Directed by: Menahem Golan
Written by: Dick Desmond, Mike Stone
Cast: Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi, Alex Courtney, Christopher George
The Cannon Group struck gold with its first martial arts film, 1981's Enter the Ninja. Though Western audiences had seen ninjas before, most notably in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, this movie changed how these shadow warriors were portrayed on the screen.
Transplanting martial arts mayhem into a gunslinger plotline, the ninja gained near-superhuman abilities and a more heroic disposition. The resulting film was successful enough for Cannon to launch two franchises (Enter the Ninja and American Ninja) and embedded the art of Ninjutsu into American pop culture.
The film opens as Westerner Cole (Franco Nero) is completing his final test in Ninjutsu, thus earning the right to practice and teach the art. But Hasegawa (Sho Kosugi), a high-ranking ninja in the dojo, isn't happy with...
Written by: Dick Desmond, Mike Stone
Cast: Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi, Alex Courtney, Christopher George
The Cannon Group struck gold with its first martial arts film, 1981's Enter the Ninja. Though Western audiences had seen ninjas before, most notably in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, this movie changed how these shadow warriors were portrayed on the screen.
Transplanting martial arts mayhem into a gunslinger plotline, the ninja gained near-superhuman abilities and a more heroic disposition. The resulting film was successful enough for Cannon to launch two franchises (Enter the Ninja and American Ninja) and embedded the art of Ninjutsu into American pop culture.
The film opens as Westerner Cole (Franco Nero) is completing his final test in Ninjutsu, thus earning the right to practice and teach the art. But Hasegawa (Sho Kosugi), a high-ranking ninja in the dojo, isn't happy with...
- 12/26/2011
- by Chris McMillan
- Planet Fury
Cannon Films, like any other studio yesterday or today, wanted to keep a good thing going, and for them in the 1980s it was the ninja movie. After two early successes for the studio in Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja (recall this film’s flashback here), success wasn’t guaranteed a third time in their Ninja III: The Domination. The studio took a break, as did director Sam Firstenberg, but in 1984 the studio wanted to revisit the genre, but with a twist. The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American.
Killer Film catches back up with director Sam Firstenberg for an Action Packed Flashback for 1985′s American Ninja.
After the lukewarm reception to Ninja III: The Domination both critically and financially, Sam took a break from the genre with Breakin’ 2. “It was the company’s decision to keep the Ninja series alive,...
Killer Film catches back up with director Sam Firstenberg for an Action Packed Flashback for 1985′s American Ninja.
After the lukewarm reception to Ninja III: The Domination both critically and financially, Sam took a break from the genre with Breakin’ 2. “It was the company’s decision to keep the Ninja series alive,...
- 7/4/2011
- by Jon Peters
- Killer Films
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