Ninja Masters

This effort, directed by newcomer Xin Xin Xiong, takes movie-making down many notches beyond amateur. Nothing in the movie makes any sense at all.

Nie Yiyi (Jiang Lu Xia) is a skilled martial arts expert working as a security guard after her father's death. A childhood friend, Zhong Tien (Sam Lee), who works as a personal assistant to billionaire Mr He (Eddie Cheung), persuades Yiyi to become a bodyguard to Mr He's wife. Reluctantly Yiyi accepts and she takes her job very seriously.

When both her bosses are kidnapped by a gang of thugs at a restaurant, Yiyi blames herself for it and goes all out to trace the culprits. She is dissuaded from contacting the police by Zhong Tien - and the two follow dubious leads that involve duels at a disco, on top of bamboo scaffoldings, alleyways and bridges. Yiyi soon discovers that all her fights are being recorded on video by a gambling syndicate and streamed over the Internet for people to bet on. And yes, Coweb alludes to Combat Web! There are very few hits but a whole lot of misses. For one, director Xiong mistakes kungfu talent for acting talent and casts newcomer Jiang Lu Xia in such a demanding role. Going through the paces with just one or two expressions (like looking angry and angrier), she fails miserably of course. Jiang's claim to fame was showing off her martial arts skills on the Internet and competing on Jackie Chan's "The Disciple" TV series (a hunt for the next big Hong Kong kungfu star). She can fight but she can't act to save her life.

Next, the dialogue is appalling and you just can't believe the moronic stuff that the director allows to get into the movie. Xiong has one of the baddies go through a door cartoon-style with a cut-out hole; he has Jiang playing a bodyguard without any firearms or contact with the authorities; he portrays Yiyi as an utter idiot believing and following ridiculous leads and clues when the obvious could be seen a mile away; and no attempt is made to explain how the gambling scam works.

However, the most unforgivable flaw is the badly filmed martial arts action. Ever since Raging Bull in 1980, directors and cinematographers have learnt to dramatise the scenes with close-up and slow-motion shots, not to mention CGI-enhanced views to excite our senses. The action here is repetitive and boring, except for a brawl at the bamboo scaffoldings. It is obvious Xiong tries to imitate Jackie Chan's comic 'kungfu' tricks but again, he fails miserably due to poor timing. Jiang is not good enough to carry the movie and Xiong has no idea how to direct a modern martial arts thriller.

The martial arts film seems to finally be making a comeback in the US market, but a far cry from the boom of the 80s and 90s. Most of the ones that still deliver come from the Asian film market and usually are slapped into a large scale period piece. Every so often you get one that feels more like an old school action film of the past, but a lot of time the action just doesn't live up to the hype. The latest to bring it into a more present day scenario is Ninja Masters but does it bring the action with it or will it be a quick knockout?

Ninja Masters follows a martial arts instructor who is hired as a bodyguard for a powerful couple. When they are kidnapped on her watch, she sets out on a mission to get them back. As her search begins she is given cryptic messages leading her into the world of underground fighting and will have to fight her way to the top to save her clients and get out alive. First and foremost there needs to be a disclaimer on this film. The action is awesome and the story delivers, but there is not a single ninja or anything related to ninjas in this movie. Clearly this was an US release decision to capture audience's attention and will most likely work. That being said the fight scenes are so awesome here you will quickly care less if there are ninjas or not. Sure there are some silly moments and over the top action, but for the most part the story doesn't matter as you are taken on a video game like journey through one awesome fight after another that is sure to keep you entertained. It starts off a bit slow, but rest assured once things get going you will have a blast.

This movie had the feeling of the old school martial arts films and works on just about every level. For the most part the actors all do a great job, but classic ninja movie fans will no doubt get a treat from seeing Kane Kosugi, son of Sho Kosugi, in action tearing up the scene at times even better than his legendary father. If you are a fan of old school martial arts films, then you will love Ninja Masters, just take the title as a nod to Kosugi and don't read into it and let yourself get in on the fun.

Coweb is probably short for Combat Web. The idea of the film is that a female bodyguard has her boss kidnapped by a gang who run an underground fighting web-site. In order to rescue her boss, the bodyguard must fight her way through the gang's martial artists - all while her fights are being secretly taped, streamed over the web and bet on.

The film aspires to be the kung fu version of The Truman Show, even name-checking that film and it is a neat idea, but horribly executed. The only reason to see this film is its star, Jiang Lu Xia. Coweb's reality web story probably owes something to Jiang who was discovered doing stunts and karate on online videos before becoming a part of Jackie Chan's reality TV series The Disciple.

