Ninja III: The Domination (1984)

the audience applauded

Great Film overall

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Kelly from Breakin' has changed her name and by doing this has been possessed by the evil spirit of a dying ninja. At first, changes in her behaviour is limited to having strange interactions with an arcade game, doing strange, erotic things with V8 juice, and being attracted to the hairiest guy this side of Alec Baldwin. But soon enough, she's killing the officers responsible for the ninja's death, and can only be stopped by another ninja.........The Cannon Group. That company would either make you jump for joy or shudder in fear when you sit down to watch a movie and see their logo appear pre-credits. Luckily I'm in the former, because I know the excellent cheese that they can produce, and here, it's one of the most pungent cheese-feasts I've seen from their studios.So it's the third in their Ninja series of films, all unrelated in both story and narrative, but they do have the word Ninja in the title. But I'd also subliminally class it as an unofficial three-quel to Breakin', because Dickey is literally playing the same character.But what do the makers do to make this stand out from all the other Ninja based films released around this time? Why, they cross the Ninja movie with The Exorcist.......So, not only do we have your usual slew of throwing stars finding their way into hench mans faces, we ha a prolonged sequence of Dickey being possessed, and with no disrespect to the film, it's hilarious. From spinning her full body around and around, and blurting out incomprehensible nonsense, it really does make the film standout, for all the wrong reasons of course, but in essence, it's a wonderful concept.Dickey for some reason, has always been a sort of screen presence, but here the focus is on her, rather than a dance style, and she handles her scenes pretty well, despite the things the script gets her to do (you'll never see vegetable juice in the same light again), she's watchable enough, even if her acting is a little questionable.Sho Kosugi comes in halfway through the film to try and give the audience sense of the uneven narrative, and gives us all the exposition to makes us give the possession lark the benefit of the doubt.The fight choreography is a little stodgy and lethargic, but if you've seen the other two ninja films, you'll forgive its shortcomings. Side characters are hilarious, and the love interest would put Chewbacca to shame on the hair level.All in all, it's a must for anyone who likes The Cannon Group, as this has to be one of their most bonkers movies ever made, and it's all the better for it.Plus it's the best film ever made about an attempted sexual assault by five men in broad daylight, where there is a group of people looking on, and ones a police officer!!!Luckily though the potential victims is Dickey, and she's possessed!Essential cheese

When I was a kid I was all about ninja's Ninja movies, and sho kosugi.( main ninja in this movie) I probably watched this thing 100+ times. Sho kosugi just looks cool in his costume and his weapons and techniques are Always awesome. This has some cheesy 80's stuff in it but It's still an awesome movie. Look his sons Shane and Kane up too. They were featured in a lot of his movies but as they grew up They made some awesome movies themselves. Having Tarantino make a ninja movie using the kosugi Family would be a dream come true and the baddest ninja Movie ever made. Check this one out you'll see what I mean. Then go on to revenge of the ninja, pray for death, and his sons movie blood heat. No need to thank me. Your welcome.

Ninja III (1984) ** (out of 4) Christie (Lucinda Dickey) finds herself possessed by the spirit of a Black Ninja who was killed by some police officers. He wants revenge so his spirit enters the woman who then goes out and kills the cops. Another Black Ninja (Sho Kosugi) from Japan arrives with hopes of killing the evil spirit and saving the girl. This was the third and final film in Cannon's ninja trilogy and while it's a major step down from REVENGE OF THE NINJA there are still enough interesting aspects for fans of the genre. I think the biggest problem is that the film obviously suffers from a very low-budget and too many times we get stupid flashback scenes to where the ninja is shot and killed. Christie will see one of the cops and then we get the flashback. This happens each and every time and after a while it just gets a tad bit boring. I think another problem is that the screenplay doesn't really know what it wants to do and this is especially true during the horror elements. I'm not sure if director Firstenberg had never seen a horror movie or what but by judging from the elements here you'd think he hadn't. There are several scenes where the "spirit" comes to life and the elements are just so bad that you can't help but laugh. Just check out the scene where the woman is tied up in a Japanese spiritualists office and the "demonic talk" is just horrid and the special effects are even worse. Every time one of these horror elements come up you can't help but wish they'd go away as quick as possible. What makes the film worth viewing are the ninja elements because some of them are quite good and this includes the frantic opening sequence where the bad ninja kills at least thirty cops and other folks. Considering some of the heat a certain genre of music would get later in the decade for talk about killing cops, it's somewhat shocking to see cops being mowed down left and right and many times innocent cops are killed. This puts a rather surreal atmosphere around the film but it also makes it hard to care what happens to our female lead even though you know she is possessed. This entire element just adds a rather bizarre tone to the film. The opening action sequence is just as crazy as the ending to REVENGE OF THE NINJA as there are dead bodies all over the place. The scene starts off with the ninja picking up a golf ball and crushing it with his fingers so you just know things are going to be nuts. The scene where he climbs a tree to jump on a helicopter is as outrageous as it sounds. NINJA III isn't a good movie as there are way too many weak spots to make it a complete success but it has its moments and fans of the genre will certainly want to check it out.

