Enter the Ninja (1981) Cannon/Action RT: 101 minutes Rated R (language, strong martial arts violence, mild sexual content) Director: Menahem Golan Screenplay: Dick Desmond and Mike Stone Music: W. Michael Lewis and Laurin Rinder Cinematography: David Gurfinkel Release date: October 1982 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi, Christopher George, Alex Courtney, Will Hare, Zachi Noy, Constantine de Goguel, Dale Ishimoto, Joonee Gamboa, Leo Martinez, Ken Metcalfe, Subas Herrero. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Ah yes, the Ninja movies! They bring back great memories of sitting in a dark theater as a teen watching people in black uniforms beating the crap out of each other. And all those cool weapons…..WOW! These are some bad ass dudes!
Enter the Ninja, the first installment of Cannon’s Ninja Trilogy (followed by Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination), starts it off with a mid-sized bang. I say mid-sized because it’s uneven. When it stick to martial arts action, it’s pretty good. When it strays into romantic drama, it’s awkward. It doesn’t jibe with the rest of the movie.
After completing his ninjutsu training in Japan and becoming a certified ninja master, American army veteran Cole (Nero, Django) heads to the Philippines to visit his old army buddy Frank (Courtney, Looking for Mr. Goodbar) and his new wife Mary-Ann (Susan George, Straw Dogs). After an awkward initial encounter with Mary-Ann who mistakes him for a trespasser, Cole hardly gets settled in before learning some local thugs are pressuring Frank into selling his land to ruthless CEO Charles Venarius (Christopher George, The Exterminator). BTW, the two Georges aren’t related.
It looks like Cole arrived just in time as Venarius turns up the heat in his campaign of harassment and intimidation. He has his thugs scare off all of the laborers at Frank’s farm. When that fails to produce the desired result, he recruits more guys (local toughs mainly) to deal with the situation. Cole bests them each time. Why does Venarius want the property so bad? There’s a large oil deposit located right beneath their land. He intends to get even wealthier from this enterprise. The only thing standing in his way is Cole.
In order to level the playing field, he sends his right-hand man Parker (Goguel, To the Devil a Daughter) to find him a ninja of his own. He goes to Japan where he recruits Hasegawa (Kosugi, Revenge of the Ninja), Cole’s chief rival from his training days. He refuses to accept the fact that an American earned the rank of ninja master and wants to destroy him. That’s right, only a ninja can destroy a ninja.
Directed by Cannon co-owner Menahem Golan (The Delta Force), Enter the Ninja is vintage B-movie material. The idea of a stranger coming to town and bringing down a greedy rich guy trying to force people off their land is the premise behind many a western. Only the hero doesn’t carry a six-shooter; he carries a sword and assorted pointed weapons. Italian actor Nero seems an unlikely choice to play the hero and he is. He was great as gunslinger Django in the classic 1966 spaghetti western. However, he’s not a martial artist. He’s not convincing at playing one. He’s not even convincing at faking it during the fight scenes. It looks like he might have had some basic training before filming began, but it doesn’t make him a martial artist, fake or not.
Ms. George is an attractive lady and talented actress. B-movies like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, A Small Town in Texas, Venom and The House Where Evil Dwells are her forte. She’s completely in her element in Enter the Ninja. Sadly, her character gets stuck in a weak love triangle subplot that involves her seeking a certain kind of fulfillment from Cole in light of her husband’s impotence. It slows the movie down. The late Mr. George, taken from us far too soon in ’83, always makes an excellent addition to the casts of B-movies. He’s a master overactor. He gets classic lines like, “I want my black ninja and I want him now!” Distant relative of Willy Wonka brat Veruca Salt perhaps? SPOILER ALERT! He gets to show off these special skills in one of the funniest death scenes ever.
Kosugi turns in the type of wooden performance that would come to define his entire acting career. What he lacks in this area, he more than makes up for with his martial arts skills. When he fights, it’s tantamount to witnessing an artist plying his particular craft. Although he plays a bad guy in Enter the Ninja, his performance isn’t all that different from his good guy roles. Will Hare, the crazy grandfather from Silent Night, Deadly Night, adds comic relief as Dollars, the local guy who makes a living dealing in whatever sells- e.g. pornography, religious icons and (mainly) information. Naturally, he joins Cole in his fight.
Enter the Ninja, despite Nero’s obvious lack of skills, features many great ninja-style fight scenes replete with all the cool tools of the ninja trade. The choreography by Mike Stone (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is top-notch. Golan keeps it moving along for the most part, faltering only with the love triangle subplot which ultimately goes nowhere. The main storyline, while hardly original, is decent. The villains come right out of a comic book This is especially true of Venarius’ nasty little toady, a German-accented twerp known as “The Hook” (Israeli actor Noy of Lemon Popsicle) for the hook where his right hand used to be. If nothing else, Enter the Ninja is fun.
I didn’t get to see Enter the Ninja at the movies, but it was one of the first titles I rented upon receiving my first VCR for Christmas ’84. Now that I think about it, my younger brother actually picked it out. Either way, it was a good choice. It contains everything a growing teenage boy requires from a ninja flick. I still dig it even though I haven’t been one for more than 30 years.
