The Cannon group (well kown for "Delta Froce" and the American Ninja movies) produced three ninja movies with the great Sho Kosugi: Enter the ninja, Revenge of the ninja and Ninja III: The Domination.
Enter the Ninja (1981)Franco Nero (best known for his roles in many italian western movies) stars in this Ninja adventure, Nero got doubled by Mike Stone (who is also the coreographer and writer of the movie) in the "ninja" scenes.
We have Kosugi as one of the villains, Hasegawa (which he says the memorable quote "He is no ninja !").
The coreography is great, so as the action, the first action scene is just great: a battle/chase scene in a forrest full of ninjas, even the non-ninja action scenes are great to watch.
The action has a few bits of bloody violence, but nothing too realistic or shocking.
This is one of the greatest ninja movies of the 80's, it's worth a viewing for Ninja movie fans and especially fans of the fantastic action movies produced by Cannon !
This is the only movie in the trilogy directed by Menhaem Golan (the owner of the Cannon Group), while the other two movies are directed by Sam Firstenberg.
Revenge of the Ninja (1983)Sho is back and this time his son Kane shares the action (i have to admit that Kane is the most kickass and less annoying kid that i ever saw in a movie) !
Kane playing with some nuncucks.... ...Then he knocks-off a bad guy, good work kid !
This has NOTHING to do with Enter the Ninja, it can be considered as a "sequel" just because this is produced by Cannon.
This time, Sho doesn't play the villain, but the main hero, now we can see Sho's kicking assess for the entire movie !
Just like Enter the Ninja, the coreography and the action are great and again, just like Enter the Ninja, we are treated to some bits of bloody violence (bloodier than Enter the Ninja).
"Need a hand ?"
The action scenes are spectacular and my favorite fight scenes from this movie are:
1 Cho (Sho Kosugi) Vs the thieves
2 Dave (Keith Vitali) and Cho Vs a bunch of ex-cons in a playground.
3 the Final fight on a rooftop
This is the only movie in the trilogy that has some sex and nudity, remember parents, it's okay if your son watches the wanton slaughter of an innocent family, but if he see's a female butt in a fight scene......it's bad !
The soundtrack is memorable, listen to it !
Bottom line: this is the best movie of the trilogy, even better than Enter the ninja (at least in my opinion), a must see for ninja fans and it will please the martial arts aficionado, because Keith Vitali has some pretty good fight scenes.
Ninja III: The Domination (1984)This is the craziest ninja movie made in USA, it's like a cross between the Exorcist and a ninja film.
The plot involves some evil ninja spirit that posesses Christie (played by Lucinda Dickey, the star of Breakin'2: Electric Bogaloo !), Yamada (Sho Kosugi) goes to the USA in order to stop this evil spirit !
Again, this has NOTHING to do with Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja.
Unfortunately, there is no blood.
The first action sequence that takes place in a Golf Camp is pretty awesome and spectacular.
I feel that this is the "worst" movie from the trilogy, you can't say a lot about it, just watch it in all it's badness.
Only for fans of cheesy ninja movies.
