THE BLACK NINJA is one of those “should have” films. It should have been marketed as the no budget, amateur project that it is, rather than as a potentially gratifying B-grade exploitation piece in order to keep expectations to a minimum. It should have been a short film, omitting overlong dialogue while making better use of limited resources. It should have been campier. A vigilante ninja clad in black while riding a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle should not be taken seriously. Finally, it should have had nothing to do with ninjas to begin with since the martial arts action is miserably weak. And last but not least, it should have never been made.

Clayton Prince, primarily a television actor who has appeared on the likes of THE COSBY SHOW and SPIN CITY directs and stars. With a premise similar to his 1991 TV series, SARK JUSTICE, Prince casts himself as Malik Ali, a defense attorney by day and vigilante by night. Having lost his family to homicide, he’s decided that due process isn’t good enough, which is an interesting irony considering that his other job is defending the very criminals he fights.

Stopping right here (and believe me, the rest of the plot is not worth discussing), the film could have been a solid, albeit cheap action/drama. But throwing in the whole ninja element leads to failure. First off, this is not really a martial arts film in any form. Cast members perform a few clumsy kicks and stunt maneuvers, but the awkward choreography and lack of any knowledge or noticeable skill is very apparent, with the exception of a short fight between Prince and a competent stunt performer who shows off a few acrobatic moves.

The film actually has good actors involved. Prince is definitely leading man material, but action star he is not. His love interest is played by Carla Brothers, looking like a really good dramatic actress who mistakenly stepped onto the wrong set. Nicky De Matteo effectively plays a small-time criminal who provides a useful tip for Malik Ali and provides the viewers with the film’s only intentional funny moments, though brief they may be. The film’s worst acting performance goes to Yuki Matsuzaki, the villainous ninja Hagiwara Shinji who stands out from the rest of the cast with his cartoon-like mugging and complete lack of menace.

The worst aspect of this film is how crude it appears. Lighting, camera angles, sets, script, and sound are all inferior. This film took just over two weeks to shoot in Philadelphia with financing from Prince himself. A lot of it could have been cleaned up in editing in post-production, but the same hurried touch is applied there. The completed product looks unfinished and more like an amateur, student film.

Taking the DVD package into consideration, the hour-long Making Of documentary scores points for showing what goes on behind the scenes of a low budget film. I found myself enjoying this more than the film itself. You get an appreciation for the difficulty of doing independent film. The racially diverse cast and crew also share many of their frustrations and opinions concerning the general film industry in regards to race and opportunities, or lack thereof. While I cannot excuse this film for being as bad as it is, I did begin to feel some empathy for the filmmakers and their process. They seem like a bright and eager group who, given more time and resources might have made a better film.

Yet no amount of good intentions manages to steer THE BLACK NINJA in the right direction. You’ll be hard pressed to find a cheaper looking or less exciting action flick anywhere. I’m all for fun, Sho Kosugi action ’80s style, but hardly making any effort to portray ninjitsu arts when you’re selling an urban “ninja” film and doing so in such poor fashion is pitiful indeed. Avoid this turkey like the plague!

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  • Adrikan

    yep, good review