It's as obvious as dressing the "good" ninja in white and the "bad" ninja in black (other ninjas are dressed in red). Enter the Ninja distinguishes itself not just with its "ninja" hook, but also by unabashedly playing right to the pleasure centers of genre lovers' brains.Īnd because Golan is so in love with American cinema, he does little to disguise the fact that he's essentially adapting an old-fashioned western template and trying to graft some Eastern mojo onto it. The juxtaposition is unlike anything else in '80s action, which is what I've always loved about Cannon Films: they are so much their own thing and so different from most other films of the period.
#ENTER THE NINJA FILM MOVIE#
This is a movie in which a secondary character has his hand chopped off and then a comically funny song plays on the soundtrack like he's in an SNL "Debbie Downer" sketch.
The things that entertain him happen to be lots of violence and dopey comedy, so Enter the Ninja is packed wall to wall with both. Golan's approach to making movies - both as director and as the producer of dozens upon dozens of Cannon films - is to do away with anything that doesn't immediately entertain. The movie is directed by Menahem Golan, co-owner of Cannon Films, who took over from original director Emmett Alston. But then he's not even allowed to act the role himself. If he had been cast despite being an unconvincing ninja because he's the better actor, that might make sense. He doesn't look the part, he doesn't sound the part and, because he's doubled so often by a stuntman during the ninja scenes, he often doesn't even play the part. Nero has also been dubbed by another actor for maximum American-ness, which just adds to the feeling that something is off with this character.
It's like finding out your dad is a ninja. There's something alarming when a badass ninja removes his hood and turns out to be balding with an enormous, bushy mustache. I love Nero's westerns and his cop movies from the '70s, but he is only a slightly more convincing ninja than I am (I am not a convincing ninja). The first thing one notices about Enter the Ninja is just how spectacularly miscast Italian exploitation star Franco Nero is in the lead role. When they won't comply, he sends another ninja - Hasegawa (Sho Kosugi), who just happens to be Cole's sworn enemy - to finish the job. He goes to see his old war buddy Frank (Alex Courtney) and his wife Mary Ann (Susan George), who are being harassed to sell their house by evil businessman Charles Venarius (Human Cigarette Christopher George*). Franco Nero (the original Django) stars as Cole, a veteran who has just completed his ninja training. The first film in Cannon's ninja trilogy, 1981's Enter the Ninja, kicks things off in glorious Cannon style with clumsy filmmaking, graphic violence and jarring tonal switches. Once confined to the shadows, the early 1980s put ninja center stage in pop culture. 1981's Enter the Ninja and its two sequels, 1983's Revenge of the Ninja and 1984's Ninja III: The Domination helped make "ninja" a household name, leading Cannon to continue exploiting the trend with its long-running American Ninja series. Through a trilogy of completely unrelated movies save for the use of the word "ninja" in the title and the presence of martial artist Sho Kosugi (playing three different roles), Cannon introduced a generation of video store and cable brats to the highly secret and deadly arts. Celebrate '80s Action day the Cannon ninja way!įor better or worse (better), Cannon Films played a big role in popularizing ninjas in the 1980s.