Customer Reviews

Revenge of the Ninja [VHS]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This movie was inadvertently recommended to me by Amazon (probably because I bought a couple of Jackie Chan flicks)and immediatly I was transported back to 1984 when I used to watch this on HBO after school. I must've seen it about 30 times when it was on then. So I preordered without question when it came out on DVD about a year and a half ago. Sho Kosugi is amazing! I couldn't believe I never sought these films out sooner (me being a huge Bruce Lee & martial arts films fan). The acting is pretty laughable but what martial arts film has GOOD acting? The music wasn't bad and I loved the theme that played while Cho (Sho Kosugi) was breaking the seal on his Ninja katana in the temple. That scene to this day sends chills up my spine. I got a good laugh out of how Bradon (the evil masked Ninja) had so many weapons on him, including a life sized decoy of himself! Even the Indian from Grizzly Adams fame made a cameo as one of the mob boss' goons. The biggest laugh of all was the gang in the playground. An unlikely group consisting of a biker, a martial arts thug, a cowboy, and a jive soul brother! YMCA anyone? LOL! The blond floozie was a waste of space... As Cho said, I think she forgot her pants. And who can forget the acrobatic Oba-san (granny?) The fight scenes and use of the Ninja weapons made the film.
Not much on extras as there's just the theatrical trailer. It's in mono and panscan. Would've been nice in widescreen but what can you do? It's a B movie...
Now all they have to do is release the other movies on DVD like Enter the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination.

Anyone who, like me, grew up watching this film will be celebrating at long last a DVD release, which is well overdue.

The best news of all, is that for the first time ever, we are getting the most complete cut of the film to be released. Previous home VHS releases in the USA have had numerous scene cuts and it's even worse in the UK, where whole sections were cut out. However, the restrictions on film violence have changed over the years which means that for this DVD release, everything is in. By that I mean, the shuriken fighting, the face injuries, the nunchakus, even the ridiculous blood spurt at the end - all in.

Whether these improve the film is debatable - but for Sho Kosugi and martial arts fans - at least we are now getting the whole picture.

The DVD features the original trailer - which contains yet more scenes that would never make the final cut - and are forever lost. Although the DVD is light on extras, it does present the film with a very crisp and wonderful newly mastered DVD print - everything looks better than ever before.

It's still silly. But it happens to be the best ninja film ever made, and Sho Kosugi's finest hour. A must-see that goes into the collection with the Bruce Lee epics.

When I first saw this film on HBO back in the 80's, I loved it. But I have rented this film many times on the video version, and up to four gory scenes were edited out. It was very irritating. There is a scene where a ninja takes out two mafia guys, by cutting one of the guy's arm off, and this scene is now cut out. I really hope these four scenes are put back in if this film makes it to DVD.

The thing I remember most about this movie when I first saw it in the 80's on cable tv was the part where Cathy in the film played by Blonde floozy Ashley Ferrare does a Karate work out with Sho Kosugi and when she does her first series of high kicks the viewer thinks she is wearing nothing under her Karate top but upon closer inspection you can Easily see that she is wearing a flesh colored pair of pantyhose w/out panties underneath and her crotch is covered tastily by the pantyhose.I thought this was the Most erotic martial arts scene between a man and woman ever at the time !!! Its still kind of Sexy to watch ~ Mmmmmm

I attained this movie based on two things, my love for The Cannon Group and ninjas. I will say this that The Cannon Group produced many action movies in the 1980s. The American Ninja series was produced by The Cannon Group. So the fact that "Revenge of the Ninja" was produced by The Cannon Group and directed by Sam Firstenberg, who went on to direct both "American Ninja 1 & 2" just fueled my love for this flick.

The plot is simple Cho Tanaka (Sho Kosugi) and his six year old son Kane come to California (but in this version of California all of the cars have Utah license plates) after his family is slaughtered by ninjas in Japan. Cho is in partnership with his friend Braden in opening an art gallery paying homage to Japanese art, in this case dolls. Cho doesn't know that Braden is secretly dealing heroin that is hidden inside these dolls.

Well to make a long story short, Braden's secret is discovered by Kane and the former attempts to kill the little boy. I should note that Braden is an American Ninja (not the Michael Dudikoff brand) and is quite skilled in the martial arts. When Braden dresses as a ninja, he is dressed all in black and has a metal mask on. It actually looks kind of creepy. Digressing, Kane is a chip off the old block and knows his fair share of kung fu. As a matter of fact, it is really quite amusing watching this little kid fight.

It doesn't take Cho long to realize something is amiss and he starts kicking butt and taking names. The fights in this movie are so over the top, the violence is so graphic that it actually made my mouth drop a couple of times. This movie is 26 years old and I can't think of a movie made in the past two years that could hold a candle next to it with regards to content and action. A perfect example is the fight sequence that revolves around a van.

Some notably things to keep an eye open for in this movie.

