#new york ninja

[junkfoodcinemas]

JUNKFOODCINEMAS PRESENTS SO BAD IT'S GOOD JUNK: PART 2

Catwoman (2004) dir. Pitof

Jason X (2001) dir. James Isaac

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) dir. Rick Rosenthal

New York Ninja (2021*) dir. John Liu, Kurtis M. Spieler

The Wicker Man (2006) dir. Neil LaBute

Undefeatable (1993) dir. Godfrey Hall

Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) dir. Andy Sidaris

Maximum Overdrive (1986) dir. Stephen King

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) dir. John R. Leonetti

Suburban Commando (1991) dir. Burt Kennedy

[benkevans]

Inspired by 90s beat-em-ups and the film New York Ninja

[twilightronin]

New York Ninja - John Liu &  Kurtis Spieler 2021

[may8chan]

New York Ninja - John Liu &  Kurtis Spieler 2021

[spockvarietyhour]

Gotta get that branding.

[snakeoily]

First signing in like 3 years. See you in December.

[schlock-luster-video]

On May 13, 2022, New York Ninja and American Ninja were screened as a double-feature on TCM Underground.

[bens-things]

New York Ninja (2021) dir. John Liu Chung-Liang, Kurtis Spieler

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | New York Ninja (Liu & Spieler, 2021)

If you spend enough time (and money, mostly money, all hail capitalism) buying and watching things from different Blu-ray labels, you start to get a feel for the different sensibilities behind each one's curation of the films they release. And in that sense, New York Ninja feels so at home with the schlocky charms of Vinegar Syndrome's releases that if it didn't exist, they would will it into existence. Which is kind of what happened. A bunch of unreleased footage from an incomplete production of a ninja movie from the '80s was lovingly assembled into a finished film, with dialogue provided by a voice cast of genre stars (Don "the Dragon" Wilson, Linnea Quigley, Michael Berryman and others) and slapped with a snazzy new synth soundtrack courtesy of the band Voyag3r. What's even more surprising is the respect that went into this, and the overall coherence of the result. There's a certain goofiness inherent in the subject matter, but the movie doesn't play this up excessively, and the results feel true to the spirit of a real '80s ninja movie. And given that all the original audio elements were lost, the script wasn't available and the original director didn't want anything to do with the project, the story is actually easy enough to follow. It's a miracle this movie exists. As for whether it's any good...

Well, it feels like an authentic '80s ninja movie, and not an especially distinguished one, but if you like that kind of thing, it certainly has its charms. The original director and star is John Liu, a martial arts star best known for his superman kicking abilities, which Grady Hendrix claims, on the documentary included on the Blu-ray, were the result of extensive training and "perverted crotch torture" (a phrase both frightening and intriguing). One can see these abilities put to great use in the highly entertaining Invincible Armour, which contains one of the great villain deaths in cinema. These abilities can also be seen in New York Ninja, but in less potent a package.

Working with a minuscule crew inexperienced in shooting martial arts, the shot setups here are a lot more basic and the effect is more demonstrative than exciting. See John Liu kick the hell out of a bunch of goons who can barely keep up. (The goons here don't coordinate their outfits very well. At times it seems like the Ninja is fighting members of the Village People.) The effect is similar to Jackie Chan handily outperforming the much slower American stuntmen in Battle Creek Brawl. (I enjoy that movie enough, as director Robert Clouse understands Jackie's star qualities, even if he's not skilled enough to do them justice. And we get to hang out with Jackie's girlfriend Kristine DeBell.) But when the Ninja chases bad guys on rollerskates or does his big hair-raising stunt at the end, it's pretty hard to hold those shortcomings against it.

The other charms of the movie come from the "New York" part of the title. Pre-cleanup NYC is one of the ultimate movie settings if you're into genre fare, providing a reliable level of scuzzy texture to the proceedings. There's added sleaze thanks to the plot, which features the titular New York Ninja avenging the death of his wife by fighting a sex-trafficking ring run by the monstrous Plutonium Killer, who has a habit of murdering the girls his organization kidnaps with his radioactive hands. (I assume this is the sex-trafficking version of "getting high on your own supply", which seems like a poor business model.) The Ninja of course has a secret identity, and during his off hours attaches himself to a news crew determined to catch his exploits and build up his legend. He ends up with a dedicated fanbase, who bail him out with the cops at least once. There are even t-shirts, although it looks suspiciously like they just modified a bunch of "I ❤️ New York" shirts.

The movie settles into a pattern of the Plutonium Killer's goons terrorizing innocent women (including the great Sharon Mitchell, who gets harassed in the subway; alas, she has no dialogue) and the New York Ninja intervening to deliver justice. It's hard to say the movie really escalates, but the fun stuff comes steadily enough that I was entertained. And in case you're wondering, there's an end credits rap, for those of us who want to either relieve the glories of the preceding hour and a half, or didn't pay enough attention and need it summarized for us. I would suggest pairing this with Charles Ahearn's The Deadly Art of Survival, another movie that situates martial arts in pre-cleanup New York and features its share of ninja bullshit, although that one is surprisingly sincere about its belief that martial arts can better the community. (The star Nathan Ingram once received a medal from Ed Koch for foiling a bank robbery, so he seemed to practice what he preached.)

