As you can tell by the synopsis, Five Element Ninja has the usual kung fu revenge plot. And since this film was done towards the end of old-school kung fu's life cycle, it doesn't appear to have much of a budget at all -- the outdoor sets look laughably bad, and some of the costumes look like they were put togther by a blind old lady with arthritis. The pacing is a bit poor, the editing could have used some work, and some of the "special effects" (mostly running the camera backwards) aren't very special at all.

However, if you're willing to forgive some shortcomings, Five Element Ninja offers up heaps of old-school goodness through some very bloody (for its' time) action. Though things are a bit tame by today's standards, but some choice tidbits include Lo Meng continuing to fight even with his intestines hanging down his pant leg, and a ninja getting pulled apart limb-by-limb. The fight co-ordination is also very solid, making for some energetic and exciting fight scenes, especially when compared to more modern films, which tend to depend too much on camera tricks and special effects rather than talent.

Some props must also be given out to some of the actors involved. Ricky Cheng, Lo Meng and Michael Chan all do a great job of bringing dimensionality to their under-written characters, and the supporting cast (especially Yu Tai Pei as a mysterious woman who the "good" clan befriends) helps things along as well. Overall, Five Element Ninja is a solid old-school movie that might just bring in a few new fans to the genre because of the over-the-top nature of the film's violence.

Note: there appear to be three versions of Five Element Ninja: an uncut one, a roughly PG-13 version which omits the nudity and some of the gore from the uncut version, and a version made for TV which is the most heavily edited. Most video versions (such as Chinese Super Ninja and Super Ninjas) are the PG-13 cut.

REVIEW:
Five Element Ninjas is regarded as one of Chang Cheh's most notorious films for its liberal amounts of bloody gore and inventive violence. Its cult status as an over-the-top schlock-fest is well deserved and pretty much guarantees that viewers will either love it or hate.

A reigning Chinese martial arts school is challenged by a competing group. When the challenger's are defeated, the leader has a Japanese martial arts master step in. This fellow is also defeated by the white-clad defenders and this incurs the wrath of the Japanese. They devise a plan to trap the Chinese by using the Five Element Ninjas. These stealthy warriors await their opponents at various locations marked with a written character. Each ninja group represents a different element including gold, wood, fire, water, and earth and uses tactics incorporating each element. Unprepared for such tactics, all of the school's students sent out to each location are killed. This leaves only Lo Meng and his few remaining fellow students to guard the school and their teacher who had been poisoned by the Japanese. The Japanese then send a woman to infiltrate the school. She is initially treated with suspicion, but eventually earns the trust of the students which ends up to be a fatal mistake. As the school is destroyed by the ninjas, only Ricky Cheng escapes to join an old teacher who instructs the young man in the art of ninjitsu. Joined by two of the teacher's other students, Cheng defeats each group of element ninjas and finally takes on the leader, played by Michael Chan.

The plot doesn't sound so interesting, but the way in which Cheh films it is. Everything a fan loves about Cheh's films is present such as gaudy costumes, wicked weapons, and ultra violence. The real selling points are the Five Element ninjas themselves. They're not meant to represent real ninjitsu technique, but rather an inventive series of styles that are simply eye candy. My personal favorite would be the wood ninjas. One of them is actually dressed up in a tree costume and when his victim gets too close, the branches close in with nasty pointy things attached! Sure, its corny and unrealistic but its also a lot of fun. Some strange and wonderful weapons include giant circular saw blades and golden hats that spin while spitting out blades of death. Expect to see limbs chopped off and blood flying in every direction. Thankfully, none of it looks very realistic.

Unfortunately, the film is missing the best stars from many of Cheh's films. Venom alumni Lo Meng has a supporting role but the film lacks the enjoyable camaraderie that similarly violent films such as Kid with the Golden Arm and Ten Tigers from Kwangtung shared. And generally speaking, the film isn't that great. The production values are even lower than many of Cheh's other films. Plus, the plot is a joke. Why in the world would a bunch of ninjas in China just sit around at various locations waiting for a particular bunch of idiots to come blundering into their grasp? Of course, unlike other contemporary films such as Jet Li's Shaolin Temple that came out the same year, this film has no historical significance and is pure fantasy. While some will have a hard time looking past the film's many faults, Five Element Ninjas is definitely a guilty pleasure for the cult film buff whose tastes include a lot of cheese with their kung fu.

