During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai - this is a Taiwanese film directed by Tso Nam Lee by the way - Wu Siu-Wai (Elsa Yeung) has just come back, having been studying to be a ninja for most of her adult life. We see her final graduation battle, in which she uses ninja magic to appear as a dancing woman, confusing all the fire shield carrying ninjas, and also has something like the ear that sees. Yet as she becomes a ninja, she is told her father is dead at the hands of the man she loves, Lee Tung. Or he's her brother. I mean, if this was Italian, he could be both.
Let's just say he's her fiancee.
He's also so evil that he gets "The Imperial March" from Empire Strikes Back for his theme song.
To get her revenge, she begins to train a team of women in the deadly arts of the ninja. What took her nearly twenty years to learn, she will teach to a kung fu fighter, an acrobat and a sex worker in just a few montages. Within those, you will see upskirt shorts, the camera at crotch level and mud wrestling. I always wonder about movies that are about female empowerment and then show us non-stop male gaze, but this movie gets fun when we learn that the former prostitute - her name is Chi Chi - can seduce men, then teleport behind them and kill them with a shuriken.
There are a lot of sub-bosses in this and that's where I fall in love, as there's a samurai with a big scorpion tattoo on his face, a guy with a whip, a sword fighter who throws webs and a female fighter who has to be mad that she can't be part of this cool girl ninja gang. There's also a battle in a water-logged wrestling ring that seemingly comes out of nowhere.
For some reason, this is set in the time of World War 2, yet everything including the cars and the clothes looks like 1983. There's also a ninja helping Wu Siu-Wai with a skull mask and he can shoot fire out of his hands and man, this movie.
At the end of the movie, the true final boss is revealed and he's able to tunnel into the Earth and fight underground. However, Wu Siu-Wai has the ninja magic of splitting into three people, so you can probably guess who wins.
This is also known as Chinese Super Ninja 2 but it is not a sequel to Chinese Super Ninja, which is the American title for Chang Cheh's Five Element Ninjas. This is not as awesome as that movie, but man, between the anachronism, sleaze factor and fun villains, there's still a lot to enjoy.
Let's just say he's her fiancee.
He's also so evil that he gets "The Imperial March" from Empire Strikes Back for his theme song.
To get her revenge, she begins to train a team of women in the deadly arts of the ninja. What took her nearly twenty years to learn, she will teach to a kung fu fighter, an acrobat and a sex worker in just a few montages. Within those, you will see upskirt shorts, the camera at crotch level and mud wrestling. I always wonder about movies that are about female empowerment and then show us non-stop male gaze, but this movie gets fun when we learn that the former prostitute - her name is Chi Chi - can seduce men, then teleport behind them and kill them with a shuriken.
There are a lot of sub-bosses in this and that's where I fall in love, as there's a samurai with a big scorpion tattoo on his face, a guy with a whip, a sword fighter who throws webs and a female fighter who has to be mad that she can't be part of this cool girl ninja gang. There's also a battle in a water-logged wrestling ring that seemingly comes out of nowhere.
For some reason, this is set in the time of World War 2, yet everything including the cars and the clothes looks like 1983. There's also a ninja helping Wu Siu-Wai with a skull mask and he can shoot fire out of his hands and man, this movie.
At the end of the movie, the true final boss is revealed and he's able to tunnel into the Earth and fight underground. However, Wu Siu-Wai has the ninja magic of splitting into three people, so you can probably guess who wins.
This is also known as Chinese Super Ninja 2 but it is not a sequel to Chinese Super Ninja, which is the American title for Chang Cheh's Five Element Ninjas. This is not as awesome as that movie, but man, between the anachronism, sleaze factor and fun villains, there's still a lot to enjoy.