The message of Five Element Ninjas isn't so much "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." It's more "If you can't beat their style of combat, then learn their style of combat and beat them with it." The message is not a pacifist one, but it's a classic kung-fu movie - what else would you expect?
The plot is fairly minimal, and even though the betrayal that kickstarts the main narrative itself takes a while to happen, there are still plenty of fun fight scenes throughout the first half to keep things engaging. Even the training scenes don't ultimately take up much time - the revenge promised by the film's plot starts happening very quickly, and the action is frequent.
I liked some of the techniques used by the good guys and bad guys alike. People disguising themselves as trees and kind of goofy things like that - it was pretty entertaining.
This is one of the highest-rated of the classic Shaw Brothers martial arts movies, and I didn't quite connect with it the same way I have with most of their other well-established classics. That being said, I have to write a list about 10 of these martial arts films tomorrow, so this was almost (fun) homework in a way. I maybe watched a couple of them too close together to let them breathe. I'm committed to watching all the movies I write about, but it's had the downside of not letting some of them breathe the way they deserve to. At least I can always revisit this, and take a short break from martial arts movies in general before coming back to the genre at a later date; when I'm really itching for them.
Overall: this one's good. It's a satisfying action flick. Personally, it wasn't watched under perfect circumstances, but I can't deny that at the very least, it gets the job done.
The plot is fairly minimal, and even though the betrayal that kickstarts the main narrative itself takes a while to happen, there are still plenty of fun fight scenes throughout the first half to keep things engaging. Even the training scenes don't ultimately take up much time - the revenge promised by the film's plot starts happening very quickly, and the action is frequent.
I liked some of the techniques used by the good guys and bad guys alike. People disguising themselves as trees and kind of goofy things like that - it was pretty entertaining.
This is one of the highest-rated of the classic Shaw Brothers martial arts movies, and I didn't quite connect with it the same way I have with most of their other well-established classics. That being said, I have to write a list about 10 of these martial arts films tomorrow, so this was almost (fun) homework in a way. I maybe watched a couple of them too close together to let them breathe. I'm committed to watching all the movies I write about, but it's had the downside of not letting some of them breathe the way they deserve to. At least I can always revisit this, and take a short break from martial arts movies in general before coming back to the genre at a later date; when I'm really itching for them.
Overall: this one's good. It's a satisfying action flick. Personally, it wasn't watched under perfect circumstances, but I can't deny that at the very least, it gets the job done.