Anyway, this one blows the minds of many a person, even people familiar with Chang Cheh's bloody resume. Along with screenwriter I Kuang, the guy pretty much gave birth to the ultra-violent kungfu films of the 1970s that would shape the entire genre. His films were packed with heroic sacrifice, extreme torture, and spurting blood. Chang Cheh was a master of exploring the depths of human friendship, heroism, and loyalty, but he was also a master of exploring cruelty, deception, and the various ways in which the human body can be brutalized.

The film opens with treachery, as a bad kungfu school confronts the leader of a good kungfu school and poisons him with that poison that only exists in kungfu films -- the one where the good guy, "has been poisoned and won't be able to do kungfu for about three years." It's like those punches that can make people not be able to do kungfu. Powerful stuff.

In order to take advantage of the situation, the bad kungfu school hooks up with some crazy-ass ninjas who can fly and swim and burrow and set shit on fire. They infiltrate the good guys using the standard issue "sexy female ninja." She befriends the two best students of the school, one of whom falls for her; the other of whom suspects she is up to no good. She is indeed up to no good.

In a fight gory even by Chang Cheh's blood-drenched standards, the ninjas decimate the good kungfu school. One sequence even has a hero getting his belly sliced open and continuing to fight even as his intestines slop out of his stomach. It's only when he steps on his own small intestine that the hero hesitates and is killed. Chang Cheh further draws attention to the gore by making sure all the heroes wear clean white clothes, a little nugget Chang Cheh protoge John Woo would use even more in films like The Killer and Hard Boiled. It's just one of the many stylistic touches Woo picked up from his master.

Only one student survives the slaughter. He runs off into the woods to study with an old master and his students, who have knowledge of the secret ninja skills. I would have thought they would have called these guys before the slaughter, but hey -- what do I know? The last part of the movie is the heroes taking revenge on the treacherous ninja. People get ripped in half, beheaded, blood spurts all over the place, almost approaching the level of a Lone Wolf and Cub film.

A definite must-see, full of wild kungfu action, gore, a sexy female ninja, guys saying "But still," and everything you could possibly want, all rolled up into one, bloody little package full of mayhem. Solid!

Oh sure, it's terrible. Don't get me wrong... this is easily one of the worst films I've ever seen, from a certain standpoint. The dubbing is atrocious (why do they have to use people with the most annoying voices?), the special effects are laughable (most of them consist of the film being run backwards), and the plot, if you can follow it, is as cliched as they come. Young man studies martial arts. Young man sees his school destroyed by evil ninjas. Young man vows revenge. Young man studies under new master. You can see the plot twists coming from a mile away.

But who cares, when you get to see ninjas floating across the surface of the river and ensnaring their opponents in nets? Or when the ninjas fly through the air thanks to trampolines and running the film backwards? Or when people trip over their own entrails during a fight? I swear, this movie has some of the most innovative ways to kill people I've ever seen in a kung fu film. At the beginning of the film, the narrator announces that the weapons are based on authentic historical documents. If that's the case, then those ninjas were a bunch of sick mothers.

The sheer over-the-topness of the film, the desire to please you with moves and flips that defy every law that Nature has, and the schlockiest chopsocky gore this side of "The Streefighter" will probably have many crying foul. But true fans of kung fu cinema should keep their eyes open for this. Check on-line stores like KungFuFlix.Com. Keep your eyes peeled at EBay. Go to garage sales. But don't pass this one up if you consider yourself a fan of the genre.

CHINESE SUPER NINJAS opens with this narration: "The varied costumes and weapons in this film are based on Japanese ancient catalogs and collections, such as the Samurai manual and outlines of southern weapons. As well as many other famous works of contemporary Japanese writers." This narration doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it sets the tone for the story to come. Two schools of martial arts, one led by the evil Mr. Kang (Chen Hei Psi); the other led by a respected Kung Fu master, Mr. Li, clash for superiority. After Mr. Li’s good students (appropriately garbed in fancy white training uniforms) soundly make a mockery of Mr. Kang’s bad students, Mr. Kang summons forth his Japanese Ninja fighter to trash his rival school. But young Shou Tin How (Chen Tin Yee) proves he is worthy of taking out Mr. Kang’s Ninja. After a protracted battle, Shou Tin How defeats the Ninja. The good students remind the defeated Ninja of his vow, "Loss of a fight means loss of one’s life to a Samurai". So the Ninja uses his sword to slowly disembowel himself. But with his dying breath, the Ninja informs Shou Tin How and the other students that they all shall die at the hands of his master Ninja, who is on his way to China from Japan.

