Kung Fu Movies

Ninja Terminator is the King of Bad 80’s Ninja Movies! Its got it all: Richard Harrison, Bad dubbing, bad dialogue, an insane and senseless plot line, gratuitous violence, and an endless array of black clad, sword wielding Ninjas! As with all the other ninja movies by Godfrey Ho, what we are witness too here is a completely separate and non-ninja related film into which some newly shot ninja footage has been spliced, whilst an illusory link between the two unrelated stories is created and sustained by the over dubbing: Its an old school Ninja Movie mash-up!
It has to be said, that in the vast majority of these cut and splice ninja outings, only the ninja footage usually has any entertainment value. However, in the case of Ninja Terminator, BOTH…ahem…”‘movies”…prove to be highly enjoyable!
In the non-ninja sequences we have one ultra cool dude by the name of Jaguar Wong. A rough and tumble bad ass who gets in more fist fights in this one movie than most professional boxers have in their entire career. Of course with a bad ass name like Jaguar Wong, he is destined to put the smack down on all challengers. Although, he does get a little roughed up during the films climax by the always excellent Hwang Jang Lee.
The ninja sequences are equally as energetic with loads of sword play, acrobatics and people disappearing in plumes of smoke. Best of all Ninjitsu Master Richard Harrison: wearing heavy eye liner and mascara! Yet, after watching this ninja freak fest, I am still left with a few lingering questions:

1. Why does the villain wear a blond woman’s wig?
2. Why would a Ninja attack using several guns, a slingshot and a FOLDED PIECE OF PAPER?
3. What is with the Garfield phone?
4. What’s with the toy robot?
5. Do all Ninja’s wear tennis suits during their morning Ninja workouts?

If you figure any of this out….please let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be meditating on these important questions with more ferver than a Zen Buddhist Monk (Well…okay…maybe not). Enjoy!

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview

Kung Fu Movies
This is an absolutely wonderful lost interview with none other than the master himself, Sifu Bruce Lee. This interview was conducted live from Hong Kong by for the Pierre Berton show, which interestingly, was filmed in a different international location each week. Here Bruce talks about everything from his Martial Arts philosophy to [...]

Enter The Ninja

Kung Fu Movies
As B-movies go, this movie is hilarious and absolutely entertaining. If renegade macho posturing, over-the-top costuming and sound effects and the genuinely comic manners of “flawless kills” can easily coalesce into something transcendent for you; this camp martial arts flick will not be a waste of time.
After this movie, I got the sudden [...]

The Prodigal Son

Martial Arts Movies
Yuen Biao plays the pampered son of a wealthy businessman who discovers his Kung Fu training has been a sham. He struggles to learn real Wing Chun Kung Fu from a Chinese opera performer (Lam Ching Ying) and his oddball brother (Sammo Hung). This film is simply one of the best and most [...]

Challenge of the Masters

Martial Arts Movies
The Great Gordon Liu stars in this Shaw Brothers classic! Not as polished as later films by Chia-Liang Liu, “Challenge of the Masters” is still a pretty slick accomplishment when gauged against other contemporary Hong Kong films. Shot in 1976, 2 years before Mr. Liu would rise to seminal greatness in “36 Chambers”, [...]

Bruce Lee Fights Back

Martial Arts Movies
“Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave” is a very misleading title from legendary grind-house distributor Aquarius. Run by the late Australian-born exploitation genius Terry Levene, Aquarius, renowned for their lowest-of-low budget Martial Arts Movies and Sonny Chiba re-edits, hobbled together this low budget gem with an extremely mild Bruce Lee impersonation for [...]

Ashura

Martial Arts Movies
Japan is in serious turmoil: Demons have infested Edo, taking possession of earthly forms and bending them to their unholy will. On top of that, the rebirth of Ashura, Queen of the demons, is nigh. The only thing that stands against this grave threat are the Demon Wardens, a fearsome group of warriors, [...]

Zatoichi: The Flower that Bloomed

Martial Arts Movies
Season 1 Episode 2: Zatoichi befriends a young boy named Tarokichi, who is the son of a wealthy merchant. Zatoichi generously agrees to take the boy to his father after learning that that the boy’s mother has died. Zatoichi and the boy soon find themselves being pursued by greedy Yakuza who aim to [...]

Eighteen Claws of Shaolin

Martial Arts Movies
Eighteen Claws of Shaolin (also known as “18 Jade Pearls”) may not be up to the same standards as a classic Shaw Bros epic, but there’s an interesting blend of murder mystery and Martial Arts action that makes the movie worth watching. A white-maned powerhouse Lord goes off to duel with a swordsman [...]

When The Last Sword is Drawn

Kung Fu Movies
This film is one of the great Samurai movies. Our story begins with two seemingly unconnected persons (a modern, western-style doctor and an aging samurai) who discover they are inexplicably linked to a third man: Kanichiro Yoshimura.
The plot thickens when we gradually find out that one of the men (the doctor) only knows [...]

Ninja Terminator