2014 is here, and that means another year of direct to DVD movies to look at, and another year of Direct to DVD Dissection. And the first entry of 2014…..is a film released on the last day of the last year. Eh, close enough.
The Story
Ninjitsu master Casey is back and out for revenge when his pregnant wife is murdered.
The Cast
Scott Adkins as Casey. An American martial arts fighter at a School of Kōga, who takes over training the students there after the events of the first NINJA. At the beginning, he’s currently married to the daughter of the late Sensei of the dojo.
Kane Kosugi as Nakabara. A former student of the school who serves as support for Casey after the ends of the film.
Shun Sugata as Goro. A disgraced student turned drug cartel leader, who has a burning desire for revenge on Takeda, the old Sensei of the dojo, as well as his family.
Mika Hijii as Namiko Takeda. The wife of Casey, and a fellow teacher at the dojo. Look at the story description and common Hollywood logic to find out how things go for her.
The Dissection
As if not obvious from the title, NINJA 2 is a sequel to the 2009 film, titled NINJA. It featured a lot of the same cast as in this one, and centered around Casey Bowman, an American orphan who trained in the martial arts. Think Snake Eyes from GI JOE, without the whole giant mute aspect to him. And so we have a story that ends with a lot of good people dead, a lot of bad people dead, and the hero in a romance with the female lead for the happy ending.
Casey (Atkins) and Namiko (Hijii)
Until they made a sequel, which means that whole “happy ending” will get thrown right out the window.
As stories go, it’s not exactly SEVEN SAMURAI, or 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN. It’s a story of lost love & vengeance. It’s basic, and at times a bit cornball. The acting isn’t the best, and Scott Atkins kind of sticks out as a sore thumb compared to his co-stars; not over his appearance, but his acting style clashing with theirs. And the worst part, the movie has a tough time making even the simple story it has interesting throughout it’s run-time. There are several dead spots in the film, and just make the film drag.
Thank the gods for the fight scenes, though. If there is a reason to actually go and seek out the movie, these fights are it. There’s a good number of fight scenes in the movie, though not as evenly spread out as it could be, and they are the areas the movie really shines on. The style of the fights puts it a step from a lot of the bigger budget action movies of today, and just gives you a boost of adrenaline after watching them. Sad that the plot isn’t’ stronger to help the film, or the story didn’t go the extra mile in ridiculous for the SHOOT ‘EM UP style excess on film, cause either of those moves could have made this a much stronger film overall.
The film comes out on both DVD and Blu Ray, as well as available for streaming or part of Netflix, and the discs have similar extras, made up of interviews from the cast and crew, as well as two featurettes that go into the behind the scenes stuff. Interestingly, there are copies that include the original NINJA as an extra. As extras go, not much can beat an additional movie.
"That's for mistaking me for Ed Glaser!"
The Verdict
All in all, it’s a film that is only as good as what’s on the screen at the moment. Story scenes drag it down, while the fight scenes make it rise up. It’d be best to give it a try with a rental, and just fast forwarding to all the fights.