There's not, it must be said, a great deal of plot to this East meets East thriller. However, it hardly matters at all when the main performers are engaged in such efficiently directed fight scenes - and that's what fans what to see. Corey Yuen is a more than capable supervisor of martial arts displays, and the highly mannered Asian style of acting. This film boasts a range of contrasting techniques, weighing the unarmed Chinese abilities against deadly Japanese swordplay. The climactic fight, set on the rising levels of a pagoda, result is an exhilarating piece of cinema for anyone interested in stylised martial arts action.

REVIEW:
East meets East in this immensely entertaining ninja vs. kung fu classic that features outstanding martial arts choreography and direction from Corey Yuen (The Transporter), with top performances from Japanese superstar Hiroyuki Sanada and newcomer Conan Lee.

The story follows the tradition of previous Japanese and Chinese crossover films such as Lau Kar Leung's classic, Heroes of the East (1978) by having a Japanese martial arts master travel to China to end up in a struggle with an equally talented Chinese opponent. One of the things that separates this film from the rest is that the combatants truly are equal. This leads to a stalemate and their team-up against a spiritual kung fu expert played by Hwang Jang Lee. Another unique quality of the film is their choice for a Chinese lead. Where Hiroyuki Sanada was already well known in Japan as a star, thanks in part to being a student of Sonny Chiba, Conan Lee was an unknown from the United States. But in this film, he proved to be another impressive discovery for producer Ng See Yuen who is credited with the discovery of Jackie Chan and Hwang Jang Lee.

In a way, Conan is cast as a Jackie clone and does bare a mild resemblance to the Drunken Master star, although Conan had next to no martial arts training before this production. You would hardly be able to tell though as he performs seemingly difficult and definitely memorable fights with apparent ease. Its a shame that his Hong Kong film career fizzled right after this film as he appeared to have the sort of uncanny adaptability that made a star out of Leung Kar Yan.

In the film Conan plays Ah Ching, a smug martial artist who comes to his master's defense after the old man, named Uncle Foo is attacked by a ninja. The ninja is Jen Moo (Hiroyuki Sanada), a rogue assassin who has traveled to China with his wife to kill Foo who turns out to be a retired ninja master. Other members of the same ninja clan follow Jen to China and vainly attempt to kill him. Ashamed of his own cowardice in escaping to China years before, Foo poisons himself and makes peace with Jen which leads to a misunderstanding between Ah Ching and Jen. The two battle each other to the top of a pagoda and finally settle their differences just in time to face a spiritual boxer played by Hwang Jang Lee.

Probably the greatest distinction that this film bares is its notoriety as Corey Yuen's directorial debut. Corey was originally a student of the same opera school that produced Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao. Up to 1982, he had already amassed an impressive filmography acting in and/or choreographing films such as Invincible Armor (1977) and Dance of the Drunken Mantis (1979). Add to that the savvy of producer Ng See Yuen whose skill at casting and storytelling was matched by Corey's masterful action direction.

It is action that defines this film as a masterpiece. Corey's direction of the fight scenes are simply incredible. From editing shots together and camera placement to use of props and creative set design, nearly every action scene is impeccably constructed for maximum effect. Several scenes stand out such as a duel on stilts involving Conan Lee, Sanada's battle with a scarred ninja master within the interior of a large boat, and most of the main event which is the fight between Conan and Sanada in the pagoda. Sanada brought his own stunt team for use in the film and the marriage of Hong Kong and Japanese martial arts choreography looks terrific on screen.

There are some camp qualities to the film that favor humor and unrealistic combat, but its somewhat successfully integrated into the more serious plot. The most noticeable shift in the film's tone comes at the end when Jang Lee shows up. Our two heroes have reconciled their differences, the main plot is over since all the remaining Japanese ninjas are dead and now a common foe must be fought. Jang Lee plays the clown as a pompous priest who uses spirit summoning as his kung fu style. He's out to avenge the defeat of one of his students by Conan earlier in the film. He first sends a couple of lackeys to fight and then jumps in himself before meeting with an explosive end.

Ninja in the Dragon's Den is a top-notch martial arts film that deserves to be seen repeatedly. Now I must qualify this statement. The film's humor may grate some hardcore martial arts film fans while casual viewers could be disappointed that there are not more wild ninja high jinks. But for the rest who can recognize the mark of creative genius at its best, this film is an unequivocal pleasure to watch.

