Ninja 3 : The Domination
Canon’s Ninja Franchises Part Two
American Ninja
Oh
good, we’ve got the same ninja font… That makes me feel almost as good as we spy the canon logo. Interestingly enough though, we seem to also have retained the same white ninja style for this entry, even if it isn’t the same character. It’s a magic ninja cave and he finds nicely backlit ninja weapons in there. He comes out garbed and silhouetted by a gorgeous background evenings. Then he heads out to take out someone on the golf course. Ninja on a golf course is a something to see, I must admit. The bodyguards are surprised, but I feel like they sort should be doing more damage. Police arrive on the scene, only to get rundown and bamboozled by the ninja who seems one step ahead of them at every turn. It’s almost a shame he doesn’t know how to fly a helicopter… still, after he racks up 
an impressive body count, the cops finally managed to gun him down… Or do they? The flash bang and he vanishes after being hit by 100 rounds. He escapes in a flash bang, hiding in the dirt and sneaks away to die… But not before he hands off his sword in his soul to a nearby young woman. Now, she has visions and flashes of the policeman that killed the ninja… Images she can’t shake.
Did I mention she’s telephone repair person by day and aerobic instructor by night? Somebody obviously watched Flashdance.
Outside the gym, a couple of tough guys are harassing one of the girls, and our heroine comes out and goes all ninja Warrior on them.
She brings home one of the cops that killed the ninja… And seduces him by pouring tomatoes juice all over herself. S
eriously, it’s the least sexy thing ever… But at night the ninja speaks to her and strobe lights, levitating sword and trying to take her over. It’s more successful using a standup video game console, and it’s all very mystic. Well, mystic in a cheesy 80s sci-fi style with lots of smoke and lasers and levitating katanas….
I know I’m making fun of it, but at the same time, it’s just so much fun. We got a very comic book feel, girls and swords and special effects. Almost in a trance, she dons the ninjas garb, and goes to take revenge on one of the cops that killed her… Specifically the one that would end up playing the nosy neighbor on ALF.
When she wakes up, she’s lost the time, but the next time she runs into one of the cops that killed the ninja… She goes into… Almost a trance, following him into a sleazy spa, ready to exact revenge. You can kind of see where this is going.
The blackouts are all very confusing so she goes to see a Japanese spiritualist. I mean, there’s chains involved, but still, what can go wrong? Well, the ninja could stop speaking through her lip lips for one. The lighting and moves make it quite creepy… But then again, that fits right in with what’s going on here. It is in many ways a mystic story more than a revenge story, and the whole film, even the kills come off more like a thriller than an action film… And by the time we get to this sequence, we go into full on horror movie mode. Let me tell you something, I am all here for it!
A big problem of course, is that she’s possessed, not by a demon or a ghost… But by a ninja. And only a ninja can destroy another ninja… fortunately, there’s one with an eyepatch lurking around the area. Turns out, his master was murdered by the evil ninja possessing our girl, and his clan destroyed. He’s got more than enough reason to want to see 
the spirit destroyed and this girl exorcised.
We’re far enough in that she knows to fight becoming possession, but isn’t strong enough… Strobe lights and lasers flash, and she’s returned to the role of the ninja, just in time to crash the funeral of the last few cops that killed the ninja. However, the black ninja is nearby and able to knock some sense into her, lol convincing her and her boyfriend to meet him at the conveniently located Shaolin Temple at the top of the hill. It’s there where heal properly exercise the ghost of the ninja and fight his final special effects build battle.
And I do mean that, the effects are they obviously save their effects budget for this final sequence with lots of composited lightning and electricity and flashes and stuff it’s very impressive, and very comic book. In fact that’s really how I feel about most of us.
Of all of the ninja films, this is probably the one that I will revisit. It feels a great deal like a full moon film… A lot of horror elements but with that very heightened reality and comic book Sensibility. Like the other films, there’s nothing that really related, but you can tell that at this point, canon basically had the formula down and all cylinders firing on this genre. It’s now very much a canon film, and not even trying to be a classic martial arts film. You’re not gonna mistake this for a Shaw brothers movie.
If you’re only gonna check out one of these three, this is the one.
Revenge of the Ninja
Canon’s Ninja Franchises Part Two
American Ninja
W
e begin the movie in Tokyo, Japan. A family gathers at a peaceful temple amidst a quiet pond. Suddenly ninjas come along to murder everyone. But the woman is quick enough to hide the baby in the brush before the ninjas catch up with her.
Our hero shows up, arguing with his American friend – the fight is quickly forgotten though, as they find themselves in conflict with ninjas! They dispatch the bad guys and recover his son. It’s time to move to America to escape it all. The problem is, there’s Ninjas in the states as well.
Our hero is trying to live a simple life – and dosen’t want his son involved in being a ninja, he just wants to make dolls. But his americian friend wants to ship drugs in the dolls and this draws them into danger…and ninjas.
You can tell these ninjas are really bad guys because of the way they murdered the dude in the hot tub while I was getting some. They appear to be trying to muscle in on the drug trade, or maybe they got stiffed on the payment… I’m a little fuzzy on it.
It doesn’t really matter though, because the action is good. The martial arts are fast and furious, and our evil ninja is front and center. It’s a good ninja costume as well, with one of those angry samurai masks underneath… So his entire face is covered. I also get the impression that the previous film fell short on its jiggle qouta, and so it seems like this one has to make up for it. When his son and new wife are kidnapped, it’s time for a hero come out and face the bad guy… Ninja to ninja.
I particularly like IMDB’s description of the final battle –
The two ninjas meet and enter a rooftop badminton court for their awesome ninja-duel showdown. The ninja vs. ninja battle 
rages across the court and then across the whole rooftop of Caifano’s building, warping and mangling the very fabric of the space time continuum beyond all logic and reason, until Cho slices Braden’s ninja mask in half, which destroys Braden in a galaxy-bending discharge of Cosmic Ninja Energy ™.
We get good third act action, ninjas running through office buildings and taking down each other… Seriously, I’ve got no complaints on this one.
It may well be that this is actually a superior film to the first in the series, revenge of the ninja really goes all in on the genre in ways that enter the ninja only hesitantly dipped its towing. It’s enough to get me really excited to see what comes next.
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