Ninja Assassin a review and a Lesson anyone should learn for Self Defense

While everyone was enjoying the hell of black Friday I met friends to see a movie though in retrospect choosing the theater at the largest mall in the area might not have been the best choice.  Still though we were all able to find a place to park and got food and movie tickets with out incident and sat down to enjoy the latest action film from the Wachowski brothers. In the pasted they’ve given us The Matrix series, and several other actions films they’ve either written, directed, or produced like Ninja Assassin.  The film is similar to The Matrix when it comes to action, but there is literally tons of blood and gore.  If you like a film with plenty of action and death this is the movie for you, but if you want a film that will give you a deep spiritual experience you’d better look else where.

The film primarily follows a renegade ninja named Raizo played by South Korean actor Jeong "Rain" Ji-hoon who worked with the Wachowski brothers in their film Speed Racer.  Raizo was taken as a boy by one of the nine mysterious ninja clans that have been operating in the shadows for centuries and trained relentlessly collecting scars and skills over the years.  Not long after his fist assignment he has a dispute with his master and kicked out of the clan and is constantly hunted by his former clansmen. The other principal character is Mika Coretti played by Naomie Harris who is a researcher for the European Union's criminal intelligence agency or Europol. While doing research into whether or not ninjas truly exist she finds more than she bargained for and is soon on Raizo’s former clan’s hit list.

To tell you any more than I already have will reveal too much of what little plot there is, and while visually impressive what happens next is predictable even if it does look cool.  Ninjas chase the pair all over Berlin while killing off anyone along the way.  Raizo is the best ninja so of coarse he’s able to take on dozens of attackers single handedly.  Warriors disappear into the shadows and only appear briefly to cut down their intended victim, and seem to almost posse a supernatural ability to hide.  There really isn’t very much realistic about this movie when it comes to martial arts, and it only feeds the myths and stories about ninjas.

Not every martial arts film can be Enter the Dragon, and the film is more like watching a comic book storyline play out than a realistic portal of hand to hand combat.  The film did reinforce the old self defense belief that you should never play your enemies game.  A ninja isn’t any tougher than any other person in a fight, but he uses the darkness and subterfuge to defeat you, so don’t fight on his terms.  Keep the lights on, but if they go out you should know the layout of your own place, and if you think your attacker went into a place where you could be ambushed don’t follow them.  While you can’t stay ready all the time at least always be vigilant.  So stay sharp, keep training, and you can probably for this one to be released on DVD.