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Mafia vs. Ninja More at IMDbPro »Hong men jue e zhe (original title)
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| Index | 14 reviews in total |
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Ah! Memories!, 24 October 2005
Author:
arminio from Croatia
Gee! I remember how I watched this movie as a kid before 20 years in
cinema and had fun like never before! Since then I tried hard to get
any possible copy of it and now it is available on DVD... now, after 20
years, I think this is truly one of the silliest martial art flicks
I've ever seen - and I've seen tons of them. This one has it all - from
bizarre realization to insane look, feel and really memorable stunts
and action that sometimes goes truly over the top - especially in great
finale that comes with so insane fights that you must watch it to
believe!
Truly recommended as a pure fun movie which value is in stupid dub,
silly dialogs, trashy look, great action with obvious usage of dummies
and wires... And after 20 years it just got better than the first time
I watched it!
And dad! I still want that leather knife case! :)))
10/10 from me!
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Magnificent! The cream of the genre!, 19 February 2005
Author:
haoumaru from Japan
I am a huge fan of anime and manga, and my second fav genre is Chinese
martial arts films. Over the years, I have watched hundreds of Chinese
martial arts movies, and I've seen many good ones, but Mafia vs Ninja
comes out on top.
One of the things you gotta love in Chinese martial arts movies is
their low budget, since it is the reason behind funny special effects.
This is one of the funniest movies I have seen, I really enjoy it every
time I see it.
The movie is about the lives of Jack Doe and Charlie Wu, two sewage
workers who want a better future, and luck is on their side. They later
become bodyguards to William Chung, the wise and fatherly leader of the
"good" mafia of Shanghai, by a mere stroke of luck, as I said. This
"good" mafia protects the people of Shanghai and does nothing wrong,
and they're the only thing that stops the Japanese from taking over the
city.
As always in Chinese film, the Japanese are the bad guys, and in this
movie, they are a clan of drug-dealing Shinobi who also run whorehouses
and gambling centers. Their goal is to kill Mr. Chung to be able to
seize the city. They manage to kill him by hiring 4 deadly hit men, and
Jack and Charlie vow to get their revenge.
Then the movie shows how Jack and Charlie kill the hit men one by one,
to avenge their fallen master. There are so many fun scenes in this
movie, the action and laughing is non-stop. The special effects are
typical for a Kung-Fu movie, you can see lots of editing cuts, the
strings that hold the actors, dummies getting punched, funny fake blood
and bruises, and the punch and kick sound fx we all love.
The fights choreography is excellent and the action scenes are very
good. The music is good and fits the scenes' mood accordingly. The
characters are enjoyable, specially when you see their powers or their
KungFu. KungFu is the center of the movie, and the Japanese have even
their special version, the Ninja KungFu! The movie is dubbed in
English, but it's Chinese voice actors speaking English! This results
in an incredibly hilarious voice acting! You will never find better
quotes or voices in another KungFu movie! "I'm gonna kill ya,
bastard!!"
Nothing in this movie is wasted, and though it is low-budget, it is an
awesome film, every Chinese film fan I know love it, and I am no
exception. It's my fav KungFu movie, I first saw it back in 1993 and
taped it when I got the chance...but I lost it. It is so good, that I
spent years searching it on the web and I finally found the home video
on Ebay and bought it!
There is so much fun in this movie, lots of great action scenes, great
characters, incredibly funny voice acting, and a great
storyline...Obviously, this is not Citizen Kane, but it is the best
KungFu movie ever, and I really doubt there will ever be a better
martial arts movie than Mafia vs Ninja. Fantastic and endlessly
enjoyable.
The best of the genre, unsurpassably good, 1000 out of 1000!
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Insane fun from beginning to end!, 13 March 2006
Author:
HaemovoreRex from United Kingdom
You immediately know that you're in for a fun ride here when, in the
very first minute or so of the films running time, an impromptu fight
breaks out between our hero, played by the always superb Alexander Lou,
and a somewhat gaunt looking chap who appears to be wielding what at
first sight looks like a piece of guttering!
As it turns out the attacker is also ostensibly rather thick as, after
being given a quick pasting, he reveals that the reason for his
decidedly anti-sociable behaviour was that he had in fact resorted to a
spot of DIY justice in response to the rape of a number of women down
the alley in question. Obviously, seeing our hero walk down the same
alley he put two and two together and made about fifty, automatically
assuming that he must therefore logically be the culprit of the said
crimes!
Still apparently anyone can make such a simple, honest mistake and in
no time at all, the two protagonists are the best of buddies! Okaaay….
Anyway, to cut a long story short, our hero and his new found pal next
wind up working together at a sewage works, during which time they
manage to save the life of a local mafia boss (a strangely benevolent
chap at that) when he is attacked by his own cronies who are attempting
to overthrow him.
