Wonderful character development!
People are voting emotionally.
A Brilliant Conflict
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
View MoreNinja Master Gordon (Harrison) is a cool dude who just wants to go around Hong Kong taking pictures of his girlfriend Lori (Francesca). But oh no. When an excavation on a building site reveals some bones and human remains, naturally a sinister gang of evil ninjas called the Black Ninja Clan see this as an opening to reassert their dominance, which they believe has only been impeded by good ninjas, called the Diamond Ninja Force. When members of the Black Ninja Clan murder Lori, Gordon dons his red ninja outfit and starts getting revenge one by one. Meanwhile, a family consisting of a father named George, a mother named Fanny and a son named Bobo move into a house. Because the house's original owner had some connection to the site where the bones were discovered, all manner of scary trickery is employed to frighten the family. Will the Black Ninja Clan end up ruling the world as they so desperately want? Will Bobo and his family ever move out of the haunted house? Will Gordon get revenge? All questions should be answered by the DIAMOND NINJA FORCE...It's another work of genius (????) by the master of nonsensical entertainment, Godfrey Ho. We keep going back to Ho's work because his movies, if nothing else, are original. No one else in the world makes movies like him. He provides a unique form of entertainment that only he seems to understand. Once you get used to his filmmaking style, you want more. Much like how, with Pringles potato chips, once you pop, you can't stop, here it's once you Ho, you can't...go? Well anyway you get the idea. Diamond Ninja Force is more silly fun, with all the loud, crazy dubbing, and nutty goings-on that we've all come to know and love. Do the people reading the dubbed dialogue think it makes sense? Or do they know it's crazy? Do lines like "There are no such things as ghosts. Only ghost ninjas" seem at all normal to anyone? Regardless, we should be happy no one raised any objections, because if it's zany entertainment you seek, look no further.Much like how Ninja Brothers of Blood (1988) was one-half ninja outing and one-half romantic drama, here we half a half-and-half combo of ninja-based revenge and Poltergeist (1982) or Amityville Horror (1979)-inspired supernatural haunted house hoo-hah. Harrison's enemies during his plot line are great. There's nothing more intimidating than a tubby Caucasian "ninja" prancing about on roller skates. Every single time Harrison dispatches one of the baddies, he pulls down the piece of cloth on his mask that covers the lower half of his nose and his mouth. Every time. Even after he has killed many people. Are we supposed to still be surprised it was him? Or maybe he's just trying to show that his mustache has, and always will have, dominance over theirs. Also you know Harrison is going into "ninja revenge mode" when he puts on guy-liner. So we can see his eyes are all done up anyway.Other people out there have mentioned Harrison's Garfield phone, but it's so cool: when the receiver is off the hook, his eyes open, and when the receiver is put back, they close again! Though it is somewhat incongruous when Harrison says angry threats using part of Garfield to relay the message. When he says, using the Garfield phone, "you're on my death list", does that mean he's going to kick them off the table like Garfield did to Odie? On the soundtrack front, there are more wonderfully blatant steals from popular songs - this time around musical cues are stolen from The Who's "Who Are You" and Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express". When the opening bars to what you think are these songs start playing either while Harrison is ninja-ing it up or a family is dealing with a haunted house, you know you're dealing with something special.While some prints are said to have an unrelated Sho Kosugi opening, many don't. The version titled Ghost Ninja certainly doesn't. Even though he was top billed on the artwork, we can safely say he was a no-Sho. We were disappointed, so avoid the version by that title. But even without the Sho intro, the movie does get off to a pumped-up opening, and takes you on another ridiculous ride as only Godfrey Ho can. Whether that's your cup of tea, only you can judge. But if you're anti-Ho, you're missing out, as far as we're concerned.
