Rating: R
Starring:
Rain as Raizo
Ben Miles as Maslow
Naomie Harris as Mika
Sung Kang as Hollywood
Randall Duk Kim as Tattoo Master
Jonathan Chan-Pensley as Yakuza Henchman
Yuki Iwamoto as Yakuza Couch
Ill-Young Kim as Yakuza Mohawk
Stephen Marcus as Kingpin
Shô Kosugi as Ozunu
Kylie Goldstein as Young Kiriko
Yoon Sungwoong as Young Raizo
Special Features:
The Myth and Legend of Ninjas
The Extreme Sport of a Ninja
Training Rain
Additional Scenes
Includes Standard DVD Copy Of Ninja Assassin
Includes Digital Copy Of Ninja Assassin For Portable Media Players
Other Info:
Widescreen (2.40:1)
DTS-HD MA 5.1
Spanish and French Subtitles
Spanish and French Language
Running Time: 99 Minutes
The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:
“The filmmakers behind ‘The Matrix’ and ‘V for Vendetta’ bring new blood to martial arts movies in this smashing adventure. Korean pop star Rain plays heroic, deadly Raizo. Trained from childhood in the way of the Ozunu Clan ninja, he is stalked by fellow warriors and their dojo patriarch (martial arts legend Sho Kosugi) and is on the run with a Europol agent (Naomie Harris) who has proof the clan sells assassination services to governments.”
“Ninja Assassin” is rated R for strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.
The Movie:
“Ninja Assassin” certainly has a strong pedigree. It is produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski… siblings of “Matrix” fame. It is co-written by J. Michael Straczynski who comes off a strong run of writing for Marvel Comics and for the Oscar nominated “The Changeling.” It is directed by James McTeigue from “V For Vendetta.” It stars Asian superstar Rain. The cast and crew alone should tell you this is better than your typical ninja movie.
But let’s get down to the real reason to watch a ninja movie – the action. Is it any good? Yes. Nothing groundbreaking, but still solidly entertaining. There are a few good fights. One ninja battle spills out onto a busy road and the ninjas fight among speeding cars. In another scene we’re treated to a great battle between a SWAT-type team and dozens of ninjas. There are also a few good training scenes showing young Raizo fighting other students among burning balls on chains. There’s also an incredibly brutal fight scene in a bathroom between young Raizo and a Russian mobster. But I’d say the opening fight scene is pretty much the most memorable. In it, we see a ninja slaughter a young Yakuza gang. Heads are sliced in half and spill on the floor. Blood spurts everywhere. Legs are sliced off. Ninja throwing stars tear people apart. It was to the point I thought we were about to see a ninja horror movie, not just a ninja movie. It gets toned down significantly as the movie progresses, but it’s definitely a scene that grabs you by the throat and holds your attention. While the blood verges on being over the top, you start to think that considering the slicing weapons a ninja uses, it’s probably realistically bloody.
The acting is decent. Rain holds his own as Raizo. While he’s a tad stiff in his performance, he more than makes up for it in the action scenes. He looks good on film. Naomie Harris is pretty as Mika, but she proves to be more than window dressing when the action starts. I thought she showed the right mixture of realistic fear and toughness. Ben Miles is also good as Maslow. His incredulity at having to deal with ninjas is amusing and is some of the little comic relief in the movie.
I was going to say that I expected a better story from J. Michael Straczynski, but I’ve since discovered that he was brought in at the last minute to do a complete re-write of the script. If it was a matter of time, I suppose it’s forgivable. But the script could have been better. The scenes showing the romance between Raizo and Kiriko were quite cheesy. Even the people in the audience most into the film were snickering at the hokey romance. There were also a lot of plot holes. When we see the ninjas in action, they appear to have supernatural powers that allow them to teleport through shadows, follow scents, have super hearing, and heal super fast. Yet when we see their training, there’s nothing supernatural about it. The film also portrays them as invincible killers in some scenes, yet cannon fodder in others. It was very inconsistent. The story also needed a bit more background. Who has been hiring the ninjas? How do they contact them when they’re super-secret? How do the ninjas know when someone is searching for them on the computer? Do they have ninja computer geeks? What do the ninjas do with 100 pounds of gold, anyway? And why haven’t they adjusted for inflation over the years! Maybe this is stuff that can be answered in a sequel, but in the meantime it’s a big gap in the story. Raizo is also portrayed as the best of all the ninjas, yet in the flashback scenes we never see anything that indicates he was a better student than the others (other than slight nods from his master). We needed to see more of why he was specially skilled.
Finally, the movie falls prey to many ninja clichés. Rather than expanding on them or even poking fun at them, they’re played straight up in the film. For example, when 20 ninjas attack Raizo, one attacks while all the rest hang back ineffectively. (I’m reminded of the Saturday Night Live skit where one of the ninjas says, “Why don’t we all attack him at once??”) Then, as tough as the ninja are portrayed as being, Raizo is able to take almost all of them out with a single blow.
I think fans of martial arts movies and comic books will enjoy “Ninja Assassin” the most. It’s a solid entry into the genre and I’d be interested in seeing a sequel and following Raizo in his other adventures. There’s certainly room to improve from this movie.
The Extras:
On the Blu-ray, you’ll find DVD and digital copies of the film. Along with that you’ll find “The Myth and Legend of Ninjas,” a featurette on real ninjas in Japanese history. It also features real people today who study ninja related martial arts. “The Extreme Sport of a Ninja” shows how they created the ninja stunts in the film by incorporating extreme sports, parkour, free running, and more. “Training Rain” shows how they turned the Korean pop star into an action hero. Also included are a few deleted scenes, most of which feature Mika investigating the ninjas assassins.