Following the movie that represents the pinnacle of the 1980's Ninja genre namely, 'The Revenge Of The Ninja' salivating fans were 'treated' to this bizarre offering that mixes Ninja shenanigans with spiritual possession....the end result being not dissimilar in nature to that somewhat horrifying experience when one spies a nugget of human poop floating menacingly towards oneself in a public swimming pool.Take for instance the supposed 'action packed' introduction which is set of all places on a golf course(!) Here we witness an evil green clad ninja slaying a group of golfers for apparently no discernible reason whatsoever (although I must admit that the shallow elitist attitude adopted by many participants of this particular sport does irk me somewhat though...hmmmm perhaps THAT'S why he murdered them?.....yep I can relate to that after all). Actually later in the movie we are told that one of the golfers was a top scientist but this story line is never elaborated upon nor alluded to ever again!!!Anyway back to the intro, the police proceed to surround the golf course and basically shoot the absolute hell out of the assassin....and they have to keep on shooting him because he just won't stay down!!! Yes literally hundreds of rounds are pumped into him and STILL he gets up to slay evermore of the law enforcement numbers.Finally (after what seems like an eternity) our miscreant detonates a smoke bomb and disappears.....or so it seems, for in actual fact he is merely hiding beneath the soil and upon our decidedly gormless officers leaving the scene to search for his body, he crawls out from hiding and staggers away.We next see the lovely Lucinda Dickey, a truly beautiful actress and in superbly fit physical condition, here playing a telephone repair worker. From her high vantage point she happens to spot the dying (AT LAST!!!!!) ninja. However, upon closer investigation the man, supposedly on his last legs suddenly leaps upon her and grapples her to the ground. After a bit of a struggle our feisty heroine manages to break free luckily but doesn't count on the ninja possessing hypnotic powers and she inevitably succumbs to them. It is at this point that the dying ninja actually projects his soul into our heroine! His intention is to use her corporeal form to slay those officers who killed him (the few he didn't actually manage to wipe out initially!)From this point on, throughout the film, whenever our heroine spots one of the aforementioned officers she is subjected to some overwhelmingly awful cinematic scenes of flashing lights, smoke effects and the sword that the ninja bequeathed unto her levitating towards her in a most wobbly manner!To make matters more complex, a particularly irritating police officer (who sports enough back and shoulder hair to put an average yak to shame!) persists in trying to win her affections (in a most bloody annoying manner!!!)......well of course it doesn't take the gift of preconception to work out that in a rather feeble 'shock' (less) twist towards the end of the film, HE is revealed to be one of the officers she must slay!But wait there's some hope yet! Step forward the one and only Sho Kosugi!Yes, THE ninja himself and looking here as cool as ever! Golf club news obviously travels fast and upon learning of the said events that transpired there, he flies all the way from Japan to sort the situation out (suspecting the worst!) In a brief sub story (that amounts to all of a few seconds!) Sho's interest in this particular ninja is demonstrated to be personal after the said villain is shown to have murdered Sho's father/teacher(?) and blinded one of Sho's eyes (thus necessitating Sho to wear a really decorative looking sword guard eye patch!)After stealing his dead nemesis's body from the morgue and then tracking down our heroine who provides an unwitting abode for the evil soul, matters climax at an oriental temple (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) where our man Sho manages to reunite the two disjointed aspects.Now reanimated from the dead, the evil ninja and Sho battle it out in traditional ninja style with swords with the winner being........well yes you can probably guess.Really this movie has only two things going for it, namely the always excellent Kosugi (who looks absolutely fantastic in the role as always) and the lovely Miss Dickey. What a shame that the material they found themselves in here is such a rancid pile of ordure.Oh well, to be fair, I've seen a lot worse than this in my time although I certainly still can't recommend this other than to those desperate to complete their Sho Kosugi/Ninja movie collections.