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Released by: 24 Bilder
Released on: 8/6/2003
Director: Mats Helge
Cast: Krzysztof Kolberger, Hanna Pola, Bo Munthe, Curt Broberg, Hans Rosteen, John Quantz, Sirka Sander
Year: 1984
The Movie:
In 1984, Swedish director Mats Helge brought us a film so incredible that it could only be called The Ninja Mission. Since then he's left Sweden because he's wanted for massive tax evasion, but let's not go there. Let's focus on the art, not the artist. After all, this is the same man who brought us The Mad Bunch starring your good friend and mine, David Carradine. And oddly enough, it was written by Matthew Jacobs, who would later go on to write The Emperors New Groove for Disney!
Some evil Russian KGB agents have kidnapped Nadia (Hana Pola), the daughter of a prominent physicist and both she and her father end up, much to their dismay, in a Soviet prison. It's up to a C.I.A. agent named Mason (Krzysztof Kolberger) to use his Ninja skills and lead a team of Swedish Ninjas into the U.S.S.R. to bust into the compound and get them out safe and sound before the Russians get their greedy paws on some of the professors plans, which could ultimately result in some very big problems not only for Sweden, but for the entire free world as we know it.
Helge does his take on the Ninja film a bit differently than you might expect. First of all, many of the Ninjas in the film enter and exit the frame by jumping or rolling across the floor. Not only does this take their enemies by surprise, but it looks cool as well. He's also not afraid to throw some pretty good gore into the mix. When the Swedish Ninja attacks, a guy gets his head chopped in half on camera, a few other heads explode when the bad guys are hit with poison arrows, and plenty of squibs blow out of people's chests, backs, shoulders, heads, arms, legs, etc. In one scene, a man pukes in his gas mask, and then when he takes it off it all spills out and he rolls around in it for a second.
In this film, the Ninjas also use the ancient fighting technique of using a machine gun to mow down their enemies, and when that won't do they've got no shortage of trusty hand grenades to take care of business. Why bother kicking or punching or throwing deadly Ninja stars at your enemies when a machine gun will do the job so much more quickly and efficiently? During the last twenty minutes when the ninjas raid the compound is when the movie really hits its ultra-violent stride and during this scene and the chase scene that follows it, we see just how good these Ninjas are with their guns. The bad guys never stood a chance.
And then there are the slow motion, Sam Peckinpah style, shoot outs that seem to occur every few minutes. Sometimes they're done well, other times they seem wildly out of place, but it's never less than entertaining to see Ninjas or soldiers or bystanders fly through the air shooting or being shot at. Lots of great dynamic laser blast sound effects make these scenes even more over the top.
And of course, there are a few naked ladies thrown into the mish mash plot for no real reason, but since when did we need a reason to put naked ladies in a Ninja movie in the first place?
In short, if you're a fan of the fine, fine Ninja films of the past, from men such as Godfrey Ho (Ninja Squad) or Sam Firstenberg (American Ninja), then you really need to check out The Ninja Mission. It has everything that the true Ninja fan could ever want in a film.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While the DVD is overmatted at 1.78.1 from its OAR of 2.10.1, the compositions don't seem too off and it sure beats a fullframe presentation. While the colors are decent enough on this disc, the picture is a bit soft and there are some compression artifacts floating around and a slightly jagged look to some of the scenes.
Ninja Mission is presented in an English language Dolby Digital 2 Channel presentation. There is some mild hissing in the background in a couple of scenes but overall this sounds pretty decent and the dialogue is nice and clear.
Other than scene selection, there are no extra features on this DVD.
The Final Word:
Despite the overmatting and mediocre video presentation and the blatant lack of extra features, the quality of the movie makes this one well worth owning for Ninja movie fanatics (and I know you're out there!). It's not an easy disc to find, but your Ninja movie collection is truly not complete without a copy of your own.