The Ninja leader, Chinua Munda (Chan Wei Man), arrives from Japan along with his Five Element Ninjas and joins the mercenary cause of Mr. Kang. Munda immediately issues a challenge to Mr. Li’s school. The students want to confront the Ninja band, but their master opposes the idea of an all out confrontation. One of Munda’s Ninjas succeeds in poisoning the old master, and as a result he loses his martial arts ability for three months. This prompts his students, including Shou Tin How and She Shang (Lo Meng), to hide him inside a secret chamber within their school. Neither Mr. Kang’s spies nor the Five Element Ninjas know where Mr. Li is hiding. In an attempt to lure Mr. Li out of hiding, Munda deploys his Five Elements Ninjas against Mr. Li’s students. The Five Element Ninjas each have a skill based on the five elements (earth, fire, water, wood, and gold), and promptly use deception to make short work of the good students. With the population of the school dwindled down significantly, Munda and Mr. Kang formulate a plan to penetrate the foundation of the school itself, and kill Mr. Li.

She Shang saves a street urchin Sungi (Yu Tai Ping) from being sold into prostitution by her lecherous uncle. She is adopted by the school, and is employed as a hard-working domestic. Two people keep their eyes on her, She Shang (because he is attracted to her) and Shou Tin How (because he is suspicious of her). Those suspicions are well founded, however, because Sungi is really a deadly female Ninja. But the students unknowingly allow her to accompany them to the inner sanctum of their teacher. She rats them out to her Ninja friends who return to the school in full force, and a huge bloody battle for survival ensues. All the students are killed, including She Shang and Mr. Li. Only Shou Tin How survives the massacre, because Sungi requested he be spared. He quickly escapes their clutches, because he is the only student who has trained using Ninja techniques. Shou Tin How heads deep into the woodlands to return to the elder Chinese Ninja master who taught him the ways of the Ninja. When he again meets up with his wise old Chinese Ninja master, he not only takes Shou Tin How back under his wing, he also introduces him to three other Chinese Ninjas who hate the Five Element Ninjas. Now, the playing field is equal for the inevitable confrontation between the Five Element Ninjas and the Chinese Super Ninjas!

CHINESE SUPER NINJAS features the talents of the incredible Lo Meng, who played Golden Arm in KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM and Toad from FIVE DEADLY VENOMS. Meng is the only holdover from the original Venoms, and like those previous films, still he is not the main hero. Chang Cheh must have something against Lo Meng, because clearly he is most gifted fighter out of all the Venom actors, yet he is either cast as the villain (as in KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARMS) or he is a heroic character who is sacrificed and killed off early (as in FIVE DEADLY VENOMS). But in CHINESE SUPER NINJAS, I like the way that Chang Cheh leads the audience to believe that Lo Meng’s character is the main protagonist and the best fighter in the film. This makes it twice as shocking when his character is killed off at the half way point. The only other main plot point that is questionable is when Chen Tin Yee’s character returns for to his former master for Ninja training. At this point, nothing is said about the character’s past history, so when he finally returns to the Chinese Ninja master, it makes me wonder whether they are just making this stuff up as they go along. Also, the Chinese Ninja master just conveniently has three willing and fully trained students ready to join the fray.

One of the highlights of CHINESE SUPER NINJA’s is Chang Cheh’s masterful martial arts direction. He complements the complicated maneuvering of his martial artists with his fluid scene compositions and juxtaposed editing, something that no other genre directors have been able to match. Cheh photographs the action in such a way that the viewer is not aware that a cut has been made. Then he uses wild zooms and horizontal framing to further draw in the audience. Cheh also gets the most of the interior sets used for filming and includes some appropriate mood lighting. The new faces that Cheh recruited to take the place of the departed Venom actors (sans Meng Lo) are talented martial artists and stunt men. Except for Chen Tin Yee, these new faces lacked the charisma of their predecessors. Perhaps that is why many of them were not used again in any more Chang Cheh films. What Chang Cheh lacked in name stars, he made up for in with the large amount of kinetic fight choreography (more than FIVE DEADLY VENOMS and KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM combined), and the sheer unrelenting pace of the fight scenes. Chan Wei Man makes for one of the Shaw Brothers most dangerous and opposing villains, as the Ninja leader Chinua Munda. He looks very Japanese and it was a surprise to discover the actor who played the character is Chinese.

