Customer Reviews

Chinese Super Ninjas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an awesome movie. The fight scences are some of the best aever made, the costumes are great, and the use of weapons are really good. The basis of the movie is that the school of good guys (who wear white) has a tournement against the bad school (wears back) for control of the martial arts world. But when the bad guys lose, their hired killer throws the master of the good school his ring (which is poisonous) and tells him when he sees another ring like that that it will be his friend/master challenging him. So the master has his school practice and set up a defense system around their school. A few months down the line, they get a challenge from the killer's friend (the ninja school) to go against their 5 elements. So not knowing what they are up against, the good master sends most of his best warriors to see what the 5 elements are. And that's when all the action starts. Each element uses a unique style of fighting that will leave you awed. This movie is a great tale of revenge and regret. I think you'll really like it.

One of Chang Cheh's last efforts for Shaw Brothers, "Chinese Super Ninjas" is full of surprises, and is one of his best. Lo Meng is the only Venom in this, but he is joined by the likes of the very acrobatic and talented Ricky Cheng.

Our heroes are in a good-guy clan and win a tournament against some samurai-types. When the last one is defeated, he kills himself. Prior to his suicide, he writes a letter to some dude who looks like him, pertaining to dispatching the 5-Element Ninjas for a challenge against the good-guy clan. When the challenge arrives, the leader dispatches small groups to deal with the ninjas, leaving Lo Meng & Ricky Cheng behind to look after the group's headquarters. These small groups get absolutely slaughtered by the ninjas. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Lo Meng falls for the advances of a ninja-succubus, who helps kill all the good-guys from within when the ninjas attack. Ricky Cheng survives and escapes for further training from a ninja master he had once learned from. He and the master's other 3 students then challenge the 5-Element Ninjas.

I prefer straight kung fu to ninja movies, but this is definitely an exception. Cool, cool, cool. The fights in this are as creative as any I've ever seen. Full of cool weapons, styles, and guerrilla tactics. There is nothing wrong with the picture but it is not remastered or widescreened and is in English only. Celestial remastered this last year, but I've yet to find any availability in the U.S.. It's hard for me to imagine that Celestial won't release Region-1 DVDs, thereby blowing off the North American market. Thank goodness for Dragon Dynasty, who have at least shown interest in releasing this. We all pray they will. I will certainly purchase it again. Very violent, entertaining, and recommended.

1982. aka: Five Element Ninjas; Super Ninjas

Celestial has finally remastered this movie so there is no reason to buy this Red Sun bootleg. The picture quality is horrible and the DVD freezes up like many other Red Sun discs. So make sure to get the region 3 IVL version.

5 stars for the movie. 0 stars for this DVD.

First, let's get something straight: this is the best martial arts movie ever. It demonstrates Real Ultimate Power in ways I cannot even conceive, and if I could my head would explode from the Sheer Ninja Awesomeness of it all.

What, you still don't believe me? Here's why this movie is the awesomest:

1) This movie features a war between Chinese and Japanese warriors. So we get kung fu vs. samurai and ninja! Because this movie has the Awesome Dial turned up to 11, it starts with a fight between two schools, each showing off their amazing martial arts with the most unlikely weapons ever. Who wants plot when you can see guys killing each other with pinky rings?

2) The five element ninjas are all color-coded for your convenience. Fire, Earth, Wood, Water, and Gold. Now I know what you're saying: Instead of the five traditional Asian elements of Fire, Earth, Wood, Water, and Metal, why go with Gold? Gold is wimpy! It's not even a hard metal! Why not Steel or Iron?

I'll tell ya why: gold is glittery. And beautiful. Which is why Gold ninjas wear glittery gold parasol hats that can double as shields. They can use them to reflect light and blind opponents, and just like every good gold-digger, they can stab you in the back with blades that shoot out from the parasol-hats. Okay, I was stretching there but stop arguing because YOU SO KNOW THAT GOLD PARASOL HATS THAT SHOOT DAGGERS ARE AWESOME.

3) There are helpful credits that explain everything the ninjas do is based on real weapons. This movie isn't just a spectacular explosion of martial arts madness, it's educational too: You could write a book report about it and I bet your teacher would totally give you an ALPHA, which is better than the letter A because this movie is so amazing mere letters will not do!

4) There's a hot chick that dresses in fishnets. And when she's not in fishnets, she's taking off her ninja clothes! And when she's not taking off her clothes, she's betraying our bitter hero. Take that feminism!

5) The hero and his three brothers have some of the coolest axe/flag/chain/scissor/polearms/stilts this side of the galaxy. Their weapons can do ANYTHING. Including chop people, blow away smoke, cut ropes, tear off limbs, stab people in the gut, and avoid people stabbing you in the groin from underground.

6) At any point in time, our hero who also happens to be a ninja, flips out and kills people. And I mean a lot of people. He rips peoples arms off. He rips peoples legs off. And at one point he rips their arms AND legs off at the same time!

7) The big boss ninja bad guy uses a fan. He's THAT confident in his manliness! Don't mess with him, it takes four guys to even have a chance of taking him down!

8) The ninjas are totally silent. They can get past your stupid falling brick trap and your crazy rooftops bells trap with their eyes closed. Pretty sure they did that by turning the sound off BUT WHATEVER NINJAS ARE AWESOME.

9) The good guys wear capes. CAPES!

10) Two words: Super. Awesome. Dubbing.

To bad you can only give 5 stars. This is an awesome Movie. Some of the scenes are excellent. Some sad parts and some good parts. Some shocking parts. I mean like some really wow parts. One guy is fighting ninjas under ground and gets stabbed from underneath. I mean like wow he steps on his own intestine! You have got to get this movie. If you don't have it GET IT! An amazing Movie. One of the best Shaw releases.

I saw this movie about 20 years ago on a Saturday afternoon and it blew my mind. This movie stuck in my mind for years and I always wanted to own it but couldn't find it during the "home video rental age"... you know, before you could find just about everything on the internet. Video stores never had it and couldn't find it. Even specialty stores couldn't find this flick. Then finally as places like Amazon started selling EVERYTHING every built or recorded... this movie became available again and I couldn't wait to get it.

But yes - after all these years I was afraid that 20 years would have distorted my memory and made this movie better than it really was. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this campy flick with it's awesome choreography is still fantastic. The story is fun, the fights are epic, and the squirting blood is very Kill Bill. For me, this is a top 20 martial arts film because of its inventiveness and over-the-top story telling and fight scenes.

If you take your martial arts films too seriously - then you probably won't like this movie. But if you enjoy martial arts films for their fun stories, choreography, and beauty, then this movie should be in your collection.

FABULOUS, CRISP FIGHT SCENES, PRETTY GOOD PLOT, LO MENG LOOKS HIS BEST, BLACK NINJA CAME OUT OF NOWHERE, MANY DIFFERENT WEAPONS, BUY IT IF UR A COLLECTOR!!!

Shaw Brothers do it again with the venom clan actors, great scenes, a bit fanciful at times, but Love this movie. If you like watching them on Saturday morning, you will love this one!

this is a poor quality bootleg, buy the legit, remastered version:
Five Element Ninjas (Shaw Brothers)