No Surrender Cinema: New York Ninja
This edition of No Surrender Cinema can be summed up in three words; balls out insanity! I know that says a lot coming from a guy who covered Chuck Norris squaring off with ninjas in outer space, but that animated adventure pales in comparison to the live action lunacy that I just finished watching. Strap in kids, because we’re headed to the Big Apple to take a look at the New York Ninja!
I’ll wager $10 that if you’re an avid reader of Bulletproof Action, you’re probably familiar with at least the basics of the backstory here. Abandoned by its director, martial arts film star John Liu, back in 1984, the film was discovered by boutique film distributor Vinegar Syndrome. With their penchant for restoring and releasing a plethora of cult favorites, Vinegar Syndrome took things one step further here. After acquiring the forgotten slice of karate schlock, VS went through the painstaking process of crafting their own audio track (the original was nowhere to be found), sought the voice acting skills of action legends like Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, and Vince Murdocco, and compiled the greatest martial arts oddity since the resurgence of Miami Connection. New York Ninja features an overabundance of schlock, exploitation, and often feels like parts of it have been plucked from a comic book. The end result is a heavenly slice of 80’s schlock coming at us for the first time here in 2021, and man oh man, it’s a doozy.
John Liu plays a man name John Liu, whose pregnant wife is murdered in the opening minutes of New York Ninja because she tried to intervene when she witnessed another woman being abducted. The incident sends John into a state of despair, and just like Sho Kosugi in Revenge of the Ninja, we see John ceremoniously decide that enough is enough and the time has come to embrace his inner ninja. Suddenly, the city is being protected by someone wearing a white ninja outfit and stopping an attempted rape. Then, he witnesses a mugging and takes out the crooks responsible WHILE ON ROLLER SKATES. Yes folks, the New York Ninja doesn’t care about stealth attacks when he can glide down the sidewalk on a fresh set of skates and become the hero that the city needs!
While John continues to grow into his role as NYC’s ninja protector, there’s a whole lot going on on the criminal side. In addition to the various gangs around town (and it should be noted that the gang members are so over the top and cartoonish that even the supporting cast of Death Wish 3 would tell them to dial it down a bit) we have a sex trafficking subplot and a creepy guy named The Plutonium Killer who gets off on exposing himself to radiation, hypnotizing women, and killing them. It can tend to feel a little scattershot at times, but I don’t fault Vinegar Syndrome for that. They put this together from what they had to work with, and it’s not like a 37 year old abandoned martial arts film is prime material for reshoots. Honestly, the incoherency adds to the aesthetic, because there are films from this era that I love that suffer from it more than New York Ninja does.
If there’s one thing you can count on with this movie, it’s that no matter what’s happening plot-wise, it’s going to lead to a fight within minutes. More often than not, the situation calls for a woman to be attacked, and our hero leaps into action to save the day. It doesn’t matter if it’s the aforementioned roller skate scene, or when John’s friends from the news crew are being attacked; the New York Ninja will make his presence felt, and the residents of New York City are eating it up. It results in a groundswell of support, complete with “I Love The New York Ninja” t-shirts! There’s even a scene where John’s young sidekick, who knows that he’s the ninja, gets him out of a situation by rounding up 20 other ten year olds in ninja garb and run off several criminals. Yes, adult male criminals with guns and such are scared off by a pack of children in costumes. It reminded me a lot of The Toxic Avenger, when the good citizens of Tromaville stood up for their monster hero when the corrupt powers that be were trying to kill him.
Mentioning Troma’s magnum opus feels fitting, because New York Ninja‘s no-budget, eccentric approach to things make it feel like something that could have been released under their banner. That said, the film is missing two major ingredients of 80’s shlock; bloodshed and nudity. Yes, we get plenty of action sequences which really just serve as a demonstration of Liu’s skills (his rivals run at him one by one and pretty much stand there to get hit), and for a film featuring sex-crazed gang members and a group of traffickers, the only nudity we get is when The Plutonium Killer has sex with a hypnotized woman, melts his own skin, and kills her in the back of his car. Yes, this is a real thing that happens in the film. Then there’s the evil limo driver who likes to chew on his own hair that engages in “drunken sword style” with our hero, but appears to be performing an interpretive dance. I’m not judging, just saying. This guy could have inspired his own version of jazzercise had this seen the light of day when it was intended to!
To say much more about the film would take away from the experience; I’m not one to let spoilers get in the way of my enjoyment of things, but I purposely went into this one with the bare minimum knowledge. It’s not often that I don’t immerse myself into something that entices me, but I wanted to watch this one and not let the hype surrounding it sway me either way. Now that I’ve watched it (twice, actually), I can say that New York Ninja is everything that I expected, hoped for, and wanted. This is a throwback to the days of watching little known karate films on a UHF TV, or staying up late and seeing what films were running on USA. Vinegar Syndrome deserves all the accolades for the way they’ve pieced this one together and stayed true to the era; even the soundtrack they added to the film sounds exactly like what you’d hear if you were watching this in a theater in 1984.
The stunt casting of voice actors was a brilliant way to include well known names into this film, and Wilson’s dubbing of John Liu is the standout. There are even voice cameos (is that a thing? If not, it is now!) by people like former porn star Ginger Lynn Allen (as John’s doomed wife). It’s a fun way to make the cast hired by Vinegar Syndrome to make this release more appealing to those who may be on the fence, since there is literally no one of note in the actual cast besides Liu, and even he is really only known to the most devoted of the martial arts movie fans that are out there.
New York Ninja was a Day 1 purchase for me, and I know my good friends Todd Gaines and Chris the Brain from this site also now have this one in their respective collections. Films like this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but to me this was well worth every penny. Vinegar Syndrome also doesn’t skimp on the extras, because included with the film is a booklet detailing the process of putting this film together from what little they had to work with, commentary tracks, b-roll footage, and even an interview with the band Voyag3r who were tasked with making this movie sound as 80’s as possible. So really, there’s not much more to say, because this is one that truly does have to be seen to be believed. If you’re looking for an action film that’s equal parts new and nostalgic, visit vinegarsyndrome.com to place your order for New York Ninja today and catch that ninja fever!