I chased this with a viewing of an earlier Liu directorial effort, Ninja in the Claws of the CIA AKA Made in China AKA Kung Fu Emmanuelle, a movie whose feverish incoherence makes New York Ninja seem downright classical in its storytelling. From what I could make out (and I confess some of the details escaped me), John Liu is hired by the CIA to train their operatives in martial arts (and of course, Liu had his own style, Zen Kwun Do) and then crosses them and escapes to Paris with his own secret heretofore unmentioned organization as the CIA tries to kill him. Also he has a twin brother (also played by Liu) who appears for one scene, disappears for 90% of the proceedings, and then *SPOILERS* is immediately machine-gunned to death when he makes his return. *END SPOILERS* There's definitely a Seagalian quality to the self-aggrandizing material, but the delivery feels like a direct transmission from the mind of a conspiracy nut who stayed up all night watching kung fu movies. How "good" this is I cannot say, but when Liu is fighting off a whiny little bitch played by Casanova Wong and ignoring a scantily clad female operative rubbing up against him at the same time, traditional standards of quality go out the window. (I assume that operative was the "Kung Fu Emmanuelle" of the alternate title. The version I watched trimmed out around twenty minutes from the runtime, which unless I hear other, will assume consisted entirely of more scenes of this character.) And of course, there are lots of great fights, the fruits of that frightening and intriguing "perverted crotch torture" that Grady Hendrix alluded to.

[junkfoodcinemas]

Samurai Cop (1991) dir. Amir Shervan Miami Connection (1987) dir. Woo-sang Park & Y.K. Kim New York Ninja (1984*) dir. John Liu & Kurtis M. Spieler

[dare-g]

Cheesy action double feature today!

[twilightronin]

New York Ninja - John Liu &  Kurtis Spieler 2021

[may8chan]

New York Ninja - John Liu &  Kurtis Spieler 2021

[spockvarietyhour]

New York Ninja (1984/2021)

[ninjajustice]

Watch "New York Ninja (2021) - Official Trailer - Vinegar Syndrome Pictures" on YouTube

[yesterdanereviews]

New York Ninja (2021)

Film review #578

Director: John Liu, Kurtis M. Spieler

SYNOPSIS: John, a sound technician at a TV station learns that his wife is pregnant. Shortly after, she is killed after witnessing a kidnapping. Determined to take revenge, and with the police investigation going nowhere, John becomes the "N.Y. Ninja," and take down the bad guys on the streets of New York while searching for his wife's killers...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: New York Ninja is a 2021 martial arts film. The story behind this film is very fascinating, and should serve as a backdrop to any analysis of the film: all of the footage was shot in the 80's under the direction of John Liu, who also starred in the main role (also named John Liu). The film was never released, and the footage went unused until it was acquired by the film preservation company Vinegar Syndrome. The footage had no credits, audio, storyboards or script, so the six to eight hours of footage had to be cut down into a coherent film, dialogue written and recorded, and a soundtrack written. Thus, we get New York Ninja: a "new" 80's movie in 2021. The plot itself concerns a sound technician whose pregnant wife is murdered because she witnesses some sort of kidnapping. From here the story gets completely wild: John becomes a vigilante ninja to bring criminals to justice, and hunting down the men who killed his wife, who apparently work for a serial killer called "The Plutonium Killer" who is somewhat mutated from radiation exposure or something.

As mentioned, the film's footage was discovered with no script or audio, so the editors had to somehow make a coherent story out of the hours of footage they had. To the editors credit, they do manage to make something coherent. However, just because it is coherent doesn't mean it makes any kind of rational sense: the film is absolutely all over the place even with the editing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, that's what makes the film so fun. This film is genuinely a case of not knowing what happens next, because nothing you see is a logical precursor to what will happen. you can have a ninja on roller skates fighting crime, then there's "The Plutonium Killer," whose origins are never explained. At one point, The Plutonium Killer manages to take someone else's appearance by burning an photo of them: the whole thing has no rhyme or reason, and it's glorious.

You can tell that a lot of heart and good will was put into this movie, even if nobody had any idea how to make a film, and that's part of its appeal. There's some attempt at choreography in the fight scenes, but nothing overly spectacular, and there's some effort put into the make up on The Plutonium Killer as his face melts off, but there's nothing else really noteworthy about the effects or the production. This film shines through at being a fun "so bad it's good" film, with over-the-top performances, quotable dialogue, fun fights and just being so damn unpredictable that it's a riot to watch alone or with friends: probably both, because it's perfectly rewatchable too.