Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)

A man tries to rescue a woman with a little help from his half brother.

Director:

Dennis Dugan

Writers:

Mark Feldberg, Mitchell Klebanoff (as Mitch Klebanoff)

Stars:

Chris Farley, Nicollette Sheridan, Robin Shou

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris Farley	...	Haru
Nicollette Sheridan	...	Allison Page / Sally Jones
Robin Shou	...	Gobei
Nathaniel Parker	...	Martin Tanley
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Sensei
Keith Cooke	...	Nobu (as Keith Cooke Hirabayashi)
Chris Rock	...	Joey
François Chau	...	Izumo
Dale Ishimoto	...	Old Japanese Man
Daming Chen	...	Head Kobudosai
Burt Bulos	...	Mr. Ozaru
Curtis Blanck	...	Billy
Tom Bailey	...	Billy's Dad
Jason Tobin	...	Busboy (as Jason J. Tobin)
Richard Kline	...	Driver

Storyline

Following a ship wreck, a baby is rescued by a clan of Ninja warriors and raised by them as one of their own. But Haru, as he is called, never quite fits in, nor does he manage to make a worthy Ninja. However, the good-natured and persevering Haru, in his own bumbling way, and with some help from Gobei, manages to prove himself to be a winner in the end.

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Plot Keywords:

slowness | ninja | ship wreck | murder | japan | 

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Taglines:

Master of disaster.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sex related humor, martial arts violence and a humerous drug related scene

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le ninja de Beverly Hills

Filming Locations:

950 Mei Ling Way, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,220,920, 20 January 1997

Gross USA:

$31,235,710, 15 June 1997

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$37,639,029, 31 December 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

3 Arts Entertainment, Beverly Hills Ninja Productions, Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chris Farley's brothers appear in the film as cops, right before he disappears behind the cloud of smoke.

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Goofs

When Haru encounters Alison in Beverly Hills, she asks him, "Haru, what are you doing here?" However, the audio clearly skips on the word "what".

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Quotes

Haru: Hey, you hear the one about the lady who backed into a fan? It was a disaster. "Dis-assed" her.

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Alternate Versions

Another scene that was deleted from the original release, but appears when shown on TBS shows Sinsei telling Haru that perhaps he should do something else with his life than be a ninja. Haru tells him that if he couldn't be a ninja, he would commit Hari-Kari (Ritual suicide)

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Connections

Spoofs Kung Fu: Pilot (1972)

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Soundtracks

Turning Japanese
Written by David Fenton (as David Vinten Fenton)
Performed by The Hazies
Courtesy of EMI Records

User Reviews

Funny Farley

It is undeniable in saying that Chris Farley has a presence on the big screen. He offers another gem of a performance in this one.

He was found on a stormy night be Sensei and was named "Haru", the prophisized "Great White Ninja". The beginning of the film shows him training to be a ninja, with such funny stunts as him trying to lift a burning cauldron with his open forearms, spilling it all over the others. On the day of truth, he is not selected to graduate and become a ninja.

The plot of the story is simply this - He is proposed by Allison Page to help her in a steal mission against a "counterfeiter". Not all goes to plan when he witnesses a killing. He uses the matchbook that Allison gave him to determine that he must go to Beverly Hills in her aid.

Little things like Farley leaving his shoes at the door of the hotel everytime he enters (and the janitor sweeping them up everytime) shows his native roots. The director was great at adding such small but noticeable tendencies to make it more realistic.

Farley walks around looking for Allison dressed as a pimp - he is supposed to blend in with the locals - but that is not a good way to do it. All the while Gobbei, the best ninja declared by Sensei can be seen on the otherhand with his face painted to look like he is part of a statue. Throughout the movie he helps Haru and is his "shadow" to make sure he succeeds in his mission without Haru knowing he is being helped.

Now forget the plot, it isn't going to win any awards. The meat of the film - what you really are there to see is Chris Farley pull off his hijinx. Funny scenes such as when he is in a Beverly Hills strip joint and he is up on stage and sees a hot stripper, he shakes his fists and says repeatedly "I am one with the universe, I am one with the universe" as a ninja SHOULD be, but he cannot resist her and starts dancing along side her, comically rubbing his nipples and then revealing his tight white undershirt which he attempts to rip. The crowd of men, all the while are cheering for him and he falls off the stage flat on his back breaking a table and is thrown out by the bouncers. Then when two men are shot out the buildings window by Tanley's goons and land by the garbage where "Haru" has been pushed, an Asian ladies repeatedly screams out the window which is classic and made me laugh. Another great scene is when Farley staying on his quest to help foil Tanley's plan, goes in disguise into a Japanese restaurant as a sushi cook person. This is the funniest point in the film and involves Farley flipping a shrimp down a woman's dress and he pulls it from her breasts, sniffing it and making some sort of funny comment. The final funny scenes is his pretending to be the money printing guy - I won't go into much but this was the best part of the movie and near the end too.

I like the soundtrack, from "I'm too sexy" to "Kung Fu Fighting", it was great.

We see little of Chris Rock in this movie, a hotel employee who wants to learn how to become a ninja like Haru, and chases chickens to learn. It was Farley's spotlight and so deserved. Farley R.I.P.