Ninja Death Trilogy (1987)

Today's movie is a special treat for you guys. A three for one deal in the Ninja Death trilogy, a series in which there is no on screen titles, credits, or any text at all that might help the viewer along on this wildly uneven journey.

The coolest frame from what's supposed to be the opening titles.

The basic plot is your generic "bad guy wants power so he decides to kill the princess and her son" type plot. but as we see in the opening in which we are dropped right into the middle of things where we see three Japanese guards running through a field and fighting off ninjas as they try to protect the princess and her baby. they fail to save the princess who seemingly commits suicide and dies. One of the guards are killed, another is blinded and the third takes off with baby to keep him protected.

 After that we are treated to what appears to be the text-less opening credits that introduces all the main players who will survive to the third movie

 

Then we are at Chinese house of ill repute where we are left to guess on our own that roughly 18 years has passed because we see who we assume is the baby all grown up and working as a bouncer for said brothel. after that what follows is a very convoluted plot that involves double crosses and misunderstood actions on every ones parts. Part of the plot involves the Japanese opening their own brothel so they can find the son of the princess who has the mark of a plum leaf on his chest. But for some reason that comes and goes and is only seen once in the entire trilogy.  Speaking of which that plum leaf leads to a hilarious scene in which Tiger thinks that Brother Ninja (I can't remember his name) is trying to have his way with him, when he actually trying to see if Tiger has the plum leaf mark.

It turns the brother sister team that run the brothel are actually servants the the plum leaf clan and are using Grand Master (The main bad guy) resources to seek out the son of the princess so that they may protect and train him so he can take down Grand Master.

Academy Award Ninja 

Meanwhile Tiger (The son of the princess) is being kept under the watchful eye of the Master (the man who saved him when he was a baby.) who has been training him in the way of the martial arts.

The Master

After many long twists it comes to light that the Japanese brother and sister team are servants of the plum leaf clan, the master discovers his brother (Tiger's father) is actually still alive and been brainwashed into being the rampaging beast known as Devil Mask who Grand Master controls using a flute. But gaining this knowledge eventually costs him his life.

Near the end of part one, Tiger, Master and the Brother Ninja all meet up and they get properly introduced but are interrupted by the appearance of Devil Mask that ends part one.

Part Two is a really strange transition from all out sex and action to a goofy love story between Sakura (sister ninja) and Tiger. As a result things get really slow and not a lot happens. But we do get to see Master commit suicide by hitting himself really hard in the forehead. But I don't know why he killed himself.  Among other things we discover that Tiger's mother is still alive! Despite killing herself in part one. Somewhere in the midst of all this sappy soap opera stuff Tiger finds time to get injured and sleep rape another girl, he previously sleep raped Sakura in part one.

Part two also details some of Tiger's training

Part two was really slow and so mind numbingly boring that I spaced out for a bit, but there is so much unnecessary stuff going on that it detracts from the main plot of the series. Part two is only filler for what is to come in part three. So I really recommend skipping part two and leaping straight into part three. Part two ends with the appearance of Devil Mask in the same footage reused from part one.    

Part three features more training and wraps up the story with everyone but Princess, Tiger and Sakura dying after they get their revenge on Grand Master in a confusing game of cross, double cross and triple cross. Although it cuts out before Devil Mask reappears, it ends with the same sequence as the previous two

A Little Background on the Movie 

I haven't been able to find out a lot about these movies, all I have is some basic info from IMDB. But what I do know is that this is a Taiwanese production.

According to IMDB this stars

Alexander Lo Rei (Tiger)
Fei Meng

Two other reviews list Joseph Kuo as Director

Also one of the alternate titles is Venom of the Ninja. But that appears just to be a title so Crash Media could slap a copyright on it.

Also the movie was filmed in fullscreen, so if you end up with a widescreen copy you have an altered version.

A Few Stray observations 

After watching part one I became convinced that these movies were edited down from a TV series. It has opening title sequence, the editing is hopelessly choppy, there plot points that are never adequately explained and the flashbacks filmed through yellow glass don't explain anything at all. Leading me to think that they took mixed and matched footage from the series. Also there is virtually no dialogue over the flashbacks to help explain what we are seeing. 

Part one has no less than 5 sex scenes that do nothing to further the plot and is loaded with nudity, so I do not recommend this for children. Part one couldn't decide if it wanted to be soft core porn or a ridiculous ninja action film. Some of the sex scenes are a little uncomfortable to watch because they happen in a flashback that supposedly explains why ninjas are deadly, but the voice over stops for a long time when we get to the sex scene.

Also Ninjas never walk when they can cartwheel or do other acrobatics when infiltrating the enemy base. 

Also throughout the movie the characters change voices, going from American to quite noticeable English accents, It's quite jarring. Speaking of the dubbing, it sounds for all the world that this was done as a college project because they have no idea how to properly mix the soundtrack. And some of the guys doing the dubbing think they are doing a cartoon because the voices are laughable. The dialogue is ludicrous, it's as if it was written by a couple of ten year olds.            

I was surprised by the use of wires in a few of the fight scenes, I didn't think "Wire Fu" became a thing until the mid to late 90's. Yet here is some wire work done as early as 1987.

Also in the most amazing transformation I have ever seen, once Devil Mask's mask is shattered he morphs into an old fat guy. Amazing.

The main theme is very catchy.

What others have to say.

"If things get slow, some ninjas will pop up in a couple of minutes. After years of oh so many recent martial arts movies with all their wire-fu martial arts, it is good to find some pre-wire-fu old school kung fuin'. Aren't ninjas inherently cool enough for a movie? However, a guy in a gold lamé ninja suit, the Oriental Destro-masked ninja, and hero being a Shaolin pimp, words can't describe it's sheer true ninjalisciousness and ninjaosity without high level Calculus."   - Side Order of Ninjas

NINJA DEATH certainly has its moments and, as I said earlier, could be enjoyable if one were to watch it in the right frame of mind, but I just couldn't get beyond how much of a trainwreck it is and how difficult it was to follow the story....  I think NINJA DEATH is bizarre enough for me to recommend it to anyone beyond ninja completists. Just be prepared for a frustrating amount of padding, [and] a story that makes little (if any) sense,.... On the bright side, NINJA DEATH has a lot more stunt dummies being launched/kicked across the scenery than any 83-minute movie has any right to feature. - Death Rattle 
"And the ninjas are exactly the kind of ninjas you'd expect. They are creeping around in the forest and attacking people. They are running with tiny steps and in single file while holding their swords at awkward angles. They are killing Japanese lords while they are having sex. They are wiping out entire households. They are scamperring up ropes while barely hanging onto them. They are leaping into treetops from a standing start. They are performing acrobat tumbles for absolutely no reason. They are hiding deep, dark secrets. They are infiltrating the citizenry and each other's ranks, just because they can. They are killing beggars and whores just because they can. AND they are appearing and dissapearing under the cover of smoke boms! Ah, joy... Goofy Ninja Stuff in abundance!" Cinema Steve