- A politically incorrect Indian that could be called Chief Tomahawk.
- An Italian gangster who is such a diet Joe Pesci, that I call him Jack Pesci.
- The fight sequence that transpires at an awesome playground.
- A group of thugs that look like The Village People.
- California that uses Utah license plates on their automobiles.
- Torture by Jacuzzi.
- An evil ninja that is nothing short of Shredder and/or Darth Vader.
- A six year old who could beat up Jean-Claude Van Damme.

I have never seen a film featuring Sho Kosugi until "Revenge of the Ninja". I must admit Kosugi is an amazing martial artist, watching him fight is like watching Fred Astaire dance. I can't believe I haven't seen him in more movies; perhaps he didn't make that many films. It should be noted that the little boy who plays his son, is in fact his son in real life.

This piece of cinema is a revenge film in the most simplistic form and it never tried to be anything that it wasn't. I felt a real sense excitement while watching this film and it will be viewed again many times in the future. The only special feature is the trailer/preview. I am now going to find a ninja costume see if I can jump kick without blowing my back out.

I purchased the newer VHS copies of the 3 movies in this series back in 2000, so when this dvd was released I saw that it was still in standard format and passed. Today I ended up watching the dvd and was shocked to discover that the VHS copy contained an edited version of the film with MUCH less gore. When watching my tapes I had thought that I remembered there being a bit more to some of the kills but had attributed that to simply being false memories from my childhood. Now I see that I was correct in my suspicions.

If you're a fan of this series of films that passed on this DVD for the same reason as I did, this is a definite must purchase disc! Now if only they'd release NINJA III on dvd.

(note: this is only in reference to the newer vhs version of this film featuring the same cover design as the dvd)

If you only watch one ninja movie all year, this should be the one. It's flawless. The action never stops and the kid who plays Sho Kosugi's son is especially good. He's a kid ninja! There's also a granny ninja! And the two main ninjas engage in some of the best fight scenes ever staged. Add to this a campy sense of humor(one of the Mob enforcers is dressed like Tonto and fights with tomahawks that he pulls from under his vest,and some of the fight scenes involve short funny slapstick bits. And did I mention the granny ninja?) and you have a movie that gives you a tremendous Bang for your entertainment buck.I'm going to say that this is THE definitive ninja film of all time. This is the movie that firmly established the ninja film as a legitimate sub-genre in American film.

My friends and I think this movie is the funniest thing we've ever seen. Sure, it has non-stop ninja action, but everyone has failed to mention it's awful. There's plenty of sex and violence to make it interesting of course, and the acting is quite awful. We thought it was great though. Awful special effects, a plot that made no sense (did he ever get all of those little dolls back?), a bad ninja who wears a hypnotizing mask, three people playing over 50 ninjas, the village people, an indian, and two fat chinese guys. There's also a blonde who never wears clothes and a kid who apparently, is a Dodgers fan. We spent most of the movie inserting our own dialogue and making comments, similar to Mystery Science Theatre 3000, so it makes for a fun movie for a group of friends to sit down and watch together. Our favorite parts were when the kid gets hit by the door (you'll know it) and the awesomely-bad fight scenes. The guys liked the girl who didn't wear pants too, obviously. Will I own this movie? For sure. I suggest you just give in and buy it as well, your kids will thank you for preserving the 80's so well. It's so good, we saw it on Australian Showtime...that's impressive.

...It's got the lot - 1 on 20 fight sequences, great stunts, fantastic B movie acting, lots of uneccessary flipping around, cool ninja tools, weapons and mystic chanting. Throw in a fair helping of gore and the odd bit of nudity, and voila... An 80's classic. All at last on a DVD that presents the most complete cut of the film I have ever seen. The UK version has always been heavily cut (as was the norm in the 80's clampdown on violence), but this version not only contains the whopping 8 or so minutes cut from the UK, but also re-instates all of the cuts made in the R rated US version. So this really is the definitive version, and an absolute must for Kosugi fans, or fans of those great 80's ninja flicks!

This is definately my favorite Ninja Movie and I think the best Ninja Movie of all time! I first saw this movie in 1983, I loved it and later began studying Ninjutsu because I wanted to do that so much! World Famous Iga-Ryu Ninjutsu Master Sho Kosugi stars in an action packed film. In this film,
Master Kosugi demonstrates many traditional Ninjutsu tactics.
He demonstrates many Ninja exotic weapons from the use of the
Ninja-To, Shuriken, Kusari-gama, Tanto, Tekagi, and many others as well. He also demonstrates many empty-hand Tai-Jutsu techniques such as deadly bone-breaking, kicking and striking techniques, and some deadly throwing techniques. He also demonstrates rolling and flipping techniques along with some Kuji-Kiri meditation as well as stealth and sentry removal.
Also he has some enemies who can do the same. Sho Kosugi fights enemy Ninjas, street thugs, armed guards, and more! Putting so much use of exotic weapons, tools, fighting techniques, and action all together!
This movie really has alot to do with TRUE Ninja Tactics and
also very realistic! I recommend this movie to anyone who really loves Ninja Movies! Maybe you'll learn to love Ninjutsu and Sho Kosugi as I have! Sho Kosugi Rules!