6/10
Violent and gripping story with plenty of noisy action and struggles in a comic-book style
30 July 2020
A young ninja named Rainzo (Rain) is trained since infancy to be a deadly murderer , but he turns his back on the orphanage that raised him , and nowadays he seeks vendetta for their merciless killers . As Raizo to return demanding vengeance but the Master (Japanese Chop-Socky expert Sho Koshugi) still pursues him . Along the way teaming up with Europol forensic Mika (Naomie Harris) who is under command his superior Maslow (Ben Miles) . Things go wrong when Rainzo is captured by Interpol and chained to a wall. At the end the terrible happenings leading to a lethal confrontation with a fellow ninja named (Rick Yune) from the clan and other Ninja assassins . Fear not the weapon but the hand that wields it. Raised to become an assassin... until betrayal made him a target. Prepare to enter a secret world of heartless assassins .A silent warrior . A deadly past . A lethal mission . Revenge will rise .From the shadow of the night, a warrior is born.

It's a westernized oriental action film with an interesting mingle of suspense , buddy movie , martial arts , sword-play , ancient ritual with typical code of honour and bloody combats . The plot is simple and plain , as Raizo/Rain's turned his back on the Ozunu clan that raised him , being forced into action and steadily butchering his relentless enemies , while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with the former master who trained him . This a nail-biting thriller with ustoppable action , including impressive fighting with a lot of blood and gore ; nevertheless , Korean pop star Rain had no martial-arts experience prior to shooting . It's a mindless but enjoyable for martial arts aficionados of the old style , but adding some new technical being made by means of wires , cables and digital computer generator . Abundant fists fights as swords struggles in which arms and body parts are slice off here and there and limbs are slit open everywhere or blasted apart . Of course , highlights of te film are the breathtaking and groundbreaking fights with lots of blood dropping here and there . Due to extreme violence, it was dramatically cut for its original theatrical release in some countries , which still garnered '18' certificates all around the world . The unrated version of the film features an infamous blood splatter , one of the major reasons this version of the film is more popular . Cruel and savage murders make only recommended for those adults no squeamish and with strong stomach enough to take it .

This film belongs to ¨Ninja sub-genre¨ that achieved splendor in the Eighties : The first movie was ¨Enter the Ninja¨ (81) by Menahem Golan with Franco Nero , Menahem Golan was director of the first film , and was to direct its sequel also , but shortly before production was to start he decided to turn over directing chores to Sam Firstenberg . It was followed by the martial arts features ¨Ninja II¨ or ¨Revenge of the Ninja¨ (1983) with Shô Kosugi , Keith Vitali , Kane Koshugi and ¨Ninja III , the domination¨ with Lucinda Dickey and again Sho Kosugi . These pictures were well produced by Cannon -Golan and Globus- and all rightly directed by Sam Firstenberg . Following others also directed by Sam Firstenberg for Golan-Globus' as ¨American Ninja¨ , ¨American Ninja II and III¨, ¨Forced vengeance (82)¨ and ¨Avening force (1986)¨ most of them starred by low-grade expert on karate genre and Ninja sub-genre Michael Dudikoff . Following in 2009 ¨Ninja I¨ by Isaac Florentine , along with ¨Ninja II¨with Scott Adkins and Kane Koshugi . However , filmmaker James McTiegue stated as main influences for the film Ninja Assassin the following cartoon movies or Anime : ¨Ninja Scroll¨ (1993) and ¨Samurai Champloo¨ (2004) .

It packs colorful , though dark cinematography Karl Walter Lindenlaub. As well as moving and rousing musical score by Ilan Eshkeri . The motion picture was professionally directed by James McTeigue . James , previously , was assistant direction of Wachowski brothers (Larry and Andy) , film producers in high budget along with another great producer , Joel Silver , shooting his big hit : ¨V for vendetta¨ and other succesess as ¨Survivor¨ , ¨The raven¨ and TV series as ¨Sense8¨ , ¨Marco Polo¨ and ¨Messiah¨. Rating : 6.5/10. Passable and entertaining . The fights , thrills and lots of action make this movie worth seeing .
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