REVIEW: ‘Ninja in the Deadly Trap’ (DVD – Tai Seng)

Part of Tai Seng’s Martial Arts Theater series, this DVD release of NINJA IN THE DEADLY TRAP is a budget offering with the added value of audio commentary by kung fu movie guru Ric Meyers and Hong Kong film veteran Bobby Samuels.

The print source is Ocean Shores’ original, cropped VHS release from 1985 and bares their logo. Video quality is adequate for a bargain release but far from ideal. The full screen, pan and scan format significantly cuts out action on the sides. There is a brief moment of analog tape distortion near the end that suggests the copy Tai Seng used as their master was damaged. In addition, original print quality is heavily degraded.

Audio commentary with Ric Meyers and Bobby Samuels – Ric Meyers, who is best known among genre fans as author of “Great Martial Arts Movies” and for being an avid promoter of Asian martial arts cinema throughout the 1980s, is joined by Bobby Samuels, an action actor and martial artist who briefly worked in the Hong Kong film industry, on this commentary recorded in 2001.

For the uninitiated, Meyers is a divisive figure in the realm of kung fu fandom, who is credited by fans with helping to grow the popularity of Hong Kong action cinema and derided by his critics for spewing a litany of misinformation as facts. He recorded a number of commentaries for Tai Seng’s Martial Arts Theaters series, the best of which include Samuels who talks less but is well-informed on Cantonese pronunciations, the Hong Kong film industry and Chinese martial arts.

Meyers does his usual bit which largely consists of reading readily available interviews, articles and filmographies readily available on the internet in between running off on tangents unrelated to the film, repeating himself and promoting his book. He mentions nearly 10 different times how the ninja techniques in this movies are accurate depictions of the real thing based on his “extensive” research while only citing a couple ninja legends. Meyers tends to favor generalities, elaborate assumptions, bizarre analogies, and fuzzy facts that reveal he is largely talking from less than perfect memory and knowledge about the subject matter in question. To be fair, most of what he says isn’t completely off the mark, it’s just the way he approaches topics that comes across a little daft or lacking in preparation. Let me share a couple examples. At one point, Meyers states with authority that Lu Feng retired after appearing in SHANGHAI 13 in 1985. Samuels quickly counters that Lu Feng continued to be a successful action director and TVB actor. Another time he labels a weapon a sword and Samuels corrects him by calling it a guan dao.

Now here’s my favorite example of Meyers’ suspect expertise. What makes this and just about every other exchange funny is how Samuels will politely humor Meyers and then follow with a friendly correction. I’ll simply quote the exchange.

Ric Meyers: Now interestingly enough, this is, you know – the head suddenly sprouting – the head gear is not that authentic. It wouldn’t make any sense for a ninja to cover his ears. He needs to use his ears.

Bobby Samuels: Mm-hmm.

Ric Meyers: But these tiger claws that he’s using are fairly authentic.

Samuels: Yes.

Meyers: These are offensive weapons that the historical ninja used. And the technique – the low technique that he’s using is also fairly authentic to the ninja. Would you say that’s more of a Japanese style or do you think that’s a Taiwanese…?

Samuels: As far as the ninja?

Meyers: Yeah.

Samuels: Oh no. He’s definitely fighting in the Chinese kung fu fashion.

Meyers: Right.

[An uncomfortable silence follows.]

Format: Region 0 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Audio: English 2.0
Subtitles: None
Length: 91 minutes
Release Date: January 1, 2002