Five Element Ninjas
Director: Chang Cheh
Starring: Chentin Yee, Lo Meng, Chu Ker
There used to be this big question which sparked intense debate all over the internet: what is cooler, pirates or ninjas? I always thought this was a silly question with a ridiculously obvious answer: ninjas, of course. I won't get into the plethora of reasons for this right now, I have a rad movie to talk about.
This is considered one of the many "Venoms" movies, meaning that it was directed by Cheh and has much of the same cast from The Five Venoms. This was one of the most mind blowing and deranged movies I've watched recently.
The film centers around a man looking for revenge on the ninjas who killed his master and his friends. The ninjas use the powers/techniques of the five elements (gold, wood, fire, earth, and water) to defeat the rival school. The abilities are:
Gold- gold chields that reflect light and shoot darts
Wood- tree disguises and claws
Fire- pink smoke that blinds enemies
Earth- burrowing under ground and poking up with spears
Water- swim and use hooks to drag people under
The protagonist also learns ninjitsu to defeat the ninjas.
This movie was almost nonstop action, with only a period in the middle of the film dragging a little bit. It start off with a martial arts tournament which includes something different from other kung fu movies: a samurai. It was fun to watch Japanese fighting styles go against Chinese martial arts. The final fight was one of the most fun and rediculously gory things I have ever seen. Tons of cheese, but not in a bad way. Were the special effects and wire work horrible? Absolutely. The whole thing had an absurd audacity to it that most films today would never attempt. This is just the sort of spray-fest Tarantino was paying tribute to with Kill Bill.
The ninjas in this movie soooooo cool (as all should be). They used real historical ninja weapons and equipment, but had a supernatural element to them. They were truly silent and invisible. The flick even included a deadly ninja chick. Doesn't get much better than that.
With the big resurgence of pirate movies lately, someone needs to come along and bring about the rebirht of the ninja movie. If it has half the fun of this film, I'll gladly go along for the ride.
Lesson learned: Ninjas are cool.
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