Ninja in the Dragon's Den
 
                                       
Director: Corey Yuen
Year: 1982
Rating: 7.0
As soon as you see the Seasonal Production's logo come on the screen, you can be pretty sure that there will be some great kung fu ahead. The company had been formed in 1974 from yet another Shaw Brothers alumni, Ng See-yuen, - as was Golden Harvest. Think how much greater Shaw could have been if they had retained Ng and Raymond Chow. Seasonal hired some real talent both on and off the screen - Mang Hoi, Corey Yuen, Jackie Chan, Yuen Wo-ping, Hwang Jang-lee, John Lui, Wong Tao, Simon Yuen - and even produced the first two films from Tsui Hark, The Butterfly Murders and We're Going to Eat You. In the realm of kung fu, they had made three classic kung fu films by the time of this film - Secret Rivals, Snake in the Eagles Shadow and Drunken Master. So, they must have felt confident enough to give the directorship to Corey Yuen in his debut, bring on Conan Lee in his debut (looking a hell of a lot like Jackie Chan) and bring over from Japan Hiroyuki Sanada of the Sonny Chiba school in his Hong Kong debut. The producer should have of course left Tai Bo as the comedy relief at home. He almost singlehandedly kills the first half of the film. But kung fu comedy was a big deal back then and I generally hate every minute of it.



My advice is that every time Tai Bo comes on the screen, just fast-forward past him because there are some remarkable martial arts. Whenever the film is in movement it is terrific, when it isn't, it feels stuck in glue. Fortunately, there is a lot of movement. Sometimes, it is just small things that impress - jumping around a room, scaling down a pagoda, climbing a tree, somersaulting over walls. The first two fights may seem light-hearted but they are clever and complex. Conan and Tai Bo walk into town where a festival is going on - one act being people on wooden stilts. One fellow shows up on stilts and uses them as weapons to knock everyone over. Conan who fancies himself a kung fu master puts on a pair and they duel - stilts against stilts. In the second fight, Conan takes on a bully in an inn and the choreography is precise and quick.



But, let me start at the beginning. In Japan. A renegade ninja is killing government officials and Iga ninjas. We never really find out why but he and his wife take a small houseboat to China. Sanada has a mission in mind. Yup, revenge! Against the killer of his father - who was once a ninja. It just so happens that this man is the mentor and father figure of Conan. It is ninja against kung fu and much of the rest of the film is the two of them battling it out in one scene after another.  Lots of ninja tricks - smoke bombs, hiding in ceiling corners, surprise attacks - while Conan has set up booby trap after booby trap. All very clever. The final 30-minutes is nearly non-stop fun. If not for Tai Bo, I would rate this film even higher. The version I saw was dubbed - the dubbing was actually pretty good but I am sure they took a lot of liberties with the dialogue. Much of it felt way too modern for the era. Ninjas are still the coolest thing in the world.