A traditional kung fu film from the Shaw Brothers studio in that it depicts the similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese styles of fighting - as well as weaponry - in a thoughtful and intelligent way. As well as this, the film offers up plenty of humour amid the chop-socky fighting bits, and the fights themselves are well choreographed and a delight to watch. It's little surprise given that the main stars are accomplished fighters in themselves, whether it be Chia Hui Liu (or "Gordon" as he is called in the West) as the provoked hero, Yuko Mizuno as his Japanese wife, or the various Japanese challengers up against him, chief of whom is the typically excellent Yasuaki Kurata.
The martial arts bouts are genuinely exciting, each different from the last as various areas - karate, judo, ninjitsu, even a "drunken god" tale - are explored. My only complaint is that the sets are a little boring, with only the finale - set in a field of straw men! - offering any interest in the backdrop. For a martial arts movie, the film is free of blood and violence for a change (not that I'm against that, but often it's just unnecessary) making it a wholesome tale for the whole family to enjoy. Little more is left to be said about SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA, other than it's a fine example of the martial arts genre at its most professionally made and intelligent, and a lot different - and thus better - than most low-budget repetitive kickfests.
Having recently caught up with this film a second time after an interval of some twenty years, I see now that it's inferior to later Liu classics like EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER or THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN. It's an exercise in technique but there's no heart to it at all, and the first half hour, in which much of the running time is saddled with the overbearing, arrogant wife character, is hard to take. It's a film that looks nice, for sure, but my real love is for Shaw's revenge classics.
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