View MoreBasically a sequel to "Ninja Terminator" only Richard Harrison's character is now Ninja Master Gordon instead of Harry. Everything else is the same, from his wife (Maria Francesca) and the Golden Ninja/Goblin idol to the awkward scenes with the Garfield phone. This time however the Caucasian Ninja storyline is intermixed with an Asian knockoff of "Poltergeist". The Black Ninjas want a sacred piece of land that contains buried magic talismans that will restore their Clan's strength in an ongoing battle with the Diamond Ninjas that seem to be represented only by Master Gordon. The head badguy Kogan, who has the absolute WORST taste in clothing, enlists the aid of a Ghost Ninja who in actuality is the ghost woman that haunts the family in the separate movie to secure this plot which currently a family of three resides on. The family consists of George, Fanny and their dopey son Bobo. Yes, his name is actually Bobo. Kogan also employs various pasty white guys who resemble more Sears employees than Ninjas though fans of Godfrey Ho movies know that this is the norm. The two story lines don't mesh well at all (no surprise) as the poltergeist movie isn't really interesting at all even with its occasional nudity and masturbating ghost. Can't say I would complain with being haunted by an Asian woman that wanted to screw my brains out but hey that's just me. The few fight scenes in the Master Gordon story are quick, stale, and utterly goofy. It seems all of these Black Ninjas like to fondle pistols in public places during the daytime. Not smart. This is pretty bad even for a typical Godfrey Ho movie as there is little to no momentum from beginning to end and nowhere near as fun as "Ninja Terminator". Many of the scenes shot at night are so horribly underexposed that I had no clue what was going on, not that I cared. Even Richard Harrison looks incredibly bored filming this garbage. So stagnant that it should have been called Cubic Zirconia Ninja Force.
View MoreVirtuous white ninja Gordon (the ever suave Richard Harrison) vows revenge on the evil Kogan (outrageously overplayed with eye-rolling hammy brio by Tao Chiang) and his no-count squad of nasty black ninjas after they murder his sweet girlfriend Lori (the lovely Maria Francesca in a too brief cameo). Meanwhile, Kogan enlists the aid of a wicked witch to conjure up spirits in order to get a family out of a house on a patch of land with a secret treasure hidden on it. Writer/director Godfrey Ho delivers an undeniably clumsy, incoherent and nonsensical, yet often sidesplitting and hence hugely entertaining blend of martial arts and supernatural elements into a gloriously ludicrous cinematic hodgepodge that comes complete with lousy dubbing, plain cinematography by Raymond Chang, a frantic nonstop pace, hysterically inept fight scenes, some tasty gratuitous female nudity, a smidgen of soft-core sex (a hot amorous ghost lady seduces a guy while he's sleeping in bed with his wife!), campy bad guys, cheesy (not so) special effects, a funky, syncopated discoid score, and an annoying little boy named Bobo. Moreover, we also get such choice gut-busting moments as a severed head in a basket and the ghost girl masturbating as she watches the guy make love to his wife. Yeah, this flick is by no means a refined work of subtle and sophisticated celluloid art, but it does possess a certain loopy charm and wiggy energy which makes it a lot of fun to watch. A deliciously crummy schlock riot.
View MoreWell, with Godfrey Ho in the directors chair and the word 'Ninja' in the film title, you already know before viewing this that it isn't exactly going to exude much in the way of cinematic quality.Yep - this is another of those seemingly limitless cut and splice ninja movies starring a rather embarrassed looking Richard Harrison in the lead role (although he only actually appears in about ten or so minutes of the film!)What can I say? This really is one hell of a mess! In fact where do I even begin with this one?Compendiously, an evil ninja from the black ninja empire decides to utilise some form of dark magic to raise various 'ghost ninja' (who appear courtesy of a completely different film!) in an attempt to force a family out of a property that they are refusing to sell to him. Luckily for them however, they are friends with Ninja master Gordon (Richard Harrison) who possesses the Golden Ninja Warrior statue which is the only thing that can stand against the evil ninjas power (don't ask me how though....even having just watched this film, I'm still completely baffled as to what the hell was going on!)Gordon realises that he must defeat the evil ninja to finally put an end to all this, but first he must kill off his loyal (and somewhat gormless looking) henchmen one by one.Additionally Gordon's thirst for justice is made even stronger when his wife is brutally murdered early on in the movie in a scene that must surely set new standards in bad acting.Yes this film is in fact dreadful on pretty much every conceivable level......in other words.......it's great fun!This film is SO BAD that you just can't help but admire it. This really took some staggering ineptitude to make.It's completely and utterly bonkers!
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