Ninja Assassin

Warner Bros

Blu Ray Region B

Larry and Andy Wachowski of Matrix fame once again team with James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta to produce this piece of wild action packed ninja fluff starring pretty boy Korean pop star Rain as Raizo. While Larry and Andy Wachowski may have produced a cinema changing series with the Matrix, they have never really matched this in any of their other films. Ninja Assassin is much the same, lots of gloss and great action, but not much substance. This does not take away from its enjoyment value but does limit its appeal.

Nine Ninja clams have been around since time immemorial, working as secret societies training killers for governments and anyone who can pay their price of 100 pounds in gold. In modern times they work for governments and big business alike, but it is the Ozunu clan which has really made it good. They steal children off the street and train them using the most brutal means imaginable to become vicious killing machines. Unlike other Ninja films, these Ninja’s are shown as the equivalent of Yakuza clans, violent, cruel and irredeemable vicious.

Raizo has proved himself a great asset to the clan but he finds himself somehow incomplete, his only friend is a kunoichi (female ninja) Kiriko. But Kiriko finds the ninja life too violent and when she attempts to escape is brutally slain before his eyes. Her killing puts doubts in his mind but the life he is leading and he begins to plot his revenge. After completing his first political assassination for the clan, staging an especially brutal killing of a mob boss, he slashes the face of the Lord Ozunu and escapes. He now plans how to bring the whole ninja system to a halt.

Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has been investigating a series of unusual political murders and makes a strange discovery; each of the murders is preceded by a payment which is equivalent to a hundred pounds of gold. Working together with another agent they soon uncover a network of assassins for hire used by governments and big business worldwide for their own “black ops”. This discovery puts them in grave danger and it is only with Raizo’s intervention that Mika survives a ninja hit. Together Mika and Raizo work together to expose the ninja but soon find that her own agency has been infiltrated and it is hard to know who to trust. As the body count reaches truly astronomical levels, a show-down looms when Raizo returns to the once secret Ozunu headquarters to destroy their murderous reign once and for all.

Ninja Assassin is pretty silly stuff; the plot and characters are simply props for the ninjas and their superbly choreographed violence. But the Ninjas are rather impressive, I don’t think they have ever been so well portrayed on screen. The way they appear like shadows from the dark, the ferocity of their attacks and the superb martial arts action really makes this a real winner. This is an action film “par excellence”, you know what you expect when you see the cover and you get it by the bucket load. This is not a particularly deep film but with lots of martial arts action and a ridiculously high body count what more could you want ?

Special features include The Story of the Ninja: Myth, Lore, Training and Combat, the Extreme Sport of a Ninja: an elite group of noted freerunners, martial artists and gymnasts brings to life the breathtaking and bloody action, training Rain: transforming a singer/dancer/actor into a powerful ninja and deleted scenes.

Reviews appear on the Synergy website with a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with multiple images and with expanded content. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.

This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the front page of Synergy Magazine Website or use the following link: http://www.synergy-magazine.com