Chang Cheh stages the Ninja action in such as way that it borders on the supernatural. The Five Element Ninjas use techniques based on the five elements. For instance, the Earth Ninjas burrow underground, and kill their victims by using steel pikes to impale them from underneath. The water Ninja’s attack their prey by hiding underwater and surprising their targets by jumping out of the water and delivering the death blow. The wood Ninjas hide in tree stumps, and can take the appearance of tree bark. The fire Ninjas use smoke and explosives to disorient and kill their enemies. The Golden Ninjas wears suits of gold which reflects sunlight into the eyes of their prey, then shoot them with razor sharp projectiles. Besides the emphasis on authentic Ninja weapons and techniques, we get to see the Chinese martial arts as well. Cheh eschews traditional one-on-one hand-to-hand techniques in favor of multiple combatants, each with a different deadly weapon, whether it be sword, axe, scythe, etc. CHINESE SUPER NINJAS is easily as violent and bloody as the LONE WOLF AND CUB series, only the bloody effects are not as believable as the crimson effects from that series. You have people getting impaled, decapitated, and dismembered. In probably the film’s goriest scene, a martial artist trips over his own exposed entrails. Cheh dresses up the doomed heroic characters in white clothing to further contrast the gore.

SIGHT
CHINESE SUPER NINJAS was originally shot in Shawscope 2.35.1. Probably because no widescreen video master exists, NS presents the film in a pan n’ scanned 1.33.1 format. Much as I hate to see a Shaw Brothers film presented this way, CHINESE SUPER NINJAS is still a deserving film. The full frame video image exhibits very little wear. scratches and blemishes are nowhere to be found. Grain is in evidence, but Chang Cheh has been known to purposely apply grain to the film stock, in order to make the visuals more surreal—I believe that is the case with CHINESE SUPER NINJAS. The only other problem with the image is a very slight softness, which I believe is also intentional (because Cheh uses exaggerated back lighting in most of his films). Because of this softness, the detail level is a tad compromised. All in all, this is well above VHS quality full screen transfer. The colors are downplayed, as evidenced by Cheh’s decision to dress most of the characters in stark white outfits. This allows for the flowing crimson to really stand out. Despite the pan n’ transfer, the fight choreography is surprisingly well framed. The Shawscope landscape (actually an interior soundstage) may take a hit, but the Ninja vs. Kung Fu scenes are complete in their primeval depiction. Scenes of the Earth Ninjas leaping out of the ground, Fire Ninjas littering the air with their toxic clouds, and the concluding battle are truly memorable, and something you just don’t see in modern genre films.

SOUND
This Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 presentation is even better than the similar mix on the KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM DVD. This mono mix boasts a wider frequency range, that recreates the highs and the lows with better accuracy. Most noticeably prominent is the improved bass, which gives extra bite to the kicks, chops, explosions, and other sound effects (and also the score). The English dialog comes through clearly and without distortion, and even at increased volume levels, there is no background noise. I found the score from KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM to be too modern (it had synthesizers) and thus unsatisfying. CHINESE SUPER NINJAS puts things back on track; the score is more period based and far more exciting and dynamic. Again, the wider frequency range allows the score to sound as full as a mono mix has the right to sound. The sound effects, dialog, and score are perfectly integrated.

FEATURES
The only extras are the informative talent bios and filmographies (including pictures) for Chang Cheh, Chen Tin Yee, Chan Wai Man, and Lo Meng. The DVD also has colorful menus, with easy-to-use navigation.

CONCLUSION
CHINESE SUPER NINJA is one of Chang Cheh’s greatest films and is an absolute must-see if you like Kung Fu films. There are many reasons why you should see this flick—it’s got blood, plenty of deadly Ninja weapons, and magnificent fight choreography. CHINESE SUPER NINJAS also has superior production values, perfect pacing, and a coherent script to drive the action. Sergio Leone’s The Man With No Name Trilogy does for Spaghetti Westerns what the Chang Cheh’s Venom movies do for Kung Fu films, and CHINESE SUPER NINJA is at the top of the heap. The biggest disappointment about this DVD is the fact that the original ratio is not retained. But this is a very good full frame presentation. It’s not going to get any better than this folks, so if you want to see Chang Cheh’s bloody masterpiece, don’t let this fact turn you off from purchasing this disc. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in life.