With a surprisingly deft focus on character, and stunning slo-mo fight sequences, Isaac Florentine’s nin-ja sequel is unashamed fun
The strength of ninja Shadow of a Tear largely lies in Scott Adkins’ ability to lớn kick a lot of people in the face. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
The strength of nin-ja Shadow of a Tear largely lies in Scott Adkins’ ability to lớn kick a lot of people in the face. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
If you’ve blitzed through Cobra Kai và it’s left you hankering for yet more fight-based, 80s throwback drama, consider checking out the work of prolific action movie star Scott Adkins in the truly excellent ninja Shadow of a Tear (AKA ninja 2).
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Ninja Shadow of a Tear is the weirdly titled sequel khổng lồ 2009’s rather more simplistic Ninja. But it works well as a self-contained entity, ditching any remaining story threads from the first film within the first 10 minutes so you can comfortably watch them in reverse order and kick your evening off with the better one.
Casey Bowman (Adkins) returns home one night khổng lồ find his wife Namiko (Mika Hijii) has been brutally slain by an unknown assailant with a chất lượng but deadly weapon. Casey accepts an offer from his friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) lớn stay at his dojo in thủ đô bangkok in an attempt lớn find peace. But Casey’s grief continues lớn manifest in self-destructive behaviour, losing his temper in a sparring session and drunkenly starting a massive bar fight.
When one of Nakabara’s students turns up dead, killed by the same chất lượng weapon that took Namiko’s life, Casey’s thirst for vengeance leads him on a hunt through thủ đô bangkok thái lan and the jungles of Myanmar lớn the doorstep of an infamous drug lord known as Goro (Shun Sugata).
Although ninja Shadow of a Tear’s plot is a classic revenge rampage, it still finds space to lớn make its simple story more interesting than most. Casey’s journey is fuelled more by his grief than his desire for revenge. He gets things wrong, fights the wrong people, và in many ways he wants khổng lồ get beaten up himself. But like any good genre movie it doesn’t necessarily need khổng lồ be original; it just needs to play khổng lồ its strengths. In ninja Shadow of a Tear’s case, those strengths largely lie in Adkins’ unparalleled ability to kick a lot of people in the face.
With a colossal 59 movies under his belt & an upcoming appearance in John Wick 4, Adkins has been busy. Ninja Shadow of a Tear marked the sixth time (out of nine) that he worked with director Isaac Florentine. The Adkins/Florentine axis flourished in the mid-2000s to mid-2010s, courtesy of the two ninja movies và the Undisputed series – three stylish direct-to-video prison fight movies that served as nominal sequels lớn Walter Hill’s 2002 original. With a surprisingly deft focus on character và stunning fight sequences, both the Ninja and Undisputed series belie their direct-to-video roots lớn offer up some of the most enjoyably knuckleheaded action since Jean-Claude Van Damme’s kinetic prime.
Florentine’s direction captures every bone-crunching kick và deadly elbow in luxurious slow motion, while Adkins’ acrobatic fighting prowess seems khổng lồ defy all known laws of physics. Every spin kick & airborne punch asserts that gravity is a mug’s game and something for other people lớn worry about (meanwhile, I’m watching from the couch, shovelling biscuits into my face lượt thích it’s the end of the world).
‘A one-man-army action film’ with zero pretensions. Photograph: AF archive/AlamyThe other reason nin-ja Shadow of a Tear is so much fun is because it has absolutely no pretensions about being anything other than a one-man-army kích hoạt film. It wears its love for 1980s kích hoạt and nin-ja movies proudly on its sleeve & arguably does it better than the classics that preceded it.
Casting Kosugi as Nakabara is a masterstroke; he is the son of legendary martial artist Shô Kosugi who appeared in Cannon Film’s ninja trilogy – Enter The Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, ninja III: The Domination – a staple of video clip stores everywhere. There’s also a nod to lớn Schwarzenegger’s Commando, as Adkins rampages through the woods, taking on an army by himself and announcing his arrival at the drug compound via hand grenade. Amusingly, there is no concession to traditional ninja stealth, but that’s all part of the fun.
For additional viewing, you can catch the first nin-ja on Prime và 10 of Adkins’ other movies on Netflix. His Art of action series on YouTube – a lockdown project where Adkins interviews a fascinating selection of action stars, directors and stunt people – is also well worth seeking out.
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Ninja Shadow of a Tear is a movie I love on a cellular level: as an introduction to lớn Adkins’ filmography, as a nostalgic love letter to lớn ninja movies và VHS rentals, và as an unashamedly fun slice of modern martial arts cinema.
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