'Ninja in Ancient China': DVD Review
Ninja In Ancient China (1989) Director - Chang Cheh Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini I'll be honest here, I've never been a huge fan of the Wire Fu generation of martial arts films. I find them incredibly pretentious in the story department, and incredibly boring in the martial arts department, as you can only be amused by the same "hey look, we can fly!" scene so many times. That's not to say I don't enjoy some of them, though. For example when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was first released it was my favorite film at the time, and I even liked the light hearted remake of Iron Monkey. Still though, I can't help but feel ripped off somehow when I pop in an "action packed martial arts film!" and see the same old wire stunts I've seen in countless other films. I was given a chance to view the last film by famous director Chang Cheh - "Ninja In Ancient China". Would this be another movie to change my mind on the Wire Fu generation, or was it doomed to be lumped into the same pile as countless other B-grade films? The story is oversimplified and almost non existant to a certain degree, as everything is set up in the first ten or so minutes. Then it throws us a sucker punch and kind of drifts off to what seems like a different movie before coming full circle by the final act. Taoist Yu is a doctor of sorts, providing the local villagers with medicines and herbs to improve their health and cure whatever it is that ails them. He's also a master of the five elements of the ninja, which happen to be Fire, Wind, Water, Metal and Wood. Yu also teaches each element to a certain student, essentially making strict masters of each element. Yu warns his students not to get involved in the vicious battles that are being lead by multiple warlords, but suddenly a power hungry general named Suen Chak shows up and doesn't think too highly of Yu's free medicine deal, so he has him assassinated. Yu's students plot revenge against Suen Chak by having two of them infiltrate his inner circle, unfortunately these two ninjas begin to share Suen Chak's ideals and thus the remaining ninjas must hatch a new revenge plot against Suen Chak and their former colleagues. Whereas the martial arts films I enjoy are generally light on story and heavy on action, Wire Fu films are generally the opposite. Ninja In Ancient China is no different, with an almost gratuitous amount of dialogue that is both cheesy and meaningful. Chang Cheh took an interesting step in this film by hiring operatic actors, but it seems as though their talent was squandered. The acting was good, there's no complaints there, but it wasn't an epic story that required actors with that level of skill to pull off. It would be like hiring Daniel Day Lewis to play The Terminator. Yeah, he'll do a good job, but it wouldn't be much different than how Arnold played him. However, this is an action film and usually that means you give the story a pass because the action is going to be awesome. Right? Unfortunately, this time around the answer is no. I understand that in the past Cheh was a legend, his films that he made during his time with the Shaw Brothers are exceptional and the blend of overly dramatic story with amazingly choreographed martial arts was, at the time, second to none. Perhaps it was the fact that Cheh was getting old, or maybe that he no longer worked with the Shaw Brothers, but the stuntwork contained in Ninja In Ancient China is an odd assortment to say the least. Choppy wire stunts, badly timed choreographies and inexplicable camera cuts make the fight scenes a rollercoaster of highs and lows. It's not all bad though, as the choreography got better as the film rolled on towards its conclusion. The fights in the final third of the movie were well done and made the previous blunders acceptable, save for the ridiculous ploy by the ninjas to ultimately defeat the general, which was completely ridiculous and had me scratching my head in confusion. I have a feeling that I would have enjoyed the film a lot more than I did if it weren't for one thing. The subtitles on the DVD. Due to certain restrictions on the availability of the original print of the movie, it is presented in its original hardsubbed version. This means that there are no digital subtitles and they are actually embedded into the film itself, also meaning you can't turn them off. This would be fine except they are white with no dark outlines at all. To add insult to injury, most of the film is shot outside, which makes reading white subtitles incredibly difficult when you have the light of the sun making everything incredibly bright. There's a good chunk of dialogue that I missed entirely thanks to this, and while I assume I didn't miss much, it was quite aggravating and lessened the experience for me. Though I did not enjoy the film too much, I do have to give a shout out to Greenfan DVD for making this rare film available on Region 0 DVD's. I feel priviledged to have seen Cheh's last foray into the martial arts realm, and though I felt the film was sub-par, it's always fascinating to see a director's final project. While I don't recommend Ninja In Ancient China to the casual martial arts film fan, I do recommend it to the die hard fans of either rare kung fu cinema or fans of Cheh's, as the rarity of this film on its own should be more than enough of a selling point. If you are a casual fan and are looking for something a little meatier, there's plenty of other films to see first
