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Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

How do you go about making an old school Shaw Brothers kung fu flick even more entertaining? Simple… by chucking in a whole load of crazy ninjas with special fighting skills and have everyone who dies do so in a shower of bright red blood.Directed by Chang Cheh, Five Element Ninjas opens as two kung fu schools go head to head to see who is the best. One team, who wear natty matching white outfits, are clearly the superior fighters, even beating the samurai brought on as guest fighter by the other side. As the defeated samurai commits seppuku, he throws his ring at his opponents, warning that when they see another ring like it, it will mean their death.Sure enough, a note arrives soon after with a ring attached, a challenge from the five elements ninjas. The guys in white barricade their headquarters and send eight of their finest fighters to confront the ninjas. Two of their men go up against four Gold ninjas, who wear lamé outfits and use metal hats that fire blades from the rim; both meet bloody fates. The duo who face the wood ninjas (who disguise themselves as trees!) also die in gory fashion. Another pair battle Water ninjas, who lurk under the surface of a pond, ready to strike; they fare no better than their companions. A lone fighter faces the Fire ninjas, who wear red and are equipped with smoke weapons; no prizes for guessing how he gets on. The last of the eight is attacked by the Earth ninjas and their master, who appear from and disappear into the ground; he also dies.Meanwhile, sexy female ninja Senji (Pei Hsi Chen) infiltrates the base of the white guys (who I think are called The Alliance of the Martial Arts World, but 'white guys' is quicker to type); she sends plans of their building to her ninja pals who launch an attack, killing all but Shao Tien-hao (Tien-Chi Cheng), who makes it to the home of a martial arts master who teaches him how to fight against the ninjas. Together with three equally adept pals, Shao Tien-hao goes looking for revenge.With all manner of cool weaponry, and superbly choreographed fighting throughout, all taken to crazy extremes by director Cheh, Five Element Ninjas is a seriously enjoyable movie, with a satisfyingly brutal finalé that sees all of the ninjas being kicked, punched, sliced, diced and literally torn limb from limb by Shao Tien-hao and his buddies. Anyone who doesn't find this a whole lot of fun should forever be forbidden from watching any film with 'ninja' in the title.

I would give Chang Cheh's effort a 9 for pure amusement factor and a 9 for the action as the weapons and stunts are a lot of fun. As far as plot and acting eheh this one not so much. The Five Deadly Venoms would seem like Shakespeare and this a bad high school play in comparison. The plot is complicated but very childlike in it's actual dialogue. The characters have no chance at development and the timeline is ridiculous (The girl is given 6 months hard labor and Ricky Cheng learns the art of the Ninjas in what a 5 week study course? As the girl is still doing hard labor when he returns) The costumes in here are cheesy but very amusing but still a bit too much to accept as reality(Makes Iron Flag costumes realistic in comparison). I say that as I can see a black or brown ninja costume but gold with shiny hats haha really? In total a somewhat silly movie that keeps one occupied the entire length of the film I wonder if Cheh didn't have a bit of humor in mind with this one as one can't possibly accept it as a straight action without laughing.But one wonder as the gore factor is rather high ?

Since the previous comments have pretty much nailed it on this one, all I have to add is that if you've only seen this in the seriously edited- for-television version that ran as part of the BLACK BELT THEATER/DRIVE-IN MOVIE package back in the '80's, seek out the version that can still be found for rental in some video shops. The uncut ending is a real mind-blower!!! However, this film is so good that even edited it turned enough of us on back in the days to keep us tuning in every Saturday afternoon for years.

The Garrish colors add to this awesome action flick. The choreography is beyond superb (almost no wire use, no stupid CGI, Joel Silver not in presence.) King Fu films are like gene Kelly films or Fred Astaire films- you watch them for the beautifully choreographed moves. The Kung Fu here is among the best of all kung fu films (not classic fung fu films--ALL Kung fu films) The crap Hollywood is spewing now and calling kung fu is just their shallow brainwashed doctrines of how anything that doesn't encompass CGI or a woman for PC reasons is cheap. This is a must for your King fu collection.