Jiang has her limits. If she has a sense of humour, it is impossible to detect - at least in this film. She only has three gears to her acting and fighting, neutral, annoyed and REALLY angry.

Despite these limits, wind her up and she is a whirling ball of action fury, impossible to ignore. She manages to combine Jackie Chan's athleticism and ability to squeeze over and through obstacles with Bruce Lee's unstoppable fury. Of course, both Jackie and Btuce had other gears. Jiang just has the one and this may limit her career, but in full fury she is something to see.

Jiang is about five foot nothing, but it seems like she has six feet worth of legs. She has an astonishing ability to turn her legs into a multi-jointed weapon like a living three-sectioned staff allowing her to hit opponents with full force from the most impossible angles. She also has some interesting submission moves to add to her acrobatics and kicking.

But her most impressive quality is her sheer confidence, best demonstrated in a sequence where she has to cross a bridge and a horde of enemy bad guys pour onto the bridge to stop her. For the audience, there is a moment of doubt and then in a flash you realize that Jiang isn't outnumbered thirty to one, the bad guys are outnumbered one to thirty.

It's not like any movie martial artist loses that fight, but few would do what Jiang does ("You just put your head down and charge like a bull," one of her other opponents marvels later.) and fewer still would be as believable while doing it. Jiang Lu Xia is something to see, her film Coweb, not so much.

"Ninja Masters"? This title was so off that it was painful to bear witness to. There were no ninjas in this movie whatsoever. This title was so misleading and poorly chosen that it was bad on so many levels. A movie title like "The Game" would have been much more in tune with the movie.

The story in "Ninja Masters" is about Nie Yi Yi (played by Luxia Jiang) who goes to Hong Kong with her childhood sweetheart Chung Tin (played by Sam Lee), where she is to work as a bodyguard. But when the ones she is meant to protect are abducted, Nie Yi Yi finds herself in a cruel game of arranged fights for money.

Storywise, then "Ninja Masters" was rubbish. The storyline was so simple that you could keep up with it even with your eyes closed. It was predictable to every step and aspect, and the story is something that has been seen before in many other movies. Not impressive, not great.

However, what managed to keep this movie afloat was the fight scenes. Luxia Jiang is definitely one to keep an eye out for, because she really impressed with her athletics and martial arts in this movie. Sure, the fight scenes tended to drag on too long and take up too much time, and let's face it, no one can sustain such beatings as they did in the movie and still be standing. But still, it was action-packed and full of good moves.

Personally, I think Sam Lee was rather poorly cast for this movie, because his usual pseudo-comedy styled acting was really misplaced in this movie, and it just brought a level of immaturity to the movie that it could have done well without. I am not saying that Sam Lee is a bad actor, as he is fun to watch in Hong Kong comedies, but not in a martial arts movie like this.

And why do movie companies in 2009 still opt to release movies with an English dubbed feature? Seriously, try checking out the dubbed version. It is without a doubt the worst dubbing job I have witnessed. Not only was it done without any heart, soul or interest in the movie at all, but it also sounded like it was done by two or three people sitting around at home with a cassette recorder. It was just awful. Movies are meant to be watched and experienced in the language they are filmed, produced and released. Dubbing is so 1980's!

"Ninja Masters" was far from impressive. And the extended fight scenes couldn't salvage this train wreck of a movie. If you enjoy Asian martial arts movies, then there are far better ones available. The only reason I could think of for anyone to watch this, it would be for the showcasing of Luxia Jiang's skills.

The 4 out of 10 stars rating I am giving "Ninja Masters" is solely because of Luxia Jiang's martial arts performance, and because this is a Hong Kong movie.

This film is pathetic.

The actors are clearly skilled martial artists but not skilled actors.

The plot is stupid, it makes no sense and then the 'twist' at the end to try and make it makes sense is so forced and idiotic that it makes you wonder why they bothered.

The martial arts scenes are endless and dull, they have nothing original to offer and are unconvincing in the extreme, I actually switched the film off after the appearance of the 'hip-hop' fighters, I only returned to watch it again because I figured it couldn't get worse than that and it doesn't but unfortunately it doesn't get better either.

There is no plot, the direction is bad, the acting is non-existent and the fights are long, unrealistic and boring. This is like the films they made in the seventies in the US when martial arts were new and trendy, it's amazing that someone would make it now.