It’s an altogether more relatable piece as Franco Nero barely gets scratched throughout whereas the hero of Revenge, Cho (Kosugi), is beaten and battered throughout. Two franchise themes were instigated even at this early point, the first is that Sho Kosugi is the best thing in the film and the second is an unintentional suggestion that the Western Ninja where more corruptible than those brought up by the traditions of Japan.Įnter the Ninja is up there with the worst that Cannon produced, the second film and the first directed by studio mainstay Sam Firstenberg, Revenge of the Ninja, reacts to the insipidity of its predecessor by being both sillier and more grounded. That is common for this generation of action films but it makes it incredibly hard to connect with, making an already bland action film all the more forgettable. As flat as that is, there is an even more fundamental issue whereby Nero’s actions are only appropriate when the people who he was protecting get targeted, accounting for a good 45 minutes, until then he kills countless men just because they are in his way. The reductive measures that Golan took follows many fellow 1980s films by suggesting that anything oriental was a martial art, producing a formulaic platter of roundhouse kicks, stealthily broken necks and backwards stabs. Titles can be deceptive with the titular Shinobi only featuring at the book ends, elsewhere a stunt-doubled and dubbed Franco Nero murders a procession of goons that is closer to a prototypical Jean Claude Van Damme feature than anything Ninja affiliated.
Released in 1981, Enter was heavily inspired by the post Enter the Dragon buzz and Death Wish in fighting back against the powers that be and violent reprisal, the lead actor’s appearance could even be compared to Charles Bronson. Franco Nero is Ninja graduate Cole who upon receiving a call from an old war buddy heads over to the Philippines only to be dragged into a violent land dispute. Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination are entirely cynical but they are an entirely different proposition.įirst in the trilogy is Menahem Golan’s Enter the Ninja which is the simplest of the three. While blaxploitation, producers like Corman or studios in Cannon and Troma did exploit gore, culture and trends, the films themselves were purer than they were cynical. In 2016, films that pay homage to the richness of the Eighties, or the type of genre silliness that ensued, seek to exploit that which came before through the lens of irony.
Cannon films where rarely more iconic than when they produced the Ninja Trilogy.
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