In his interview in The Incredibly Strange Film Show, Jackie Chan complained  that the Hollywood stuntmen (pre-2000s) weren’t used to the speed of Hong Kong fighting, so their reactions were too slow.  Jackie would hit them three times and they would only react once.  Maybe this is why he enlisted actual fighters like Benny “the Jet” Urquidez for some of his best movie fights.

Benny Urquidez was one of the early fighters in the crazy American kickboxing/Full-contact Karate scene, along with Bill “Superfoot” Wallace and Chuck Norris.  Those early attempts to incorporate other forms of martials arts into professional matches were a Wild West of vague rules and wildly different fighting styles.  Despite these hurdles, Urdiquez had a record of   49–1–1 (win-loss-draw) with 35 knockouts.  And those draws and losses were probably wins, and more due to problems with the fight promoters (his “loss” was supposed to be an exhibition, not a scored match).

The movie Meals on Wheels was one of the sillier entries starring the three kung fu brothers who had grown up together in one of Hong Kong’s Peking Opera schools, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, and Jackie Chan (they made at least four movies as a trio).  Yet it had one of the best (and most realistic, in its way) fight scenes of Jackie’s long career.  Half way through the fight (which he is losing), Jackie decides to pretend it is just a training bout, to take the pressure off.  He switches to a looser approach (reminiscent of Bruce Lee’s bout fight with Chuck Norris in The Chinese Connection).

“If anyone was to be a Jedi, it’s Liang. He is insane.”
Daisy Ridley

Liang Yang is a Chinese stunt person/actor who has worked on movies such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Skyfall, and Game of Thrones, where he served as Pedro Pascal’s (Oberyn Martell) stunt double. Most recently, he appears in the excellent fight in the bathroom in Mission Impossible: Fallout, where he simultaneously beats the craps out of Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and August Walker (Henry Cavill), the American CIA assassin.

“He doesn’t look like a killing machine. He looks like he should be in a boy band.”

Ninja Assassin is what all the Ninja movies of the 70s and 80s wished they could have been when they grew up.

The subject matter lends itself to a treatment which should somehow capture the mystery of magical powers such as invisibility combined with the ruthlessness of a culture of assassination, but most of the Ninja movies made in the West were usually low budget cheesy films full of people running around in broad daylight dressed all in black or even white (totally defeating the camouflage idea!).

While there have been impressive Japanese productions which displayed the potential for the subject (Shogun Assassin for example), the Ninja movies made in the States usually sucked.

Ninja Assassin  was finally the Ninja movie we were all waiting for — it deserves attention from a wider fan base as it is a fun, violent, and beautifully made little action flick.

James McTeigue, who cut his teeth as the first assistant director for the Wachowskis on all the Matrix movies, and who stepped into his own on the pretty good V for Vendetta and the not so good (I hear) The Raven, really made his best movie so far with this under appreciated martial arts bloodbath.

Written by unknown Matthew Sand (story and screenplay) and substantially punched up by J. Michael Straczynski  (Thor, Babylon 5, World War Z), Ninja Assassin is a great Saturday afternoon matinee movie, delivering a tragic love story, a substantial revenge motif, and solid toxic-family father and son confrontation.

Plus, of course, many hyper-violent fight scenes, and a decent amount of wit.

Rain, a Korean pop star, put in the hours in the gym to develop a Bruce Lee body and a creditable imitation of martial mastery, delivers star power and a certain dry wit.

Ben Miles, a solid British actor best know (by me) for the excellent British comedy series Coupling, pairs with co-star Naomie Harris (Moneypenny in Daniel Craig’s version of James Bond).

Shô Kosugi also stars, who achieved some fame in various ultra-low-budget Golan Globus exploitation films in the 80s (which us older people remember as being in rotation on the early HBO) such as Ninja III: The Domination (in which he plays a dead Ninja who possesses a hot 80s aerobics instructor to become a Ninja with big hair and leg warmers).

The CGI effects really help here, to enable the actors to interact with flying knives, blades, and one particularly nasty mini-scythe on a chain that is the favorite weapon of the protagonist, as well as enabling the Ninjas to melt into and out of the shadows.