The Ninja Dragon (1990)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Daisuke Serizawa
Directed by Go Nagai
Starring Kenji Otsuki, Tetsuya Matsui, Cutie Suzuki, and Rikiya Yasuoka
English Voice Work by Eric Stuart, Anne Spackman, Franklin Portnow, Tome Wayland, Lotus, and Bill Carney

Special Features

• Character profiles
  
• Director biography
  
• Trailer
  
• Sneak peeks
  
• DVD-ROM content, including script and photo gallery
  

Rating: R

Anamorphic: No.

My advice: Rent it.

Go Nagai is perhaps best known in the anime world for the creation of popular titles like Devilman and Cutey Honey. That is perhaps as it should be. This particular live action effort is flat-out bad, but saved, ironically, by the English dub performed when the movie was brought across the Pacific.

The storyline is fairly straightforward, involving the daughter of a secretive ninja clan (so secretive, in fact, that she doesn’t really know her father is in charge of one). She gains an amulet, purported to protect the wearer from any and all dangers. What this really means, unbeknownst to her, is that a trio of mysterious ninjas will appear to defend her against whatever shadowy enemy is killing off enemy clan leaders.

This of course leads to tons of kung-fu ninja goodness, with battles against the agents of the shadowy enemy, culminating in battles with some bizarre supernatural monsters. The dialogue is sparse and cheesy, making the tragic error of taking itself too seriously. The action sequences are entertaining, if a bizarre crossbreed of standard wire-fu with a (very) out-of-place and lamely staged wrestling match, to highlight the talents of pro wrestling’s own Cutie Suzuki.

The redeeming factor in all of this is the English dub, which skewers the seriousness of the original by having the lead character spout ridiculous one-liners and self-narrating his own actions (“Ninja Stop!”, “Ninja Flip!”, and my personal favorite “Ninja Pause!”). This dub makes the movie an excellent kung fu comedy, though the wrestling scene is still silly and out-of-place.

Fans of kung fu theatre will definitely enjoy it (in English, that is), and anybody looking for a good laugh can probably stand to rent this one. Anybody that enjoyed Iron Fist Pillage will probably want to own it, as it makes another great example of what happens when American irreverence gets a hold of cheesy low-budget kung fu movies.