New York Ninja

New York Ninja has that 80's action B-movie charm, and has a fair amount of unintentionally mildly funny scenes, but it's not nearly enough to carry it into cult status by 80's grindhouse fanatic's or "Bad Movie" fans.

I'm a big fan of unintentionally funny movies, especially if they are from the 80's, and even more so if they have Ninjas kicking ass. A Ninja in the gritty big apple... how could you go wrong? Well, as with any obscure low budget action movie, it doesn't matter how "bad" or "good" it is, what really matters is if it's entertaining. Movies like:

Miami Connection, Hard Ticket To Hawaii, Deadly Prey, Ninja III: The Domination, Nine Deaths Of The Ninja,

all made BOLD choices by their writers/directors that demanded your attention and sometimes confusion, but unfortunately NYN lacks ambition and far too much of the movie clunks around in unnecessarily boring dialogue, and repetitive scenes. There just isn't enough happening in this movie.

While I have a great appreciation for the amazing work that Vinegar Syndrome has done to dub, master, edit, and completely resurrect this movie, I do also think it's worth noting that cult movie enthusiasts are in store for a dull experience. I really wanted to like this movie, but it just doesn't have enough meat on it's bones to deliver the silly fun you expect.

If you're into films such as The Room or works by Neil Breen this will be right up your alley. It has some seriously bad action by the main character and his voice certainly doesn't fit his body how bad the leads voice dub is if that makes any sense. It would be like a big fat black woman was voiced by a little old korean woman with a very thick accent. This film has a similar fate to Miami Connection which was shot in the mid 80s and then finally came out 30+ years later.

The action in this movie is stiffer than Ron Jeremy who was probably shooting his own films a few blocks away. We take for granted good fight choreography and.flexible actors who can kick higher than someones chest when they do martial arts as for the most part it just comes off like drunk fathers wrestling after a few cold ones.

The musical score fits the era, especially of the movies budget where it's probably on the cheapest musical keyboard, where it almost sounds like 8 bit Nintendo music of that era. Then of course you get the odd bit of rock music but for the most part it's Nintendo music.

Some films this reminded me of besides the ones mentioned are the Death Wish series with Charles Bronson, then we've got bits and pieces of stuff like Spiderman or any of the other trillion super hero movies as well as stuff you'd expect from a Tromaville film. Perhaps Toxic Avenger which Toxie kind of sounds like main character John as well as the questionable costumes from Nuke'em High.

I love the over the top bad guys. It's so over the top you just laugh at them. It can't be intentional. The chauffer who they called "Rat tail" is almost memorable. Did anyone on set have any bleach? Our ninja looks like he's using his urine soaked sheets for the costume. Everything is whiter than his outfit. I don't care what anyone says, you see even a bit of someones face though you'll know who they are. Some other stupid scenes was when he nursed him and this random boy back to health. The 10-ish year old boy asks if he'll be his friend than 7 movie weeks later they are fishing and the only thing more stuffed than John's speedo is egg rolls at a local Asian restaurant.

I can't wait to show this gem to my friends. I enjoyed this more than a lot of garbage from Tom Cruise, Matt Daemon and so forth lately.

As of this writing there are not many reviews on here. And from the majority of the ones I read, they don't seem to understand what's going on. This wasn't filed to "look" like it took place in the 80s. It WAS filmed in the 80s. The film was eventually scrapped and lost to time until it was picked up by a studio that specializes in underground/exploitation flicks. That actually should have been fairly obvious.

Unfortunately, the audio for the movie was nowhere to be found, and it had to be completely redone. I'm not super clear on how faithful they were to the original script, or even if they ever managed to get ahold of it. But honestly, I don't care.

For someone who is really into the over the top action flicks of the 80s and how ridiculously fun they can be, this movie checked off most every box. Basically, if you know, you know. Drink a few beers and give it a shot.

Thanks to the TCM channel for airing this. Film fanatics are lucky to be able to view this rare and almost forgotten film. Seeing pre 9/11 NYC is always special, especially here since this movie could have easily been lost. The New York location here isn't just a backdrop but a character itself. NY Ninja is definitely a "B movie", but an enjoyable one you can watch on a rainy day. I don't know if it was because of a limited reconstruction budget or what but I do wish they would have hired at least a couple voice actors that had NY accents, that's my only complaint.

Anyway, how about those ending credits?

I am indeed hoping that the Ninja will return.

It's 'Death Wish' without the seriousness. It's 'The Exterminator' sans the heavy sleaze. It's 'New York Ninja'. From Vinegar Syndrome and Kurtis M. Spieler comes this put together "lost film" from its original director and star John Liu in his only American production. Notables names such as Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock and Michael Berryman do voice dubbing since the original audio material was lost.

John (Liu) learns his girlfriend Nita is pregnant and he's going to be a father. However she's killed after witnessing a young woman getting abducted on the streets of New York. Gangs control the city and an evil mastermind villain aptly named 'The Plutonium Killer' is behind most of the madness. Can John get revenge and turn the tide when he becomes the masked savior?

It's a 2021 production from a 1984 source well restored so it looks good picture-wise while it's very much feeling the 80's. Lots of poorly done fighting, bumbling cops, wacky clothed street hoods, one set of huge boobs and a villain who purposely gives himself radiation poisoning. As you know whenever a flick needed a crime ridden, seamy undertone NY was the go-to city.

Filmed without much of a budget you have to decide if the 80's charms and barrel of tropes - vigilantism, ninjas and poor acting - are enough to make this a good time. I appreciate the effort restoring and releasing 'NY Ninja' and there's some fun campy bits, but as a whole it's missing something.