NINJA is a low-budget but kick-ass action vehicle for British martial arts star Scott Adkins, who continues to wow with his own unique brand of high-kicking, tough-punching martial arts fighting. The story for this one is simplistic and predictable in equal measure, with Adkins playing a "white ninja" (following in the footsteps of Franco Nero, Christopher Lambert and Richard Harrison!) who's tasked to protect a chest of rare weapons. Of course, various bad guys are soon after him.

Anyway, don't worry about the story; focus instead on the plentiful action, both ninja and otherwise. I actually enjoyed the non-ninja stuff here more than the ninja fights, which are a little silly and sometimes use cheesy special effects. But the bits in the dojo early on are very good, and the highlight comes during a chase-cum-train-fight about halfway through which is really well handled. Of course, Isaac Florentine has directed loads of these things and I suspect he's starting to get rather good at this.

The cast is about average for a DTV martial arts flick; Adkins is slightly wooden but an absolutely brilliant fighter, so you forgive him. Ihara's bad guy is readily menacing, while Mika Hijii (ALIEN VS NINJA) proves to be a delightful female sidekick/love interest/damsel in distress. Just watch out for Miles Anderson as a scenery-devouring cult leader and all-around bad guy. NINJA isn't perfect, and the flaws that do exist are pretty big, but it's more honest and exciting than the much bigger NINJA ASSASSIN.

A westerner young ninja named Casey Bowman (Scott Adkins) is trained since chidhood to be a deadly Ninja , studying Ninjutsu in Japan , then he is asked by the Master (Igawa) to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu , an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja . But an angry revenger called Masazuka (Tsuyoshi Ihara) is nowadays seeking a merciless vendetta for his old mates and taking on the former master who trained him . As the ominous Masazuka to return demanding vengeance against the veteran Sensei . Things go wrong when Casey's girlfiend , Namiko Takeda (Mika Hijii) , is captured. At the end the terrible happenings leading to a lethal confrontation with the old fellow Ninja , our tough-fisted hero and other Ninja assassins . A silent warrior. A deadly past. A lethal mission. Revenge will rise . From the shadow of the night, a warrior is born not the weapon but the hand that wields it. Raised to become an assassin... until betrayal made him a target . Prepare to enter a secret world of heartless assassins .

It's a westernized oriental action film with an interesting mingle of suspense , brutal martial arts , sword-play , ancient ritual with typical code of honour and bloody combats . The gory plot is simple and plain , a nasty Ninja confronts the clan that raised him , and starring Casey/Scott Adkins being forced into action and steadily butchering his relentless enemies , while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with the infancy contender. This a nail-biting thriller with ustoppable action , including impressive fighting with a lot of blood and gore . It's a mindless but enjoyable story for martial arts aficionados of the old style , but adding some new technical being made by means of wires , cables and digital computer generator . Abundant fights as swords struggles in which arms , body parts and beheading are slice off here and there and limbs are slit open everywhere or blasted apart . Of course , highlights of the film are the breathtaking and groundbreaking fights with lots of blood dropping here and there . Cruel, savage murders and blood splatter , make only recommended for those adults no squeamish and with strong stomach enough to take it .The motion picture was professionally directed by Isaac Florentine .

This film belongs to ¨Ninja sub-genre¨ that achieved splendor in the Eighties : The first movie was ¨Enter the Ninja¨ (81) by Menahem Golan with Franco Nero , Menahem Golan was director of the first film , and was to direct its sequel also , but shortly before production was to start he decided to turn over directing chores to Sam Firstenberg . It was followed by the martial arts features ¨Ninja II¨ or ¨Revenge of the Ninja¨ (1983) with Shô Kosugi , Keith Vitali , Kane Koshugi and ¨Ninja III , the domination¨ with Lucinda Dickey and again Sho Kosugi . These pictures were well produced by Cannon -Golan and Globus- and all rightly directed by Sam Firstenberg . Following others also directed by Sam Firstenberg for Golan-Globus' as ¨American Ninja¨ , ¨American Ninja II and III¨, ¨Forced vengeance (82)¨ and ¨Avening force (1986)¨ most of them starred by low-grade expert on karate genre and Ninja sub-genre Michael Dudikoff . Following this 2009 ¨Ninja I¨ by Isaac Florentine , along with ¨Ninja II¨with Scott Adkins and Kane Koshugi . Furthermore , ¨Ninja Assassin¨ by James McTeigue with Rain , Naomi Harris .

Having grown up with a load of really crappy ninja movies during the 80's, I found this movie to be like a trip back memory lane. It had all the stuff a ninja movie should have.

What would those things be?

A somewhat thin storyline with lots of fight scenes. Cheezy dialogue (or lack of good dialogue all together). Entertainment where you can disable the brain. And, of course, laughable characters.

Well this movie had it all. It is a good enough movie if you want to kill about an hour and a half. Nothing that will make your blood race or your adrenal pump. This movie is good for a lazy afternoon, and I am fairly sure most of it will be gone from memory the next day.

The concept of the movie has been used a bit too many times; a westerner raised and trained in the far east, becoming a deadly ninja assassin, getting to have the second best student at the school as his arch nemesis - oooooh! The rest of the story is fairly straight forward and predictable. Had they decided not to have that western ninja in the movie, it would have worked so much better.

But with the lack of ninja movies out there, this actually makes it above the mediocre level. The action sequences are well-enough executed and choreographed. The acting, well that is up for debate. Some did an okay jobs, others were below average.

One thing that was nice in the movie, was the "buff-up" they had given the ninja costumes, they looked rather nice, compared to the classic ones you see in the older ninja movies.

If you like martial arts movies, there are tons of Asian movies to pick from that exceed this one. But not an entirely waste of time to sit down and watch this one.