Several savage beatings later at the hands of our hero, the bruised
miscreants run off to lick their wounds and resolve to team up with a
Japanese crime organisation which is headed by a rather rotund looking
fellow who has a disturbing propensity for beating up his own sister!
As it turns out, this organisation is rather more malevolent than the
one the traitorous crooks formerly belonged to and even comprises a
small army of ninja! In addition, just for good measure the
organisation also enlist the aid of four experts in various martial
arts fields; a master swordsman who bears an uncanny likeness to the
late, great Oliver Hardy (!), an Italian knife throwing expert (and
gambling addict to boot), a stereotypical, jive talking, 1970's styled
Afro-Caribbean kickboxer (played by Alexander Lou's regular co star
Eugene Thomas and finally a young ninja master.
Inevitably, this motley bunch manage to kill the strangely affable old
Chinese mob boss which prompts our hero's to swear an oath of revenge.
From here on, the rest of the movie has our good guys challenging and
defeating each of the assassins in turn before working their way up to
the big boss himself.
Just to confuse matters somewhat, there is a sub plot involving Lou's
character having a love affair with the evil Japanese boss's sister who
also happens to be a ninja…..hmmmm what a tangled web eh?
Also of note are a number of scenes that don't exactly go to further
the plot (nor make much sense for that matter) but are included
presumably to beef out the movies running time…. One such particularly
humorous and frankly baffling scene has our heroes marching into an
elite social club whose members appear to be made up solely of bigoted
(and disturbingly unattractive!) Europeans. Needless to say a fight
inevitably breaks out during which our heroes give the clubs patrons a
jolly good beat down before leaving calmly.
As is often the case with this type of movie, and especially the ninja
genre in particular, much of the enjoyment to be derived from them is
from the unintentional laughs to be gleaned from the on screen antics.
The irony is that the actors seem to be approaching the material with
deadly straight faced seriousness which only serves to heighten the
hilarity considering the sheer stupidity of the proceedings.
Probably the funniest factor in this is the actual ninja antics
especially as demonstrated in the final, climatic battle.
During this duel, our hero finds himself besieged by a group of
speeding grass clump ninja! Yes, you read that correctly….you really
have not lived until you have witnessed the astonishing sight of a
large clump of grass whizzing across a neatly kept lawn at high speed!
And how does our man combat such a terrifying menace you might ask?
Well the only way possible against this deadly art - he uproots a
sapling and proceeds to beat the ninja senseless with it!
It has to be said that the fight choreography throughout is for the
most part superb (if sadly sped up in parts) and certainly adds
immensely to the films entertainment value.
In fact, as it happens the fight scenes themselves seem to make up the
bulk of the films running time with barely a minute seeming to go by
without a fight breaking out for seemingly any given reason whatsoever!
Added to this we have some real gems of god awful dialogue which
certainly had me laughing out loud throughout.
What can I say? – This film is a true classic of its genre and a must
see for fans of B-Movies in general! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a
rather pesky ninja infestation in my lawn to take care of…..
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Decent ninja flick, 9 July 2004
Author:
Street Asylum from MA
I don't understand all the bad reviews for mafia vs. ninja. I mean, sure the dubbing, action, acting and plot are amateurish, but this is a kung fu movie, which means a new set of criteria needs to be used from which to judge it. A lot of IMDb users make this crucial mistake, and go looking for Shakespeare in everything they watch. Something like Mafia Vs Ninja needs to be reviewed with these potential qualities in mind: humor (intentional or otherwise), creative fighting styles/ gimmicks, quirkiness, and overall effect. I'd say it fares well in these respects. The film had me laughing throughout, like when the two main characters (who dress like oi punks, which added to my enjoyment) trash an establishment owned by a white bigot in the middle of the film for no reason (the scene seemed to be randomly thrown in), the ninjas at the end who turn into clumps of grass and either teleport or travel underground and then take their normal ninja shape again, the special team called in by the ninjas to fight the mafia (who are the protagonists) which includes an italian (i think?) knife thrower with a huge ridiculous scar on his face (who is an expert at throwing knives into apples suspended by wires in mid air), a Chinese swordsman, a Japanese ninja, and an African American fellow from detroit who as far as i could tell didn't know any actual kung fu, so just rolled around a lot and sort of threw people. and who can forget the sex scene which contains no nudity, but then is immediately followed by a still shot on what appears to be a painting of our hero's girlfriend in the nude. and even though none of the fighting in this film is too well done, the setups are creative, and the grittyness of them helps make them entertaining. overall a decent flick, and one kung fu fans should dig, especially if you liked fantasy mission force or any other of jackie chan's more bizarre films (half a loaf, the original drunken master, etc)
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
I have no idea, 6 January 2010
Author:
dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is an often silly Chinese martial arts film that concerns two guys who help out a Chinese mob boss and get caught up in a mob war that brings American gangsters and ninjas into the mix. In all fairness I'm going to have to take a pass at rating this film since how you find the film will depend up how you take its broad comedy mixed with action and drama. I know that when I was watching the film last night I was very much not in a silly mood and the result was that I found the film hard to take. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, perhaps it was simply the film didn't click with me; for whatever reason I didn't really care for it. On the other hand I have a couple of friends who's opinions I trust who find the film very funny. What sort of mileage you get out of the film is up to you.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Ninja Kung Fu is Awesome!!!, 17 November 2006
Author:
from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is simply one of the best movies ever made because it's so funny
and the creators didn't intend for it to be. It is an instant cult
classic along with the Turkish Star Wars and Turkish Star Trek.
