Enter the Ninja

In 1979, Cannon Films was sold to Israeli filmmakers/cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. As told in Mark Hartley's authoritative and entertaining documentary 'Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films', the duo made quite a name for themselves during the '80s. They started by exploiting the low-budget exploitation market with softcore movies, such as 'The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood' and 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', and horror films, like 'Schizoid' and 'New Year's Evil'

Directed by Golan, 'Enter the Ninja' was their first martial arts film and was such a success it led to other ninja-related releases. 'Revenge of the Ninja' and 'Ninja III: The Domination' soon followed. All three have actor Sho Kosugi in the cast, but he plays different characters, so it's not clear how it is considered a trilogy beyond a cheap marketing ploy to call them a trilogy. What also is unclear is how 'Enter the Ninja' became a success because it's pretty bad. Unfortunately, it never rises to the level of being so bad it becomes entertaining in the way, for example, 'Miami Connection' does.

The movie opens with a sequence featuring a ninja dressed in white pursued by others ninjas, several dressed in red and one dressed in black. As is eventually revealed, the white ninja is Cole (Franco Nero) and what the audience witnessed was his final test to become a ninja. It may come as a surprise because one would normally expect a final exam that didn’t result in the death of so many fellow students. Everyone celebrates his graduation except Hasegawa (Sho Kosugi), the ninja in black, because the filmmakers wanted to make sure the audience could tell he was a bad guy.

Cole leaves Japan for the Philippines to visit Frank Landers (Alex Courtney), an old friend from the Angolan War. Frank needs Cole's help and his particular set of skills because Charles Venarius (Christopher George) is trying to force him and his wife Mary Ann (Susan George) to sell their land. Hired goons scare off the farm workers by beating them and discourage others from joining. Cole is able to stop Venarius' harassment, leading the villainous CEO to get his own ninja, one that wears black.

For a low-budget movie like 'Enter the Ninja', bad writing and bad acting are expected.  The latter of which is compounded by being dubbed. particularly Nero by another actor, . It's almost laughable though how the script tries to show what a stud Cole is by having Mary Ann show up in his bedroom shortly after Frank reveals he has performance issues, but the scene cuts to black before anything happens. Unfortunately, when the action and fight scenes are forgettable, there's not much point in watching, especially nowadays when there's access to so much content.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

Kino Lorber Studio Classics releases 'Enter the Ninja' comes on a 25 GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a standard blue case. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements.