During the Sengoku period in the 15th-17th centuries, the shinobi were increasingly hired as military spies and assassins, using high-level weapons training in concert with excellent disguise skills to accomplish their tactical missions. Essentially, my sense is that the shinobi were basically the down-rent version of the samurai, with a more rough-and-tumble, winning-matters-more-than-honor attitude, and a farm-based rather than urban-based background. Historically, shinobi were fighters from rural provinces in early feudal Japan, a millennium ago or less, who were trained in subterfuge and espionage tactics to protect local villages. Even the word is slightly bullshit: if I have my facts right (and PLEASE chime in if you have better info), the characters for the word ninja can also be pronounced shinobi, and the latter is the more "authentic", but the former was popularised in the 19th Century because it was easier to say for the Westerners who were at that time swarming into Japan like ants at a picnic. That's okay, though, it's the same thing I thought of. The thing you just thought of is made-up fairy tale bullshit. Seems like as good an excuse as any to look back to one of the films that kicked things off.Īlright, so do something for me: think of a ninja. during the 1980s, of which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is but the latest aftershock. This week: my younger readers are perhaps unaware of the seismic event that was the ninja fad in the U.S. Once Venarius learns that Cole is a ninja, he hires a ninja of his own to eliminate Frank and Cole and that ninja is Hasegawa, a rival of Cole’s from their old training days.Every week this summer, we'll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend's wide releases. Mary Ann comes to Cole during the night and the two have an affair.
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In the aftermath, Frank gets drunk and confesses to Cole that he is impotent.
![enter the ninja 1981 enter the ninja 1981](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/entertheninja1981.74136.jpg)
Cole thwarts the local henchmen hired by Venarius to bully and coerce the Landers.Ĭole and Frank infiltrate Venarius’ base, and defeat a number of his henchmen. Cole soon discovers the reason for the harassment when he finds out that there is a large oil deposit located beneath their land. Cole soon finds that the Landers are being repeatedly harassed by a wealthy CEO named Charles Venarius who is attempting to force them to sell their property.
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Cole goes to visit his war buddy Frank Landers and Frank’s newlywed wife, Mary Ann Landers, who are the owners of a large piece of farming land in the Philippines. In 2015, the film was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.Įnter the Ninja (1981) is about Cole, a veteran of the Angolan Bush War, who completes his ninjutsu training in Japan. The film had also been distributed on DVD in the UK by Lighthouse (2001) and Optimum Entertainment (2011).
#Enter the ninja 1981 series
The film has been released on VHS and Beta during the 1980s, but an official US DVD release had long eluded the masses until MGM issued as part of its Limited Edition Collection (a series of manufactured-on-demand DVD-Rs) in October 2011.
#Enter the ninja 1981 movie
Today people criticize the film for its “cheesy acting” and a few critics appreciate the film and it has garnered a “cult following” as the original ninja movie that started the “80’s craze”.
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Some critics complained of its occasional campy tone while some praised the production values of the relatively low-budget film. All the fight sequences in Enter the Ninja (1981) were choreographed by Mike Stone and therefore were very realistic and at times dangerous.Īt the time Enter the Ninja (1981) was released, reviews from critics were mixed to positive.