The story for this film was great but it contains two fundamental flaws. Of course, the first flaw is insignificant and that is the Chinese comedy implemented in the story which is something I don't really pay attention to. The second flaw, however, is more potent. It pertains to the silly magical kung fu garbage about 2/5 of the way of the film and at the end of the film. It ruined the story for me; and normally I favor absurdities, but this was one of few times I did not want to see asinine left-field shit. But at least that portion of the film was barely existent and martial arts action did make up for the incoherence.

Speaking of which, the martial arts action was great. Conan is someone whom I'm not familiar with, but he does have potential. Hiroyuki Sanada, on the other hand, I'm familiar with, mostly with Sonny Chiba films. He is an excellent martial arts performer and in my mind probably the best person to be utilized as a ninja character in film. And yes, considering this is a martial arts comedy, you may have to put up with some kung-foolery in this film, but overall the action is wonderful.

Despite a little incoherence in the story, it still remains to be an excellent martial arts film and I'm glad to see that a Japanese man portrayed the role as ninja in this film, giving this film a much more authentic ethnicity.

But seriously, this is in my opinion the best of the old school HK ninja movies, alongside FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS and DUEL TO THE DEATH. It has just the right amount of cheese and comedy, balanced well with the fairly serious storyline and awesome action. The choreography by director Yuen Kwai and Meng Hoi is super tight, and shows the various styles on display to their full extent. Conan Lee and Hiroyuki Sanada rarely looked better than they do here. Too bad that Sanada didn't do more HK movies, and that Conan turned out to be an egomaniacal ass, ruining his own career.

I'll admit that the whole thing kind of unravels towards the end. After the awesome pagoda showdown, there really wasn't anywhere for the movie to go. So what do you do? You bring out the big guns, in the form of grandmaster Hwang Jang Lee of course. He is sort of played for laughs here, but still brings the thunder and caps off the film nicely, despite his slightly cartoonish sendoff.

So, in closing, an all time favourite classic of mine that delivers the goods, as well as the bitter sweet sting of nostalgia, for me personally. So if you haven't seen it, and are going by this review, deduct that last half star, that is strictly for the memories.