Corey Yuen was obviously aiming for the Japanese market when he cast Hiroyuki (or Henry as he is also known) Sanada in one of the lead roles and also combined a ninja story line with a traditional kung fu plot. Henry Sanada plays a young ninja who arrives in China looking for revenge against the man he believes to be responsible for the death of his father. The man is actually Conan Lee's adopted uncle who has lived in China in exile for many years; in a previous life he used to be a ninja himself. When an attempt is made on his uncle's life, Conan Lee sets out to catch the ninja assassin.

I was surprised to discover that Conan Lee, at the time of accepting this role, wasn't trained in martial arts as he certainly seemed to display the physical ability required to carry the lead convincingly. He also had the physique. His character is very similar to the types of roles that Jackie Chan took for the Seasonal films; a young kid, skilled in martial arts who enjoys getting up to various hi-jinks. Henry Sanada was a competent martial artist (a student of Sonny Chiba) and performs very well here showing impressive kicking and weapons ability.

Corey Yuen manages to bring his flair for originality to the fights with some stunning displays; one of the main ones being the extraordinary stilt fight in the first half hour. The film is action filled and it would be hard to choose a standout fight (all of them are good) but the fantastic showdown set in a pagoda between the two main characters is superb featuring intricate hand to hand fight choreography. The plot structure is a little unusual with a subplot (really unrelated to the main story) being the main device for the final showdown. This ending seemed tagged on but is still an excellent action showcase for the main stars. In it we see both Conan Lee and Sanada battle against super kicker Hwang Jang Lee who, as ever, does not disappoint.

THE DISC:
Hong Kong Legends have performed another fantastic restoration job from what was most likely a challenging source. Seasonal Films are not renowned for keeping their films in best conditions.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The print, having undergone an extensive cleanup is very clean. There's the odd spec here and there but the level of blemishes is extremely minimal and certainly nothing that anybody is likely to find distracting, if they even see them at all. Neither is there a significant level of grain usually seen with Hong Kong films of this age. I did notice an occasional, but very slight, flicker in contrast level. Detail level is high and colours are well represented; check out the stilt fighting scene where the colours are positively vibrant. The transfer, as usual, has been expertly handled and there are no obvious pixellation or artefact errors.

Two soundtracks are provided; Cantonese or English on Dolby Digital 2.0. The sound is fairly centralised for both with surround speakers being mainly used for incidental music. There is no noticeable background hiss on either track. One thing I did notice during the pagoda fight scene is that the sound effects for the kicks and punches sound somehow 'bassier' when incidental music is playing. This isn't really a complaint, just an observation.

The disk includes a great set of extra features. First there's another highly informative and entertaining commentary track from Bey Logan and again its obvious he's done his research in preparation for the recording. There are also biographies for Ng See Yuen and Hwang Jang Lee that are text based (thankfully no voice over) and quite extensive.

There is a deleted footage section that includes three scenes which, although not removed completely, were trimmed in the main feature. They can be viewed in this section in full. The scenes have been taken from a reasonable quality full screen video master.

Trailers included on the disk are the standard Hong Kong Legends promo, an original theatrical trailer and a Japanese trailer. The theatrical trailer has been cleaned up and remastered but the Japanese one hasn't and seems to have been taken from a video source.

Finally there is an interview gallery which includes a single 25 minute feature. This combines interviews with Ng See Yuen and Roy Horan, who was distributing Seasonal's films at the time. Many subjects are covered but two that I found particularly interesting were details of Hwang Jang Lee's famed death match (which never went ahead) and the contract problems with Conan Lee following the success of 'Ninja in the Dragons Den'.

One thing I will mention is that, like my copy of 'Red Wolf', Power DVD (Version 3.0) did not want to play this disk and froze at the menu. I was able to play individual chapters through PowerDVDs file mode but this isn't entirely satisfactory. However, that niggle aside, HKL have still gone to much effort to produce a superb disk for a film that otherwise probably wouldn't have been seen on DVD for years.

Seasonal does it again...making a top notch film starring some fresh faces. Making their debuts in this action packed film are Japanese sensation Hiroyuki "Henry" Sanada (who was a hit in Japan with Roaring Fire the year before), and Chinese-American Lloyd Hutchinson, who was given the moniker "Conan Lee". The film got to show an excellent display of ninja (Sanada), kung fu (Lee), and taekwondo (courtesy of Hwang Jang Lee). Tai Po gets to show off his comedic flare in the film as the butt and victim of the joking around here. A funny scene in the film is when Conan Lee's character is after Sanada's ninja only to run into his wife. The wife says "Konnichiwa" (Hello in Japanese) and Conan responds "Can you eat my what?" There is an obvious culture clash. Kwon Young Moon is somewhat wasted, however, it takes a while to even recognize him under the makeup. The film's director, Corey Yuen, makes a quick cameo in a flashback scene as Jinwu's father. An action packed extravaganza from the boys at Seasonal with loads of comedy.

In a familiar narrative that is given a slightly different edge, Conan Lee plays a hot-headed young fighter who enjoys his brand of harmless bufoonery in the local town without a care in the world. This calm existence is put in danger when a mysterious assassin targets Lee's adoptive father and will seem to stop at nothing to achieve his goal. The assassin is in fact a Japanese Ninja who is seeking revenge for his father's death, a death a mistakenly lands on Lee's adoptive father's shoulders. Naturally Lee decides to use his own well-developed skills against the aggressor and, during a series of confrontations, the two are well-matched. After another misunderstanding, the two are thrown together in one final battle; an ornate fight throughout a multi-floored pagoda. As the epic encounter progresses, each of the combatants begins to learn more about the other and the truth behind the current series of events. Time to discus this in depth is quickly put to one side though when the two must team up against a formidable villain and his numerous lackies. All is resolved in the film's blistering final reel.

As was mentioned, 'Ninja In The Dragon's Den' takes a conventional storyline and gives it a slightly unusual twist. For years, Hong Kong cinema had pitted Chinese heroes against Japanese foes, but here the two races are merely enemies through a misunderstanding and the film's finale shows the strength of their teamwork. The film will not specifically be remembered for this pleasant twist however; for a martial arts film, it must always be the action that makes or breakes the reputation of the production. Fans of well-choreographed action can rest assured that 'Ninja In The Dragon's Den' is packed with a number of excellent fight scenes and gimmicky encounters. Seeing a Chinese fighter against a Japanese Ninja is something that audiences had enjoyed in Liu Chia-Liang's classic 'Heroes Of The East' and once again here the contrasts in styles makes for highly entertaining viewing. The film does suffer from an over-abundance of comedy even in some of the film's serious moments, but this does not irritate to any particular extent. Instead, 'Ninja In The Dragon's Den' stands out as a fully-accomplished kung-fu comedy with superb fight action. With an expected DVD release from Hong Kong Legends in the near future, this is another necessary purchase for all Hong Kong film fans.

PICTURE: Letterboxed at 2.35:1 with anamorphic enhancement. Once again HKL have surpassed themselves by taking a film that was practically impossible to find and released it in a gloriously remastered DVD. The picture quality is sharp with no signs of wear and it contains strong colours that are accompanied by accurate blacks (which is very important considering the amount of scenes that take place at night in this film).

SOUND: Cantonese and English dubbed DD 2.0 soundtracks with English and Dutch removable subtitles. This is the one minor flaw in the disc as the sound for the Cantonese track is often muffled or distorted which I would assume is mainly due to the poor condition of the source material but it is nothing too distracting (and I'd rather have this than sit through the English dub!).

TRAILERS: Three trailers for this film as well as previews for 'Police Story 2', 'Mr. Vampire' (the first one I've ever seen that uses an English voiceover), 'Naked Killer', 'Police Assassins', 'Red Wolf', 'Once Upon A Time In China 3', 'Hong Kong 1941', 'The Magnificent Butcher', 'Encounters Of The Spooky Kind' and 'Iron Fisted Monk'.

TALENT FILES: Biographies for Ng See Yuen and Hwang Jang Lee which is nice but we would have prefered files on Conan Lee or Hiroyuki Sanada as they are the stars of the movie after all.

EXTRAS: Not surprisingly for a film so old, there are only a few extras to support the feature. These include another superb commentary from Bey Logan, three deleted scenes (which are in fullscreen) and an interview with Ng See Yuen that also features some segments with Roy Horan.