Ninja Death Squad (1987) User Reviews

Not one of the best of it's kind but does provide a chuckle or two

[HaemovoreRex · 4/10 · 25 January 2007]

More ninja lunacy here from our old pal Godfrey Ho (allegedly), who succeeds in delivering yet another cut and splice poo-fest which in addition has the ignominious distinction of boasting some of the most hilariously risible special visual effects that I have ever witnessed! As an illustration of this, just check out the scenes in which our ninja hero makes himself invisible! The truly craptacularly rendered fx will have you rolling on the floor with laughter guaranteed! In one such scene he sits himself atop the roof of a van unseen by all (except for us the poor viewers of course!)

Did you know that a ninja can summon an earthquake? Neither did I until Godfrey Ho enlightened me to the truth….thank you Godfrey, I shall be forever indebted to you for bestowing such abstruse knowledge unto me.

I saw this under its European title of Ninja Warriors From Beyond….Beyond belief certainly! The climatic duel between our main man and his evil nemesis has the villain fighting with a spiked umbrella!!!! Interestingly, and as one final insult to this poor unfortunate (but nonetheless somewhat amusing) cinematic wretch, the cast credits appear to be erroneous! The main actors (who are clearly listed during the opening scenes) do not actually appear in this!!!! In reality the headliners are always welcome regular ninja bad guy Louis Roth and the chap (whose name I know not) who also headlined as the hero in Ninja Fantasy and Empire Of The Spiritual Ninja amongst many others. What a muddle eh?!!!

NINJAS

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 3 June 2022]

Also known as Ninja Death Squad, this comes from Godfrey Ho, who created at least a hundred movies from ten movies or so the legend goes. All with ninjas. Sometimes he would shoot new footage of ninja fights and throw them into other films. Sometimes, you have no idea if what you are watching is new, old, a movie he made or something he stole and this can all happen within the same thirty seconds of footage.

Starting at Shaw Brothers as an assistant director to Chang Cheh, Ho eventually become the person behind an array of movies that have interchangeable titles and reused Richard Harrison so many times that he ruined that actor's career.

He's also a man of mystery - his multiple names number as many as Bruno Mattei, the director he most closely resembles - and his company with Tomas Tang may be a misnomer because he very well could be Tomas Tang. Regardless, IFD purchased tons of movies from numerous Asian-speaking countries for clearance prices and discovered that if Sho Kosugi wasn't going to make twenty movies a year, they - or he! - certainly could.

According to Den of Geek, Lai had a falling out with Tang, who formed his own company, Filmark. Yet both companies - despite reports of a rivalry - used Godfrey Ho as a director and many of the same actors, so it was as if two companies were made to sell twice as much product.

Supposedly, Tang died in a fire. Ho would keep on making movies, particularly ones with Cynthia Rothrock.

Anyways...

This movie is edited at least in part from a film called Maestro Bandido. So some of this is about a gang of ninjas that specialize in killing for governments, all before they're figured out and a special agent hunts them down. These ninjas all doing the best stuff, like turning flowers into bombs and summoning snakes, so their powers are beyond what you assume ninjas can do.

The bad guys are all in black. The good guy in white. And the leader is purple. That's about the only things in this movie that you have to guide you. The rest, well, you'll figure it all out.