Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published
J. Michael Straczynski is an accomplished comic book writer and creator Babylon 5but also contributed to dozens of other movies and films, from Underworld: The Awakening to the episodes The Murder She Wrote. One of his most overlooked projects now is the streaming hit Max, which has entered the top 10 and stayed there for more than a week so far, which is especially impressive since it was a box office disappointment. Ninja Assassin is one of the most generic titles of all time, and the film itself is only marginally more interesting, but the violent action scenes make up for the predictable plot.
Killing ninjas
South Korean superstar Rain stars as Raiz, the titular Ninja Assassin, who is both a ninja and an assassin, but also a ninja assassin, making the title accurate no matter how you choose to read it. Raizo, trained by the evil warlord Lord Ozuna to be an assassin, refuses to kill a ninja (kunoichi) and instead throws himself into his clan, devoting his life to stopping their secret wave of terror. Finally, joining his one-man crusade is Europol special agent Mika, played by Naomie Harris, who has made a career out of being one of the best parts of B-movies.
Honestly, the plot doesn’t really matter because it just exists one reason anyone watches it Ninja Assassinand that’s it fight scenes. They lack the raw feel of later martial arts films like these The Raid: Redemptionbut they are gory, especially in one moment involving the laundry room. Raizo may be a great fighter, but he also spends a lot of the movie fighting, which helps make his moments of triumph feel cooler than they would be if he was like, oh, let’s say Dwayne Johnsonand never lost a single fight on screen.
A pair of martial arts icons
It’s raining Ninja Assassin as the heroic Raizo, and it’s clear why he’s been one of the biggest names in South Korean entertainment for a generation. The film is his first English starring role, although he made his English debut a year earlier in The Wachowskis Speed Racerwhich is fitting because the siblings then signed on as producers for ninja fight fest. Rain had experience in many different martial arts before taking on the role, and while he didn’t do all of his own stunts, he did almost every fight scene himself.
While Rain may be a famous entertainer, Lord Ozunu should also be familiar to fans of ninja action B-movies or even Z-movies, as the villain is played by Sho Kosugi, star of the Cannon trilogy of Ninja movies, including the terrifyingly bad Ninja III: Domination. Ninja Assassin was the last film the ’80s icon starred in, choosing instead to focus on his numerous martial arts schools.
Ninja Assassin it looks like an unlikely J. Michael Straczynski project, even if it lacks depth Babylon 5keep in mind that the prolific creator also wrote the infamous Spider-Man comic book story “Sins Past,” which is considered one of the worst stories in Peter Parker history. Not every swing at the plate is going to be a home run, but at least with this ninja action B-movie he helped provide the rewrites that ensured it would be a cult classic for years to come.
Ninja Assassin currently streaming on Max.
