Release Date (UK) – 22 January 2010
Certificate (UK) – 18
Country – USA
Director – James McTeigue
Runtime – 99 mins
Starring – Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles
‘He looks like he belongs in a boy band to me’ one cop says to another when they catch ‘Ninja Assassin’ Raizo and as the best joke in the film it’s a shame that most Western audiences wont even get it – Raizo is played by Rain, who is a huge pop star in Korea but unknown outside of it, and I doubt this film will do much to change that as its hard to take it at all seriously. Flicking between the perspectives of Europol cops Mika (Harris) and Ryan (Miles) who are trying to link old myths of ninja clans to recent assassinations and ninja Raizo’s story of a tormentuos ninja upbringing. Their paths cross as Raizo decides to reject his ninja clan and instead turns against them, killing them as they try to assassinate their targets, including saving Mika after she digs too deep into the ninja killings.
From the Director of V for Vendetta, James McTeigue and with a massive budget from Warner Brothers it’s a real surprise how weak this film is. Even as an action packed film the story, script and ludicrous fight scenes just produce laughs constantly where there not supposed to so the whole thing comes almost as a spoof of the genre rather that the serious attempt at the genre box its trying to fit in to. The main flaw is that there is just too much blood splattering, decapitations and graphically violent deaths, and even for fans of such violence filled films it becomes ridiculously improbable as over and over Raizo manages to come out alive after battling 20 or so ninjas. The CGI doesn’t help here as its either blatantly obvious or hidden in the dark shadows to try and hide the fact the actions not real, and at one point suddenly the ninjas even seem to posses powers of magic, disappearing out of thin air!
Shô Kosugi plays Raizos father Ozunu, the villainous ninja clan leader who trained orphans, including Raizo, and he is shown to be brutal and vicious toward the children in order to train them. Kosugi was in many of the 80s ninja films that had similar thin plots and gore scenes – so you may think Warner Bros are trying to ham up this film up on purpose, as a reference to these films, but the fact that Naomie Harris is in it and the constant delaying of the release date mean its clear they just over did the gore so much that it can only be really seen as a cheese fest rather than a serious action flick, and would have gone go straight to video but there obviously hoping it can rely on fans of Shô Kosugi or young teenage fans of Rain to get half decent box office sales. If you don’t mind a good cheese fest and loved these 80s films then this is harmless fun but there’s absolutely no depth to it so be prepared to laugh at the awful effects and plot!