Ninja In Ancient China (1989) Director - Chang Cheh Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini I'll be honest here, I've never been a huge fan of the Wire Fu generation of martial arts films. I find them incredibly pretentious in the story department, and incredibly boring in the martial arts department, as you can only be amused by the same "hey look, we can fly!" scene so many times. That's not to say I don't enjoy some of them, though. For example when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was first released it was my favorite film at the time, and I even liked the light hearted remake of Iron Monkey. Still though, I can't help but feel ripped off somehow when I pop in an "action packed martial arts film!" and see the same old wire stunts I've seen in countless other films. I was given a chance to view the last film by famous director Chang Cheh - "Ninja In Ancient China". Would this be another movie to change my mind on the Wire Fu generation, or was it doomed to be lumped into the same pile as countless other B-grade films? The story is oversimplified and almost non existant to a certain degree, as everything is set up in the first ten or so minutes. Then it throws us a sucker punch and kind of drifts off to what seems like a different movie before coming full circle by the final act. Taoist Yu is a doctor of sorts, providing the local villagers with medicines and herbs to improve their health and cure whatever it is that ails them. He's also a master of the five elements of the ninja, which happen to be Fire, Wind, Water, Metal and Wood. Yu also teaches each element to a certain student, essentially making strict masters of each element. Yu warns his students not to get involved in the vicious battles that are being lead by multiple warlords, but suddenly a power hungry general named Suen Chak shows up and doesn't think too highly of Yu's free medicine deal, so he has him assassinated. Yu's students plot revenge against Suen Chak by having two of them infiltrate his inner circle, unfortunately these two ninjas begin to share Suen Chak's ideals and thus the remaining ninjas must hatch a new revenge plot against Suen Chak and their former colleagues. Whereas the martial arts films I enjoy are generally light on story and heavy on action, Wire Fu films are generally the opposite. Ninja In Ancient China is no different, with an almost gratuitous amount of dialogue that is both cheesy and meaningful. Chang Cheh took an interesting step in this film by hiring operatic actors, but it seems as though their talent was squandered. The acting was good, there's no complaints there, but it wasn't an epic story that required actors with that level of skill to pull off. It would be like hiring Daniel Day Lewis to play The Terminator. Yeah, he'll do a good job, but it wouldn't be much different than how Arnold played him. However, this is an action film and usually that means you give the story a pass because the action is going to be awesome. Right? Unfortunately, this time around the answer is no. I understand that in the past Cheh was a legend, his films that he made during his time with the Shaw Brothers are exceptional and the blend of overly dramatic story with amazingly choreographed martial arts was, at the time, second to none. Perhaps it was the fact that Cheh was getting old, or maybe that he no longer worked with the Shaw Brothers, but the stuntwork contained in Ninja In Ancient China is an odd assortment to say the least. Choppy wire stunts, badly timed choreographies and inexplicable camera cuts make the fight scenes a rollercoaster of highs and lows. It's not all bad though, as the choreography got better as the film rolled on towards its conclusion. The fights in the final third of the movie were well done and made the previous blunders acceptable, save for the ridiculous ploy by the ninjas to ultimately defeat the general, which was completely ridiculous and had me scratching my head in confusion. I have a feeling that I would have enjoyed the film a lot more than I did if it weren't for one thing. The subtitles on the DVD. Due to certain restrictions on the availability of the original print of the movie, it is presented in its original hardsubbed version. This means that there are no digital subtitles and they are actually embedded into the film itself, also meaning you can't turn them off. This would be fine except they are white with no dark outlines at all. To add insult to injury, most of the film is shot outside, which makes reading white subtitles incredibly difficult when you have the light of the sun making everything incredibly bright. There's a good chunk of dialogue that I missed entirely thanks to this, and while I assume I didn't miss much, it was quite aggravating and lessened the experience for me. Though I did not enjoy the film too much, I do have to give a shout out to Greenfan DVD for making this rare film available on Region 0 DVD's. I feel priviledged to have seen Cheh's last foray into the martial arts realm, and though I felt the film was sub-par, it's always fascinating to see a director's final project. While I don't recommend Ninja In Ancient China to the casual martial arts film fan, I do recommend it to the die hard fans of either rare kung fu cinema or fans of Cheh's, as the rarity of this film on its own should be more than enough of a selling point. If you are a casual fan and are looking for something a little meatier, there's plenty of other films to see first