Five Element Ninjas (1982)

Kung Fu vs Ninja Free For All!

How to tell if it's a Chang Cheh movie? Extremely high body count? Check. Lots of fancy shiny weapons? Check. Lots of body dismemberment and violence? Check. Buckets O' Blood? Check. Low quality sets? Check. Fights with some quick movements but also a lot of missed hits and posing. Check. Half-nekkid ninja girl. Check. Oh, yeah, this has Chang's fingerprints all over it.

Two rival schools compete to see who is going to be in control. The "bad" school after being beaten in a fair competition calls upon ninjas led by Michael Chan to kill off the rival "good" clan. You know they are good because they wear skimpy white outfits with cute little capes. The ninjas ambush and use ninja trickery like super secret ninja weapons, the old ninja tree trick and the hiding underground rouse to the demise of most of the good guys. Do not miss the poor guy who continues fighting on while his intestines are draped down his leg. They also send a female ninja into the good clan's headquarters to map out the place which leads to a deadly love triangle.

Most of the characters are barely indistinguishable. Lo Meng has a few good scenes, especially a lengthy fight against overwhelming odds. Ricky Cheng plays the main good guy if only through attrition, who must learn the ways of the ninja to beat them at their own games. Michael Chan does what he can with his role as the evil ninja bent on domination of the local martial world.

It might sound as if I didn't like this movie. Five Elements Ninjas is extremely popular among certain kung fu fans, I'm just not one of them. The action is almost non-stop and there are a variety of bonkers weapons used (ninja stilts!) which is entertaining. The story, or lack thereof, linking the fights is what caused me to score this lower. I did have some good laughs at the over the top fights which kept this from going below a 6. And I had to admire the creativity behind the fights. Fun, if mostly forgettable (except for a few of the gorier killings), kung fu vs ninja free for all.

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