REVIEW: Enter the Ninja (1981)

Italian action star Franco Nero, best known for his starring role in Sergio Corbucci’s classic Spaghetti Western DJANGO, trades his six-shooters in for poisoned blow darts, short swords and shuriken to play Cole, a Westerner trained in ninjitsu who comes to the aid of Frank Landers (Alex Courtney), an alcoholic war buddy living in the Philippines and threatened by Charles Venarius (Christopher George), an eccentric crime boss intent on taking Frank’s property to drill for oil. Former karate champion and iconic ’80s ninja film star Sho Kosugi makes his lead acting debut as Hasegawa, a bitter ninja rival hired by Charles to assassinate Frank and stop Cole from getting in the way. This results in a violent showdown in a cock-fighting arena pitting ninja against ninja in Hollywood’s first ninja movie. This flawed but entertaining film kicked off Kosugi’s career, several loose sequels and a string of B-grade ninja and ninja-inspired Hollywood movies from Chuck Norris’ THE OCTAGON to AMERICAN NINJA.

ENTER THE NINJA was the product of Golan-Globus Productions, a company run by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus who had purchased the flailing Cannon Films distribution company only two years before. Directed by Golan, it was to become the first in a steady stream of distinctive B-grade action movies that helped define 1980s-era action cinema, for better or worse, depending on your tastes.

Cannon Films released REVENGE OF THE NINJA (aka NINJA 2) and NINJA 3: THE DOMINATION, both starring Sho Kosugi. They were also responsible for releasing YOUNG WARRIORS, EXTERMINATORS 2, the AMERICAN NINJA films, DEATHWISH 3 and 4, BLOODSPORT, KICKBOXER, and a bunch of Chuck Norris flicks including MISSING IN ACTION and INVASION U.S.A.

Clearly, Golan-Globus had cornered the B-action market but problems surfaced by 1988 when a string of box office duds, mostly notably SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE, threatened to sink Cannon Films. Pathe Communications stepped in and took over Cannon Films but mismanagement eventually led to bankruptcy by 1993.

Cannon Films was notorious for picking third-rate scripts and Dick Desmond’s screenplay for ENTER THE DRAGON is an excellent representation of this low standard. The film is somewhat like a cheesy cross between BILLY JACK and GOLDFINGER with ninjas tossed in. The representation of ninjitsu stops with the array of weapons, which are introduced during the opening credits in what appears to be a nod to Lau Kar-leung’s tendency to showcase Hung Gar fighting forms during the opening credits of his kung fu movies.

The presumption is made that there are large ninja training compounds where modern-day ninjas wear bright white or red costumes and go through a sort of 18 BRONZEMAN-style combat field test to graduate from their schooling. Nevermind that historical ninjas typically dressed to blend in with their surroundings. I would wager that a real ninja today would be dressed in khaki shorts and a t-shirt or a suit. The decision to make Cole a white-clad ninja is a symbolic one given that he is the only Caucasian ninja in the movie but it also contributes to a humorous gaffe during the open sequence when a stunt double performs a backflip off a tree branch into tall grass and Nero emerges in the same frame while parting the grass far enough for the audience to see the white-clad stunt double laying flat behind him.

From here, Cole completes his training as the rivalry between Cole and Hisegawa is established and Cole runs off with his ninja pajamas and assortment of matching white weapons to the Philippines. A cookie cutter plot heavily borrowed from the James Bond films unfolds as Cole meets up with his old war buddy and his wife. The buddy is played by Alex Courtney, a TV actor who looks like a cross between Art Garfunkel and James Caan. They are at odds with a local crime boss named Charles Venarius who operates a small business empire out of a lavish skyscraper. Venarius is a stereotypical villain with a “lair” full of armed thugs and a couple colorful henchmen, one of them a short, portly fellow with a hook for a right hand and the other a cool-under-pressure, no-nonsense type. Venarius is played by Christopher George, another TV actor that I remember fondly as star of the ’60s-era World War II adventure series THE RAT PATROL.

