L.A. Streetfighters

When I began to watch the movie, I had to try not to laugh...and nothing funny was going on! The bad lip synch of the entire movie made me want to vomit. God. The acting was crap, some martial artists have some acting skill (ie Jackie Chan), but if you think these guys will give you a good show, you'll be sadly mistaken. The fight sequences seem so planned. Very little seems to set off the characters. The camera is wobbly and...God, just for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE (unless you want to laugh at one of the worst movies of all time).

DANIEL MANIA! COMMENT

I thought that Ninja Turf could have been done alot better. Personally I would have worked on the cinematics because you could barely see the fight scenes and I also would have done the entire ending to this film differently. For one thing I would have had the rival gangs join forces with the drug dealers and have the main characters fight them all in the same building floor by floor. I also would have made it a lot more bloodier and made the choreography a lot more furious,complicated,wild and sophisticated. I gave this film a 7/10 because it could have been so much better and it was poorly written.

Ninja turf (AKA Los Angeles Streetfighter) stands as one of my all time fav b-movies. It's got everything you're looking for. Really bad lighting. 30 year old guys playing high school kids. Totally awesome action. Drugs. a horrible script and Philip Rhee! Only few stand this high on my b movie list. Check out Rock N roll nightmare, Let me die a woman, The Garbage Pail Kids movie and anything from the ninja kids series.

In recent years, South Korean cinema has improved greatly in quality and has become pretty popular. However, when this particular effort was made (with some U.S. involvement), South Korean cinema was often struggling - and a look at this film illustrates some of the reasons why. It's barely a movie - the first half of the movie doesn't seem to have a real story, instead consisting more of a series of boring and barely connected vignettes. The second half of the movie kicks in a little story and conflict, but it's too little too late. All that might not matter had the rest of the movie been well made, but it isn't. It's really cheaply made, with rock bottom production values (especially with the lighting of scenes). As for the action, while the martial arts occasionally have (a little) life, ultimately it's nothing you haven't seen before (and better.) There is some interest seeing martial art actors Phillip Rhee and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace early in their acting careers, but they're so wasted I'm sure they don't list this movie on their resume. By the way, it's obvious from watching the movie that seeing billboards and theater marquees in the background for movies from 1982 and 1983 that "Ninja Turf" (released in 1985) took a lengthy time to complete and find a distributor. No wonder.

Young (Jun Chong), Tony (Phillip Rhee) and three friends start up a security business and this results in them getting in fights a lot. The main plot doesn't kick in until an hour has passed when Young steals a ton of drug money from a client who hired them ("It was bad money and I would put it to a good cause"). Naturally, the dealer wants it back so he hires two assassins - Japan's Yoshida (Ken Nagayama) and New York's Kruger (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace) - to retrieve it and teach the boys a lesson.

This is an odd, yet enjoyable 80s action flick. Odd in the sense that it has no plot for the first hour and that lead tough guy Jun Chong spends a lot of time crying about his drunk mom not loving him. Oh, and there isn't a single ninja in NINJA TURF (its original title was LOS ANGELES STREETFIGHTER). I'm not sure if it hit theaters or not, but RCA/Columbia did release it on VHS. Director Woo-sang Park (under the name Richard Park) directs the action scenes well with an emphasis on the marital arts talents of the leads. This was Rhee's first lead role and he went on to star in the popular BEST OF THE BEST series. Brinke Stevens shows up as a drug dealer's girlfriend and supplies the film's only nudity. I was surprised when I looked up Chong's filmography to see I own 5 of the 6 films he's made, with 2 of them unwatched now. Why I was surprised is beyond me.

Looking up the supporting cast, it seems they have a real superstar in their midst. Mark Hicks is a member of Young's crew (aptly named Mark) and he achieved internet superstar notoriety as the famous Afro Ninja, the guy who attempts to do a flip with some nunchaku and falls on his head. I'm sure you've seen it.