Well to start with, and a point of some not inconsiderable importance this, despite the movies title, there are in fact NO actual on screen ninja in this movie whatsoever! (Deduct some stars straight away!)
However, it has to be said that aside from this unforgivably false piece of advertising which under normal circumstances would have caused me to berate any such film vehemently, what we actually have here is nonetheless in truth, something of a minor Z-Movie classic!
With the name Godfrey Ho at the helm, it hardly comes as a shock to bear witness to what appears to be some early usage of the 'Cut & Splice' technique of lazy, cheap sod film-making, although it is less extensively used here, unlike many of his later features. In further regards to this, the movie in question is certainly more coherent plot wise than many of Ho's other efforts although many of the martial arts scenes do just seem to spring literally out of nowhere with no explanation as to where, why and indeed who the opponents are (!!!) inevitably rendering the viewer somewhat baffled!
But credit where credit's due
..if ever there was a film to watch whilst drunk, then this surely must be one of the front running contenders!
The first 20 minutes or so of this are without doubt utterly hilarious for so many reasons
..
One particularly funny point is the ineptitude of the film makers to put this into any accurate historical context. The story is supposedly set in 1940's China yet bizarrely the protagonists all wear 1970's clothes and drive contemporary 70's cars!!!! Added to this we have a rather groovy (and stolen) seventies soundtrack that plays throughout and which is invariably cranked up to full volume whenever one of the many aforementioned impromptu fights erupt!
As to the fights themselves, they are luckily for the most part rather exciting and well choreographed (in one instance one of the leads even tangles with genre favourite Bolo Yeung who makes a brief but most welcome appearance)
The dubbing/voice over work here had me in stitches
. every single character on screen boasts some woefully inappropriate and laughably over the top accent or voice (all of course set hopelessly out of sync with the characters mouth movements!) And let us not forget the script itself which contains some of the daftest dialogue humanly imaginable! (Interestingly the version I watched also had all the swearing cut out of the soundtrack!)
It has to be said that the film DOES begin to drag and become wearisome around the mid length mark though and indeed continues up until the rather surprisingly downbeat ending, but even in it's slower parts there is usually enough stupid lines of dialogue or yet another of those sudden and unforeseen fights to keep the viewer at least smiling.
Best scene? For me it was one of the fights near the beginning where a man is supposedly knocked over a balcony
..the usage of the particularly obvious and rigid dummy would have looked more in place on the late great Benny Hill Show! utterly hilarious! Also listen out for what has to be one of the stupidest lines of dialogue in movie history where the main villain rebukes one of his henchmen by saying: 'Do you know what you've done? You've just shot my dearest enemy!'
5 out of 5 found this helpful