• Release Date: 2010 03 16
• Genre: Action
• Artist Name: Linh-Dan Pham, Stephen Marcus, Ben Miles, Eleonore Weisgerber, Sho Kosugi, Adriana Altaras, Guido Foehrweisser, Randall Duk Kim, Rick Yune, Kang Sung, Ill-Young Kim, Naomie Harris, David Leitch, Jens Neuhaus, Steffen Groth, Vladimir Tarasjanz, Tim Williams, Matthias Schendel, Wolfgang Stegemann, Rain
• Director: James McTeigue
• AMG Rating:
• MPAA Rating: R
• Category: Feature Films
• Cautions: Gore, Graphic Violence, Profanity
• Year: 2009
• Running Time: 99
• Movie Country of Origin: USA
• Available Language: English
• Subtitles: Fre/Spa
  

V for Vendetta director James McTeigue re-teams with that film's producers Larry and Andy Wachowski for this action-packed tale of a skilled assassin who was trained by a mythical secret society, and patiently awaits the day he will avenge the death of his best friend. Swept off the streets as a young boy, Raizo (Korean pop star Rain) is transformed into an unstoppable killing machine by a secret society known as the Ozunu Clan. The Ozunu Clan is so proficient at keeping their existence a secret that most people think they are only a myth, but the moment Ozuno assassins kill Raizo's friend, their days in the shadows are numbered. In the aftermath of that killing, Raizo stages a daring escape, subsequently biding his time until the day he can take the entire Ozunu Clan down. Later, in Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) discovers a money trail connecting multiple political murders to a mysterious network of elusive assassins from the Far East. While her superior Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles) orders Mika to back down and stop asking questions, she stealthily begins searching through classified agency files on a relentless mission to discover the truth about the murders. Singled out as a target as a direct result of her investigation, Mika is marked for death by lethal Ozunu assassin Takeshi (Rick Yune). Just as Mika is about to be silenced forever, Raizo saves her from certain death. But Raizo knows that Takeshi and the rest of the Ozuno Clan won't stop until he and Mika are both dead. Now, as Raizo and Mika are hunted through the winding streets of Europe, their only hope for survival is to trust one another and stay alive long enough to bring the Ozunu empire crumbling to the ground. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Action

Haunted By the Past, Ninjas, Out For Revenge

Visceral, Gruesome, Slick

DVD Features

• The myth and legend of ninjas
• The extreme sport of a ninja
• Training rain
• Additional scenes

DVD Chapters

• None Specified

Review

Ninja Assassin isn't the kind of movie that you compare to other movies. You compare it to a 2-lb. bacon sandwich with a bomb inside. You compare it to a magical gas-powered modified AK-47 that shoots live bears that are also on fire. And, okay, if you really want, you can compare it to B-level kung fu fare, or to other stuff that's been inspired by those movies, like Kill Bill. No, Ninja Assassin isn't exactly a Tarantino-level masterpiece, but it's still a rollicking good time for anybody interested in gratuitous fight sequences, the gratuitous severing of limbs, and the resulting gratuitous geysers of blood. And, honestly, who goes into a movie called Ninja Assassin expecting anything else? The story centers on Raizo (played by impossibly pretty Korean pop star Rain), a defector from a brutal Spartan-esque school of ninja badassery, where he trained to be an assassin from childhood. It would seem that, after mastering the skills to fight an adversary blindfolded, will his body to heal its own wounds, and take down multiple attackers with what looks like a knife on the end of a wallet chain, Raizo realized that the sensei who ran his school was just using him for his own evil ends -- namely, profit. Meanwhile, intrepid Interpol investigator Mika (Naomie Harris) starts sniffing around the clandestine ninja association's track record and unwittingly makes herself a target. So, naturally, because he shares her desire to bring the organization down (and maybe because she reminds him of the weirdly compassionate girl who once trained with him to be a hired killer), he rescues her from vivisection and the two team up. Ninja Assassin can be oddly earnest at times, but don't let that fool you -- this movie is a tribute. Between guys getting riddled with throwing stars as if they were buckshot and a showdown that boils down to ninjas vs. automatic weapons, it's pretty clear that director James McTeigue wanted to have a little fun. And while it can lack humor, we can't say it lacks depth because it's not supposed to have any. It's actually kind of a cool idea to take a generic martial-arts action script -- complete with epic training montages and people from other countries whose native tongue is to speak English with a foreign accent -- and see how far you can get on a modest budget, with CG offering so many more possibilities than the old days. You certainly can't fault the filmmakers for trying, and lucky for us, it turns out it was a worthwhile experiment. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi