Falconeer Artistically filmed, at times beautiful, old school style martial arts movie, sounds like it would be aimed at a young audience. I mean, it has the word "ninja" in the title, right? But I must say, this is among the most violent movies I have seen, at least mainstream films. Even though some might argue that it is more "cartoon violence," or that it's only "CGI blood," you get endless scenes of decapitations, people getting their heads beat in, stabbings, shootings, etc..and a LOT of violent scenes involving children, beating each other to bloody pulp. It's probably not a good film for people under the age of 16.
That being said, "Ninja Assassin" is much better than most expected it to be. Very non-Hollywood, the action is set in Berlin, and the flashback scenes, that represent a good portion of the film, are set in a remote Japanese training school in the mountains. These scenes are really beautifully photographed, and much time and detail is put into setting up the background story of Raizo, the Ninja who was a child orphan, kidnapped and kept hidden from the world, in a remote compound with other children. There the kids are trained by the sinister Ozunu, to be soulless killing machines. The training is brutal and relentless, and the ones who survive it, grow to be the Ninja assassins. However young Raizo, (played by the physically incredible Rain) manages to hold onto his humanity, and eventually grows to turn against the Ozunu clan; and because of this, he is hunted like a wild animal by the old Ozunu, who fears he will expose their highly secret society of killers.
That is the basic premise of this very solid martial arts/action epic. And it is an adrenaline fueled movie to be sure, with the life or death chase at the heart of the film. As mentioned, this movie seems to be made outside of Hollywood's influence, which is evident in the wonderful detail paid to ancient Japanese customs, stunning, almost poetic cinematography, and the fact that the violence is so gut wrenching, that it's obvious they were not going for some money making PG-13 production. "Ninja Assassin" is the best action/fantasy movie of 2009, even though it didn't have a large audience. But this is a film that has gained a serious cult following over the years, and will most likely be enjoyed by those who appreciate the martial arts films from the 70's and 80's. Excellent, operatically bloody genre masterpiece.
steeltoebiker Need a part 2 now! Sho Kasugi is a legend in ninja movies of the 80's. So cool to see him still acting. Bring us more! The main actor ninja was awesome. The story was engaging. The fight scenes blew me away. Loved the gore. Loved the story. Don't make me wait another 20 years for a good ninja flick, make this one keep going. Not since Toshiro Mifune in Kirasawa films have I watched a character I want to keep following as much as Rain.
mts-78680 Seen this many times and just read the varying reviews and disappointed little less than half reviewers didn't like this. It's plenty of action, fake blood (which all movies have) and it is shadowy. The plot is very believable and it even ties some romance into it.As a big fan of old school Kung Fu movies, I give this more stars than most of those which had fighters flying thru the air like a super hero. I love the fact that this hero gets hit often considering how many more ninjas are against him. I give it great scores because most martial art movies have the hero fighting groups of fighters one or two at a time.I fully encourage any reader to watch this with an open mind and enjoy it for the action/creativity!