I remember the first time I saw this movie the year was 1996 and I just
couldn't stop laughing at the fake ninja tree fight scene. The next
time it aired on TV I had the VCR at the ready. I must have watched it
a good 10 times and showed it to all my friends and they pretty much
had the same reaction as me. I literally freaked out when my dad taped
a football game over it.
I needed to find this movie again!! After 10 years of searching I
finally found it through the magic of the interweb.
I was expecting it to loose some of its luster over the years and all
the hype my friends put it through back in the day but it didn't. It
still made me laugh just as hard as when I first watched it.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Better than bad, it's good!, 1 November 2001
Author:
dreamscape03 from Ottawa, Canada
I honestly don't know if this movie was intentionally this bad, but my gut tells me it wasn't. As an action flick it's really quite horrible but once you watch it you'll be rolling on the floor with your sides splitting from laughter! It's hilarious! Some of the worst stunts and effects EVER, not to mention a ridiculous plot. A must rent for anyone looking to poke fun at one of the few genuinely serious movies that can be so bad it's good.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Quite possibly my all time favorite BAD movie, 10 April 2001
Author:
cduhn from Indianapolis, IN
I can't tell if this movie was meant to be a comedy or not, but it sure
turned out that way. Thsi movie is utterly hilarious. Take every
cliche about kung-fu movies and multiply it by ten. Gallons of fake
blood, evil Japanese stereotype, the "soul brother" black guy, it's
all there, plus things I've NEVER seen in a kung-fu movie. Tree-fu,
SAPLING-FU, and spitting water instead of blood, for instance. It's
only because everything is SO bad in this movie that makes it so
entertaining. I especially LOVE the Boss-ninja's black mask with
the crooked eye- holes.
It's a toss-up between The Story of Ricky and this one as my all
time favorite (unintentionally) funny kung-fu movie, but this one I
think takes the prize.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A ninja movie for anyone that enjoys a bad movie..., 6 August 2000
Author:
Graylin Trevor Jay (aka1@sumter.net) from secret basement lab (with cable!)
Usually there are those who enjoy bad horror movies and those that enjoy bad kung-fu movies and few movies can be enjoyed by both, but Mafia vs. Ninja is immensely watchable (and laughable) even if you are amongst those that believe America has enough trash without foolish video distributors importing more. The movie is so great because it takes the usual elements of the chop-suey genre and and makes them worse. For instance, the almost required anti-Japanese racism is present (the Chinese mafia are the good guys you see, sure they extort and allow gambling and prostitution, but they draw the line at opium unlike those godless Japanese mafia guys). But not only do we get the anti-Japanese racism, we are treated to special bonus stereo-types in the form of a special all bad guy assassination team , including a black man (guess what kind of hair he has) and an Italian (guess where he has a scar?). The movie's verve extends to the action where the normally unbelievable fight scenes are made even more so via film-reversals, insane editing, and (I kid you not) wires on jumping fighters and thrown knives. Then there are the contrived plot devices, I must admit my favorite part of the movie. Sure, other chop-suey movies might give you exploding fruit baskets (this one does), but can they claim to feature a hero who beats someone with a tree? Lots of flicks feature invisible ninjas... but what about ninjas that literally turn into bushes? I thought not. Mafia vs. Ninja could never be mistaken for a good movie, but it is a kind of bad that doesn't take someone versed in ninja films to laugh at or enjoy. And for God's sake people the American video release features a man with the name of Poon Hung prominently in the credits. I personally can't think of a better reason to see a film. (-3 stars out of - 5).
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The greatest Kung Fu film of the last two decades!, 18 June 1999
Author:
Hutson (propanman@aol.com) from Thousand Oaks, CA
This is a stunning film in every aspect. A skilled fighter comes to China in order to find a paying job, and is befriended by a coward of a fighter. He and his coward friend somehow help save a Chinese ruler from assassination. They are rewarded jobs in his kingdom and help slay off several archrival Japanese fighters. The Japanese warlord hires four interesting fighters- A master with the knives, a fat Jap with a sword, a black kickboxer, and an acrobatic fighter. The Chinese must take on these fighters and many other Japanese. This film is funny, entertaining, and quite possibly the greatest unknown Martial Arts film ever.
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