Back in the 80’s Ninja were all the rage, for example the American Ninja films. Strictly speaking I was watching them underage, but I loved them.
Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear is a return to those days – we have an actor with martial arts skills, loads of bad guys and a wafer thin revenge plot to justify a procession of fight scenes which don’t overstay their welcome. The fights really are fast and dynamic, and thankfully with a minimum of camera shake so you can actually enjoy them instead of struggling to see – a problem The Raid 2 suffers badly from.
Short and sweet, a real treat for genre fans and while it doesn’t ask too much of the audience it’s not dumbed down to the point of everyone speaking in English all the time. What I didn’t know is this is actually a sequel to 2009’s Ninja, which I’m definitely going to check out next. I didn’t feel I was missing anything watching this first though so you can take your pick.
