By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
J. Michael Straczynski is an accomplished comic writer and the creator of Babylon 5, but he’s also contributed to dozens of other films and movies, ranging from Underworld: Awakening to episodes of Murder She Wrote. One of his most overlooked projects is now a streaming hit on Max, hitting the top 10 and staying there for over a week so far, which is especially impressive since it was a disappointment at the box office. Ninja Assassin is one of the most generic titles of all time, and the film itself is only slightly more interesting, but the violent action scenes make up for the predictable plot.
Assassinating Ninjas
South Korean superstar Rain plays Raizo, the titular Ninja Assassin, who is both a ninja and an assassin, but also an assassin of ninjas, making the title accurate no matter how you choose to read it. Trained by the evil warlord Lord Ozunu to be a killer for hire, Raizo refuses to kill a female ninja (kunoichi) and instead lashes out against his clan, devoting his life to stopping their clandestine wave of terror. He’s eventually joined in his one-man crusade by Europol special agent Mika, played by Naomie Harris, who has made a career out of being one of the best parts of B-movies.
Honestly, the plot doesn’t really matter because there’s only one reason anyone is watching Ninja Assassin, and that is the fight scenes. They lack the raw feeling of later martial arts movies like The Raid: Redemption, but they’re bloody, especially one moment involving a laundromat. Raizo may be a great fighter, but he spends a lot of the film getting beat up as well, which helps make his moments of triumph cooler than they would be if he was like, oh, let’s say, Dwayne Johnson, and never lost a single fight on screen.
A Pair of Martial Arts Icons
Rain carries Ninja Assassin as the heroic Raizo, and it’s clear why he was one of the biggest names in South Korean entertainment for a generation. The film is his first English leading role, though he made his English acting debut a year earlier in The Wachowskis Speed Racer, which is fitting, as the siblings then signed on as producers for the ninja fight fest. Rain had experience in a multitude of different martial arts before accepting the role, and while he didn’t do all of his own stunts, he did almost every fight scene himself.
While Rain may be a famous entertainer, Lord Ozunu should also be recognizable to fans of ninja action B-movies, or even Z-movies, because the villain is played by Sho Kosugi, the star of Cannon films Ninja trilogy, including the awesomely bad Ninja III: The Domination. Ninja Assassin was the last film the 80s icon starred in, choosing to focus instead on his multiple martial arts schools.
Ninja Assassin seems like an unlikely J. Michael Straczynski project, and while it lacks the depth of Babylon 5, keep in mind the prolific creator also wrote the infamous Spider-Man comic arc, “Sins Past,” which is considered one of the worst storylines in Peter Parker’s history. Not every swing at the plate is going to be a homerun, but at least with this ninja action B-movie, he helped provide the re-writes that have ensured it will be a cult classic for years to come.
Ninja Assassin is currently streaming on Max.
