Bionic Ninja

The wonderful minds are Filmark, Godfrey Ho and Tomas Tang deliver yet another crazed ninja mission that blends 70% of the scenes from 1984 Hong Kong movie, The Daring Kung-Fu Refugee, with a host of new ninja footage and dubbed storyline. The original film stars a young Alex Man, Kent Cheng, Angie Chiu, and Alan Chan Kwok Kuen - names and faces known from a boat-load of great HK films!

With a new storyline dubbed over involving the search for a secret microfilm, Godfrey Ho presents a half decent film that has some interesting blends that make it seem as one. An army of ninjas, hired by the KGB take on CIA agent Tommy and Chan Lau in a race to find this new scientific discovery that could help or destroy the world, depending on who gets there first. As Tommy tells his new 'ninjer' master, "Terrorists are using Ninjitsu to disrupt world peace!" Its a pretty wild and out-dated plot line, but ultimately, is just an excuse for plenty of unintentional laughs, some fun fight scenes and some half-decent ninja action - this time, minus the giant headbands and padded shoulders.

As bad as it may sound, Bionic Ninja is pretty action packed and makes for a fun watch ending with the obligatory ninja battle between two white guys, with so-so results. There are plenty of laughs along the way and definitely worse out there. I don't know where the whole bionic thing really comes in, but hey, I'm sure it was a big renter back in the 80's...

Overall: A fun film, Bionic Ninja isn't the greatest thing ever but it entertains and makes me want to see The Daring Kung-Fu Refugee even more now!