Five Element Ninjas (1982)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Director Chang Cheh wastes absolutely no time getting things under way in FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS: the members of the Martial Arts Alliance (including stalwarts Meng Lo ("Liang") and Tien-chi Cheng ("Xiao")), pair off against members of a rival school and give each and every member thereof a resounding beating- in very short order, to boot. When the heroes are sent out a la the Knights of the Round Table in search of The Holy Grail, they're ambushed and wiped out by the Five Element Ninjas. Subtitles keep us appraised along the way of the various weapons and techniques that are being used. Only Meng Lo, Cheng, and their Master (hidden in a hidden room) remain. A female ninja infiltrates the Alliance stronghold, finds out where the Master is hiding, and sends a diagram via bow and arrow to the villains. And that's just the first two-thirds of the movie...

the choreography was fantastic, the 5 element ninjas awesome, and it had some very gory parts. huge pluses. all in all it was an easy 7 out of 10 for me. *SPOILERS* but there were elements that i thought detracted. i don't go into a 70 kung fu flick with high plot expectations, ever. but I've seen quite a few shaw bros. films, as well as others in the genre, and they work best when kept fairly simple. the elements i disliked: i just thought the female ninja spy, and the whole sub plot going on with her was distracting and odd... first of all, she killed the main characters best buddy, and then all of a sudden she is in love with the main character?Where was there any chemistry or reason he shouldn't have killed her on the spot when the ropes were untied? because her character was so poorly woven into the story, her involvement did nothing but distract from the amazing action/revenge story. revenge stories are best kept simple. also, the TOTAL GAPING plot hole of the main character all of a sudden remembering he knows some ninja skills? wasn't it just a half hour before that, where everyone at the school, (including our protagonist), after the samurai dies, are scratching their heads at the mention of the word "ninja"? if the protagonist would have remembered he was taught about ninjas before they sent the first 8 to be slaughtered by the 5 element ninjas, perhaps they could have been a bit more prepared. that memory he had of being taught ninja secrets while he was tied up just came out of left field and was inconsistent with the earlier part of the film. don't get me wrong, i love a campy, cliché, and poorly dubbed martial arts film. master of the flying guillotine, 5 deadly venoms, one armed boxer, iron monkey, the executioner. i even like some of godfrey ho's hilarious garbage. i just felt that with a few slight tweaks to the script of Chinese super ninjas, it would have been easier to suspend disbelief and be drawn into the awesome characters and action.a side note: i thought it was funny how they worked a bunch of dialogue into the film explaining how ninjitsu was derived from Chinese martial arts.... sure Asian martial arts in general came from china, but I'm pretty sure the arts the ninja used started in japan... could be wrong though ;)

Well, there are enough comments on this film already, so I will only say this. I saw the movie for the first time when I was a young lad, and now I am almost 30, and have yet to see a more violent action packed kung-fu movie than this one. BUT, YOU MUST FIND THE UN-CUT VERSION to really see this movie in it's true form. ALERT: THE US DVD VERSION IS CUT, YES FOLKS, CUT, SO BEWARE.

Before I even knew the name Shaw Bros. I was a fan. I saw this movie many years ago on a t.v. series Black Belt Theater.The 5 elements are unique and add some of the fun to this movie.If you are a fan of old Kung Fu movies, do yourself a favor and pick this up on DVD. The quality isn't great, but it does have a nice mini-filmography of the actors in the movie.