The Direct to Video Connoisseur

I'm a huge fan of action, horror, sci-fi, and comedy, especially of the Direct to Video variety. In this blog I review some of my favorites and not so favorites, and encourage people to comment and add to the discussion. For announcements and updates, don't forget to Follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page. If you're the director, producer, distributor, etc. of a low-budget feature length film and you'd like to send me a copy to review, you can contact me at dtvconnoisseur[at]yahoo.com. I'd love to check out what you got. And check out my book, Chad in Accounting, over on Amazon.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Ninja: Silent Assassin (1987)

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I don't remember how this one first came across my radar. It's a Godfrey Ho ninja flick, does it matter? A buddy hooked me up with a copy of his VHS, which is what I used for this review.

Ninja: Silent Assassin is the classic Godfrey Ho mash up of a Hong Kong flick with local actors spliced together with a Hong Kong ninja flick with Western actors. This time we have a cop in France-- also a ninja-- whose wife is killed in an attempt on his life-- by other ninjas, led by a drug lord, also a ninja. He follows them to Hong Kong where another crime lord-- and another ninja as well-- joins forces with the drug lord, while our hero joins forces with the local cop-- as luck would have it, also a ninja-- who has been pursuing the local crime lord. The other story line is loosely connected to that one-- or not at all--, where a dude named Tiger, supposedly working for the local crime lord, kills a dude's dad in order to take over a labor union. Now this dude is after Tiger and won't stop until he's done.

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This so easily could've been so awesomely bad it's good, but so much of it is taken up with bad, monotonous, poorly dubbed dialog that often explains things five or six times that we only needed to hear once, if at all. That's a shame, because the ninja fights are downright hilarious. I mean, flips, smoke, teleportation, throwing stars, plus hilarious changes into ninja gear from street clothes. Even better, they ganked the Miami Vice theme song-- literally! I don't mean it sounded like it, it was it! And then you had the ninjas in these suits with bandannas that had the word "ninja" written on them in this script that made it look like they were workers at the Ninja Theme Park and Resort. Ugh! Why bore us with bad dialog crap when you have so much fun in in your damn movie!

There weren't any big stars to report, but definitely some major B-movie actors that are known to far braver souls than I who live in the Z-grade Italian and Hong Kong zones. Foremost among them is Richard Harrison-- not to be confused with Richard Harris-- an Italian schlock cinema mainstay who looks like Honeycutt from M*A*S*H* and plays the local Hong Kong cop/ninja. Then there's Cameroon's own Alphonse Beni, who plays the French cop/ninja. Finally, for fans of Ho's Hong Kong ninja flicks, Aussie/Brit mainstay Stuart Smith plays the drug lord/ninja.

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Okay, maybe that's not everyone. Do you recognize this guy? That's right, character actor Paulo Tocha. You're probably more used to seeing him bald and with tattoos as opposed to cheap suit and an IROC-Z owner-style mullet. It looks like, according to imdb, he got his start over in Hong Kong doing flicks like this. Good for him, he had to start somewhere, and now he's in bad Van Damme flicks like In Hell.

One thing I didn't exactly get was the splicing of the two films. In no way did they feel at all like they were connected. Would it really have been so hard to just do more scenes of ninjas flipping? I guess not monetarily. I have to imagine this technique is revered by a lot of DTV film makers, considering how many we've seen that have taken entire sequences out of previous films: I'm looking at you Agent Red and that sequence you ripped from Storm Catcher. Godfrey Ho eat your heart out.

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You might not exactly be able to see the poster on the wall behind the police chief, but it is of a woman goofily tied up with the message "This can happen to you", I guess telling women they need to be careful about who they let in their house. Isn't the police station the last place you'd want a poster like that? I mean, if the woman is at the police station, isn't it too late to take that advice? She's already found out the hard way that she needs to be more careful about who she lets into her place, all that poster is is an ill-placed I told you so.

This is available for an inflated price used on VHS from Amazon. It's not one of those that's so awesomely bad that you need to fork over that kind of dough. I'd just take a mental image of that cover shot above, and see if you spot it in a VHS bargain bin.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199865/

10 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun Godfrey Ho flick! Will have to purchase this right away.

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  2. Well Godfrey Ho is pretty much hit and miss. His movies are generally the type of movie that has some inspired lunancy but in general the it's hit and miss as the amusing parts are mixed in with dull cliche. A great example is Catman in which you think that this is a can't miss as the premise deals with a guy who gets scratched by a radioactive cat and who fights a devil worshipping priest. The main problem with that one is that there is a completely dull poorly made action flick with some tomboy chick and a guy who fights a ruthless dictator and it just blows. That said when he pays just enough lip service to such like in Robo Vampire (it might not be Godfrey Ho, bit it's in the style of such) or Ninja Thunderbolt or Ninja Squad it's enough to be hilarious grade Z fun. This one I heard is one of his funniest efforts.

    I recommend Mafia Vs Ninja that was enjoyable.

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  3. This one looks absolutely hilarious....
    I GOTTA check it out!

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  4. Yeah, this does look pretty terrible. I will say though, I like how everyone and their dog is a ninja. You go to the grocery store: clerk is a ninja. Bank teller: ninja. Traffic cop: ninja. You're own wife: NINJA!

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  5. I'm really not familiar with enough older ninja flicks. I love Scott Adkin's Ninja as well as Ninja Assassin, but the classics I need help on. Anyone got a top 5 80's ninja flicks for me?

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  6. Sorry I'm a little late to this party, but you may have heard, another Boston team won a championship last night. I know what you're thinking Kenner "hockey? that was the one thing we Detroit fans had on Boston! Damn you!"

    Maybe I should cut all of the fight scenes and edit them together, because the fight scenes are fantastic-- even the blah dialog would be manageable because it's sounds funny too, it's just that there's so freakin' much of it it becomes tedious. Like Kenner said, Godfrey Ho is hit or miss. More of a hit would be Undefeatable.

    Mafia Vs. Ninja is actually on Watch Instantly for anyone who wants to check that out. Where were you Kenner when I was putting together my Ninja Week? Good to see you back though. Hopefully we'll have a football season so your Lions can get back to business.

    And I would say as far as top 5 80s go, it's more like go through the Golan-Globus/Cannon Ninja catalog first, because they made the best 80s ninja flicks. Lots of Sho Kosugi and the American Ninjas.

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  7. I didn't remember Godfrey Ho was behind Undefeatable! That's an amazing film! Now, if only I'd know why Stingray has eyeballs in his fish tank...... I just watched Manhattan Chase the other day. That was Ho's last film and according to an IMDb-review, he went on to teach filmmaking! Heaven help us...

    About 80s ninja films... I agree, Cannon's American Ninja 1 & 2 are a good start, and then some Kosugi. But when one is tough enough, The Ninja Mission (1984) is the film to watch! A Swedish ninja film! Absolutely horrible, but sold to over 54 countries, hugely successful, and considered a cult classic these days! And better than anything Finnish guys have ever done (except one gem called Life on the Line).

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  8. A Swedish ninja flick? That sounds intriguing...

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  9. Check it out:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087806/

    I can get you a copy if you wish. Heck, I might even get you that Finnish flick (which doesn't even have an IMDb-entry), because I guarantee you you've never, ever, EVER seen anything like it! If I can make them available at some file sharing site or something, I'll drop you a note.

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  10. That sounds great, and don't worry about the Swedish flick, because I have a beat on it already, but thank you.

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