Deadly Life of a Ninja

Starts off with a soft-core ninja training sequence that includes barely clad girls: mud wrestling, being dipped into ice water, having their bodies forced into contortions and learning the arts of seduction. Meanwhile an unscrupulous businessman who is hated by everyone, including his angry drunken wife and his hot-headed fight expert sister in-law, is being targeted by killer ninjas. The police are having no luck at catching the clever, secretive ninjas and ask for help from a Kendo teacher who gets romantically involved with the sister-in-law. Lots of great fight scenes including the end fight between the ninja leader (Yasuaki Kurata) and the Kendo teacher (Chen Kuan Tai). Some of the laughs come from: the use of cheap camera tricks showing the quickness of the ninjas, the female ninjas using their naked breasts to `relax' their foe and the ridiculous ghoul-face deaths induced by the poison the ninjas use to kill their victims.

This is the story of a family under siege by ninjas. A rich man has split his company between his two daughters. One (who drinks to excess) is married to a womanizing sleaze who built the company up to ten times its value. The other seems to spend her time and money trying to master sword fighting techniques. No one gets along. The family begins to be besieged by attacks by a band of ninjas. It begins with am attempt to frame the husband for the murder of one of his flings and escalates from there. The unmarried sister asks a sword teacher friend to help protect the family once the attacks become more deadly.

How do you define disappointment? I suspect that this movie is a good definition. This movie begins with one of the best sequences ever in an exploitation film, the ninja training school. We get some of the funniest scenes ever put on film as the ninjas go through their paces, are bent into odd shapes, and engage in mud wrestling. Yes, mud wrestling. Who knew ninjas trained by mud wrestling? Its absolutely jaw dropping in its exploitation silliness (and makes this one of the best sequences in any exploitation film ever). Nothing that follows, not even the women being dunked in the water with ridiculous huge ice cubes floating near by, can compare with this sequence. Everything, the entire 90 minutes, that follow is all down hill from there.

Where the movie falls down is that after the ninja training the film basically becomes a reasonably straight forward martial arts mystery. Actually it's a rather dull martial arts mystery. The people aren't particularly likable, the action is run of the mill and while there are a few twists and turns there is nothing to liven up the proceedings. Its really dull. Frankly, I found it hard to stay awake, not because I was tired, but because I was bored. Certainly the film gets a few points because I was kind of curious to see what the ultimate outcome was, but it really wasn't worth the effort.

This film isn't worth bothering with unless you need to see every ninja movie ever made. That said, if you know anyone with a copy, you will want to borrow it, or ask them to show you the opening five minutes, that is worth seeing (though not worth the price of a rental since it is so short)

I think that the comments made by the previous reviewer sum this film up perfectly.

The opening sequence in this movie is admittedly hilarious..... We get to witness female ninja mud wrestling, agonising stretching techniques, ice water torture and a bit more wrestling, this time involving a HUGE and frankly scary looking fellow, and all this is backed by the Rocky 2 theme!!!! WOW!!!

Sadly however, after such a dramatic opening, everything that follows in its wake is rendered inevitably rather lame in comparison.

To be equitable, the story itself could be said to be mildly more engaging than most martial arts fodder; Here we have a sort of simple 'who hired the ninja' type mystery alongside the usual revenge scenario (the staple plot for 99% of all martial arts movies) However, a cardinal sin in this is that for the most part, the martial arts choreography throughout is somewhat lazy and unimaginative.

One or two scenes do stand out though luckily, such as when our hero takes on the previously mentioned wrestler and is literally bounced off the walls by him!

Overall then, not a ninja classic by any means but worth a watch if your enjoy the genre nonetheless.

I wish that there was a possibility to vote -1. Quite possible the worst excuses for anything put on a video cassette. I'd rather watch a random person's home movies.

I could only make it about fifteen minutes, but i'm sure the rest is the beginnings of a masterpiece.

Only A Life Of Ninja (or Nin Za as the odd subtitle states) can get away with having an extended montage of outrageous ninja training sequences that involve a blend of sumo and judo (we'll call it sudo), scantly clad women mud wrestling, extreme torture, running across blocks of ice floating in water, and other mad scenarios!

In fact, its probably director Lee Tso Nam who could only get away with it...

The same man behind classics such as Kung Fu Wonder Child, The Leg Fighters, and Eagles Claws, has always had a keen eye for bringing something new and different to the screen, and A Life Of Ninja is one of his wildest. This was a favourite of mine in my early teens, wearing out my video tape from repeated viewings. This Vengeance release offers a Mandarin or English dub, and presents the film in a letterbox format which is great.

Unfortunately, its still got the jumpy video quality too!

There's a lot going on in the 1983 production, from battling ninja clans to assassinations; drug addicted sisters to forbidden romances. And while it has some very crazy moments, the film is actually shot quite well with some decent suspense and drama throughout. The strong main cast members also help make this crime thriller an even better watch. The fantastic Chen Kwan Tai, of Shaw Brothers fame, leads the way playing a ninjitsu trained martial arts teacher hired by the cops to help them solve some killings possibly done by ninjas. I've always been a big fan of Chen's and really enjoy seeing him in this early modern day role, as opposed to the usual traditional kung fu flick. He's a great screen fighter as well as a top actor, and gets some great fight scenes here alongside the amazing Yasuaki Kurata (who looks great as a ninja master) and Elsa Yeung from A Book Of Heroes.

While initially a crime thriller, the ninja scenes that weave throughout are fantastic, and more so when Kurata is on screen! The fights are fast and well choreographed, and show some great ninja action as well as hand to hand combat. The scene with the larger wrestling-type ninja man in briefs crushing people with cars and such, is brilliant. Watching it again after all these years gives me a great nostalgic feeling, and I still enjoyed it just as much as my teen years!

The action is delivered by Pang Gang, an actor and often assistant action director on many of the Lo Wei Jackie Chan movies as well as other classics such as Ninja In The Dragons Den, Snake Deadly Act and The Chinese Stuntman...

With sound-bites from classic Shaw Brothers movies and outrageous, non-stop ninja and martial arts action, including a fantastic end fight between Chen Kwan Tai and Yasuaki Kurata - you can't help but enjoy A Life Of Ninja.

Overall: Well made, old school fun that entertains in every way and one of my favourite Chen Kan Tai movies!