodshed in Westerns and crime action thrillers.
Among his more iconic works, he also happened to unleash a pretty decent ninja film starring James Caan and Robert Duvall as CIA buddies, before Duvall betrays the former. The legendary Mako also stars, and if you want to see Caan battling ninjas with an Uzi, then this is the film for you. It’s too long, but within the hefty two hours is probably a great 100-minute action movie. The cast is excellent, and the action sequences are as eye-catching as you would expect from Peckinpah.
Beverly Hills Ninja
It’s effectively the same movie as Kung Fu Panda, but it’s live action and stars the late great Chris Farley. Beverly Hills Ninja sees an accident-prone idiot (yeah, Farley) accepted into a proud group of ninjas and taught their ways.
He journeys to America to prove himself and gets mixed up in haplessly trying to foil a criminal enterprise, unknowingly receiving help at every turn from his ninja brother, Robin Shou. Farley milks every physical pratfall for all its worth and, despite his size, pulls off some impressive physical moves. There’s loads of fun to be had with this one.
Enter the Ninja
We can’t cover ninjas and not look at a Sho Kosugi film. Enter the Ninja is a pure exploitation movie, released under the Cannon ouvre. Ninjas were pretty well worn with Golan and Globus’ B-movie factory.
Kosugi is the black ninja who can’t accept his rival, a Westerner (Franco Nero) who becomes the white ninja. It’s a total cheese fest with goofy dubbing and a weirdly eclectic cast that also includes Christopher George and Susan George. It’s gleefully excessive, directed by former Cannon co-head, Menahem Golan.
Ninja III: The Domination
Sequels followed Enter the Ninja, only ever loosely connected. In the third instalment, it takes a new twist with the spirit of an evil ninja possessing a young fitness instructor, played by Lucinda Dickey. All overseen by action specialist and no stranger to ninja cinema, director Sam Firstenberg.
Daft, wildly over the top and filled with synth music and a cheesy 80s soundtrack, Ninja III might be terrible objectively speaking (with Dickey having a seriously icky love interest), but it’s also masses of fun. Dickey is also great, but aside from two Breakin movies and some small roles in largely unknown films, she (sadly) didn’t do much before seemingly retiring from the film business.
American Ninja
Cannon once more, with American Ninja, which proved to be the launching pad for Michael Dudikoff, who they hoped would take on the mantle of Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. In theory, this would be a more refined take on the ninja westerner motif, minus the goofy karate drive-in movie dubbing of the Franco Nero picture.
Dudikoff had a Jimmy Dean quality to him, and he was ably assisted in kicking ass by the late Steve James, who was a hugely underrated action star, always left as second fiddle or a henchman, sadly. American Ninja spawned four sequels and a sort of semi-sequel, too (American Samurai). This is a fun action film, albeit not the best collab between Dudikoff and Sam Firstenberg (again). That would be Avenging Force.
New York Ninja
Made back in the 80s and unreleased, New York Ninja was salvaged, restored, edited and then redubbed by an eclectic cast of actors, including Don Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Ginger Lynn. It’s a classic exploitation picture, full of every so bad it’s good trapping you can get.
The modern redub leans into this, and the result is something that is hugely entertaining. It’s a great job from boutique label, Vinegar Syndrome, that proves to be a love letter to the goofball ninja movies of yesteryear. Original director and star John Liu’s project deserved to see the light of day, even if it took almost 40 years to get there.
Ninja Assassin
Produced by the Wachowskis and directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) there are more than a few stylistic odes to the 00s era Matrix mimicry fascination. For McTeigue, following V, this felt like a strange choice, and the film was greeted with poor reviews and disappointing box office.
However, in time, it’s seen a little more appreciation grow for its Manga-style visuals and some of the impressive action. It takes itself deathly seriously, to the point it’s occasionally unintentionally funny, but this adds to its charm. In hindsight, there were way worse films coming out in the hyper-stylised action arena of the time (including from the Wachowskis themselves). In feeling like a graphic novel come to life, it does work pretty well.
What’s your favourite ninja film? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