Nero is a strikingly handsome, square-jawed leading man sporting a Marlboro Man mustache. He’s not much of a martial arts fighter but does have the charisma and general physicality necessary to at least look the part of a Special Forces veteran and martial arts expert. He spends most of his time out of his ninja costume while sizing up the situation and his buddy’s wife (Susan George). Sho Kosugi, a genuine karate expert with very solid weapons handling skill easily surpasses Nero in screen fighting ability but clunky fight choreography from Mike Stone and sloppy, dated editing helps in evening the odds. In other words, neither actor looks particularly good on screen.

The film is actually fairly light on ninja action with most of it appearing in the opening sequence and towards the end as Cole dons his white garb to take on Venarius and Hasegawa. In between are a few minor fights with Cole using more conventional Japanese fighting moves in plain clothes. The opening training sequence is pure cheese, horribly edited and shot. It’s bad enough to be likened to one of Godfrey Ho’s many splice and dice, C-grade ninja flicks. The closing fight is somewhat of an improvement where we get to see traditional ninja weapons being used in an urban environment, not always convincingly however.

Most of the weapons are horribly misused. Cole mostly uses shuriken as a killing weapon to impale his victims in the chest which is not what the weapon is designed for. Cole tosses caltraps into the face of one victim. Again, this is the wrong use. These small spikes were designed to be thrown on the ground during a getaway to wound the feet of pursuers. Flash bombs are used by Cole to mask his entrance. Does he throw them in another direction to distract anyone? No. He throws them right where he appears, ensuring that his opponents will know exactly where he is. Tactically it makes no sense but it does make for a snazzy, rock star entrance. Even the blow gun is misused. This is typically used to deliver a dart dipped in poison that either incapacitates or kills the victim. Apparently this wasn’t dramatic enough for Golan so he had Cole impale a victim with about half a dozen darts so that it appears that he dies from puncture wounds. What isn’t shown is how Cole managed to shoot so many darts so quickly. The bow and arrow is what it is but I like how it was painted white to match the ninja suit. If you intend to draw attention to yourself with a dazzling white assassin’s costume, you might as well go all the way. That brings us to the sword which is about the only weapon that is used with any semblance of conventionality. There is a fair amount of bloodletting but it’s quite tame by today’s standards. For instance, a decapitation by sword is shown off camera and we only see the not-so-gory results from a distance. It was enough to leave a strong impression with me as youngster seeing it for the first time but it looks quaint today.

ENTER THE NINJA was popular at the time of its release largely because it re-introduced ninjas to the U.S. in a new and campy way that screenwriter Roald Dahl never imagined when he used the far more respectable ninja classic SHINOBI NO MONO (1962) as inspiration for first introducing ninja assassins to Western moviegoers in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). ENTER THE NINJA took an Eastern martial art and ran it through a cultural meat grinder to produce a distinctly American action film, the equivalent of processed American cheese. It’s directed with little sophistication or understanding of its subject matter but the novelty of ninjas, their colorful representation here and Golan’s simple yet dependable action film instincts keep the film entertaining enough for what it is. As such, ENTER THE NINJA became the broken blueprint for future Hollywood ninja movies with Golan and Cannon Films leading the way. The films became more violent and absurd but at least this phenomenon provided America with its first authentic Asian martial arts star, Sho Kosugi. Nevermind that for his first starring role Sho had to play a slightly crazed ninja villain with lousy aim, more unintentionally comical than kick ass.

As a side note, Jackie Chan had attempted to break into the U.S. in 1980 with BATTLE CREEK BRAWL, a year before ENTER THE NINJA was released, but America was hungry for cheesy B-movie action and wasn’t ready for Chan’s brand of action comedy. Chan got the last laugh though. After having had enough of Hollywood following a second attempt with THE PROTECTOR, he went on to star in POLICE STORY, which is today considered by many genre fans to be one of the greatest action movies ever made. Cannon Films and Sho Kosugi never came even close to matching that standard and neither has any ninja movie made in the U.S., at least until 2009 as the world waits for the release of James McTeigue’s NINJA ASSASSIN and Isaac Florentine’s NINJA.

REVIEW: Enter the Ninja (1981), 6.7 out of 10 based on 7 ratings

by Mark Pollard

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Enter the Ninja (1981)  •  ninja  •  Sho Kosugi