by Jonathan Klotz
| Published
J. Michael Straczynski is an accomplished and creative comedy writer Babylon 5but he also contributed to dozens of other films and movies, starting with Underworld: Awakening into rings Murder, she wrote. One of his most overlooked projects right now is a streaming success on Max, where it reached the top 10 and stayed there for over a week now, which is especially impressive since it was such a disappointment at the box office. Ninja killer It's one of the more generic titles ever, and the movie itself is a little more interesting, but the violent action scenes make up for the predictable plot.
Ninja assassination
South Korean star Rain plays Raizo, the titular ninja assassin, who is both a ninja and an assassin, but also a ninja killer, which makes the title accurate no matter how you choose to read it. Trained by the evil warlord Lord Ozono to be an assassin, Raizo refuses to kill a female ninja (kunoichi) and instead attacks his clan, devoting his life to stopping the underground terror wave. He's finally joined in his solo crusade by Europol special agent Mika, played by Naomie Harris, who has made a career out of being one of the best parts of B-movies.
Honestly, the plot doesn't really matter because it's just there One of the reasons why anyone should watch Ninja killerAnd this is it Fight scenes. They lack the raw feel of later martial arts films like Raid: Redemptionbut it's gory, especially one moment involving a laundry room. Raizo may be a great fighter, but he spends a good portion of the movie getting beaten up too, which helps make his moments of victory cooler than if he were, oh, let's say, Dwayne JohnsonAnd he did not lose a single battle on screen.
Pair of martial arts icons
The rain carries Ninja killer As the hero Raizo, it's clear why he's been one of the biggest names in South Korean entertainment for a generation. The film is his first English-language leading role, although he had made his English-language acting debut a year earlier in The Wachowskis Speed racerwhich is fitting, as the siblings then signed on as producers of the ninja fighting festival. Rain had experience in many different martial arts before accepting the role, and although he did not do all of his own stunts, he did almost every fight scene himself.
While Rain may be a famous artist, Lord Ozono should also be known to fans of ninja action B movies, or even Z movies, because the villain is played by Sho Kosugi, star of the Cannon Ninja movie trilogy, including Badly Bad. Ninja III: Domination. Ninja killer This was the last film starring the 1980s icon, choosing to focus instead on the multiple schools of martial arts.
Ninja killer It feels like an unlikely J. Michael Straczynski project, though, and lacks depth Babylon 5keep in mind that the prolific creator also wrote the infamous Spider-Man comic, “Sins Past,” which is considered one of the worst storylines in Peter Parker's history. Not every swing at the board will be a huge hit, but at least with this B-movie ninja action movie, it helped provide a rewrite that ensured it would be a cult classic for years to come.
Ninja killer It is currently streaming on Max.
