Ninja Death (1987)

Posted in Reviews by - March 29, 2015
Ninja Death (1987)

A nutty ninja flick full of every conceivable excitement: a cloaked baddie in a gold lamé headdress; a demonic sub-villain in a dragon mask who responds violently to flute music; springboard ninja spinning behind an array of colourful smoke bombs. You name it, this has it. The film also takes a fetishistic approach to naked flesh of both the female and male kind, but mostly male. Alexander Lo is not someone to squander the opportunity to take his shirt off and rub oil on his muscles. His bulging torso lunges back and forth towards the camera in strenuous scenes of muscle porn. His beggar sifu subjects him to a sadistic training routine which involves being tied up, downing vinegar, lacquered in snakes blood, surrounded by ice blocks and beaten with sticks. He plays a gobby orphan boy named Tiger who is basically a pimp for a local brothel who is concerned about the arrival of a neighbouring Japanese whorehouse who are stealing all his customers. A ninja sect with links to Tiger’s past show up and start causing havoc, and his master is forced to reveal the fraught truth surrounding his upbringing. Towards the end of the film it becomes clear the filmmakers aren’t entirely sure what’s happening in the story. The film is also obsessed with boobs and features the sort of lurid, protracted soft-core sex scenes usually absent from traditional kung fu flicks. Couple this with all the fast-action ninja fighting and this is a brazen, buzzing hive of activity. Then it just stops. There are two sequels, if you think you can handle it.

This post was written by
Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

1 Comment

  • Count

    lol. This ish is bonkers!

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