Bullet Points: Ninja in Action
I am not exactly sure how many ninja movies were made in the 1980s, but it is a safe bet that nobody produced more ninja content in the 1980s than Filmark International.
My latest trip down Filmark International memory lane was with the 1987 movie, Ninja in Action…
- X Gonna Give It To Ya: Mr. Hansen, an American businessman, has arrived in Hong Kong. The taxi taking Hansen and his associate to their destination is ambushed by a group of ninjas. The ninjas are after the briefcase that Hansen has handcuffed to his wrist… but ninjas have swords and they simply cut Hansen’s hand off before killing Hansen and his associate, before absconding with the briefcase. Once they get back to their ninja lair, the head ninja (based on the fact that he had a headband with a shuriken on it) known only as Mr. X opens the briefcase and finds a bag containing precious jewels. Mr. X wants to celebrate with his fellow ninjas on a job well done, so X pours them all some wine. But the ninjas are all leery of Mr. X, believing he has plans on poisoning them so he can keep the jewels for himself… X takes a drink first to prove the wine has not been poisoned. And all the ninjas fall for it…. well all but Allan who noticed a suspicious white powder near the wine glasses. Allan manages to avoid drinking the wine and escape WITH the ill gotten jewels!! There really is no honor among thieves.
- Party Up: After outsmarting Mr. X, Allan finds himself at his girlfriend Rose’s birthday party. The police are tipped off by Mr. X that the notorious ninja jewel thief Allan is at this party and he provides the authorities with the address. The cops shows up, arrest Allan and seconds later, Allan’s brother Ken makes his move on Rose and shockingly Rose is all about it. This may be the most cold-hearted thing I have ever seen in a ninja movie. Rose should have been a little more patient than 8 seconds, because Allan’s time away is either extremely limited OR the movie time jumped and didn’t tell anybody. Either way Allan breaks out of prison and you know he is going to be out for some revenge.
- Rex in Effect: At this point, it is probably time to meet our hero, Rex (Stuart Steen aka Stuart Smith). We first see Rex as he is doing some push ups in his hotel room. We first see Rex’s girlfriend, Tina, as she is in the shower. When her shower is done, Rex and Tina get in some of their daily cardio(if you know what I mean). After Rex lights up a cigarette, we find out that Tina’s father was Mr. Hansen and that Tina has come to Hong Kong to exact revenge against those responsible for killing her father. So Tina and Rex begin their independent investigation. This includes stealing the case file from the female detective and staking out Rose’s place for days. The stakeout proved fruitful as they figured Allan would come looking for his ex-girlfriend and it happens. It turns out to be a good thing for Allan, since Rex is able to stop one of Mr. X’s ninjas from attacking Allan at Rose’s. But that turns out to be a bad thing for Tina and Rex, since they are now on Mr. X’s shit list and he has no problem sending out his ninja army to eliminate their interference. It starts off with one ninja who sneaks in behind the room service delivery guy, then there’s two ninjas who attack the couple on the street. Eventually Rex even has to deal with three ninjas…. one of which they are able to capture, torture and learn of Mr. X’s whereabouts.
- Scorecard: If you are trying to keep track, Tina and Rex are after Allan and Mr. X. Allan is after Rose , Ken and Mr. X. Mr. X is after everybody but most importantly he wants the jewels back. Along the way there is a sword battle, Allan and Rose have some make up sex in Allan’s old cellar with his stolen sculptures seemingly watching the fornication, a guy with an eye patch assisting the police, Mr. X’s adopted son shows up much to Rose’s dismay, Tina being bloodthirsty one moment and then a frightened damsel in distress the next, there’s an obvious Rex stunt double in action and perhaps the most interesting thing I learned is that to a ninja, losing his ninjitsu skills is wore than death AND Rex has a magic medallion that can in fact, erase a ninja’s ninjitsu skills.
When I clicked play on Ninja in Action, I was hoping to see some ninja lunacy. In typical Filmark fashion that is exactly what I got. I didn’t need a story that made sense or quality acting or slick production values. I needed to see a ninja who could spin around and disappear. I needed a single ninja that could magically become three. I needed unexplained time jumps and new characters introduced late in the movie. Ninja in Action provided all of that and most importantly provided a break from reality.
If you need some Bonus Bullet Points, that is exactly what I am about to give you…
- Directed By: There is some debate as to who actually directed Ninja in Action. IMDb says it was the infamous Godfrey Ho (using the name Tommy Cheng). HKMDb says Tommy Cheng was actually Cheng Kei-Ying, a Hong Kong actor turned director It is also entirely possible that both men directed Ninja in Action, since I don’t think anyone who has seen Ninja in Action would be shocked to find out that the movie was made up from scenes from multiple movies and then pieced together to form a new movie.
- Only a Ninja?: I have long been of the belief that only a ninja can stop a ninja. That may be true but Tina proves that a purse filled with rocks attached to a stick can at least slow a ninja down.
- Favorite Quote: “I’m a ninja.” – The Interrogated Ninja
- Name That Tune: Ninja in Action featured some Dirty Harry music composed by Lalo Schifrin and a bit of James Horner’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan score. “Love’s Gonna Get You” by Freeez is used for the aforementioned cellar sex scene. However the real soundtrack stand out for me was the inclusion of this song by Modern Rocketry…
