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| Images courtesy of Visual Vengeance |
Wild Eye Releasing sublabel Visual Vengeance which is geared
towards films shot on videotape or digital video or Super 8mm and so on and so
forth have leveled up with their double feature from Joseph Lai and IFD Films: Born
a Ninja and Commando the Ninja.
Made in 1988 using the same cast and crew (and perhaps the same plotline?),
these SOV (shot on video) martial arts flicks don’t just come packaged as a
deliriously entertaining deep dive into Chinese analog tape madness, they
represent a new forward step for Visual Vengeance who have fashioned not only a
hilarious and absurd package but they’ve created a new company logo especially
for this release. Opening on a videogame-like
menu for what feels like the Super Nintendo, the stage is set before the films
even begin for a nostalgic rewind back into a bygone phase of the SOV medium I
never knew existed.
Already a fan of Hong Kong cinema and later the Japanese
V-Cinema format, seeing something somewhere in between those lines makes for a
most peculiar beer-and-pizza flick but alas here we are. In the first one which has many lapses in time,
space and reason with bizarre sequences that go for minutes on end, Born a
Ninja more or less boils down to two heroes, Larry and David, who happen
upon a long thought-to-be-lost WWII era germ formula created by a mercurial
scientist named Tanaka. Literally
relying on a form of martial arts dubbed Hocus Pocus (not making this up), they
find themselves on the hunt from nefarious ninja enforcers and Russian criminal
masterminds who wish to retrieve the formula and wage global warfare on the
human populace. If only Larry and David
can track it down before it is too late.
Immediately thereafter and feeling like it must’ve been
filmed simultaneously as it shares many of the same actors and set pieces is Commando
the Ninja also known as American Commando Ninja as well as Silent
Warriors. Kinda/sorta picking up
where the last film left off as it dives right back into germ-warfare,
espionage and a hunt for scientific secrets, one again bring Larry and David
back into the proceedings. A bit more
linear and straightforward save for some head-scratching scenes of gunfire and
punches being repeated through the power of editing, it becomes a cacophony of
acrobatics and death-defying stunts across vast village landscapes and
riverfronts. Oh and two female
assassins, Becky and Brenda, also join in on the epic battle.
Written and directed by Joseph Lai and featuring the same
cast across both films including Man Fei, Patrick Largent, Lo Kei and Yolanda
Kuk, both films kind of mesh together but stylistically couldn’t be more
different. Whereas Born a Ninja went
so far down the rabbit hole with neverending bizarre sequences of black magic
and a character holding on for dear life to an altar, Commando the Ninja feels
more straight-laced with an emphasis on humor and sex appeal. Some of it flies in the face of logic and
reason like a female ally wearing shorts of the confederate flag and the
English dubbing over the footage and stock sound effects cut and copy/pasted
throughout the soundtrack only seem to ratchet up the sense of madness
permeating both of these SOV flicks running around the eighty/ninety minute
ranges.
By now, you know Visual Vengeance to be archaeologists of
the videotape realm and these represent easily one of the company’s very best
releases. With both films housed on one
disc sourced from standard definition tape masters in 1.33:1 fullscreen, the
set comes with several audio commentaries, two video essays including on Godfrey
Ho, an interview with actor Kwan Chung and two mini-posters with the original
VHS sleeve art. If you’re reading this
and are a newcomer to the boutique label and the SOV medium, these are one Hell
of a place to start: a videotaped Hong Kong English dubbed dose of martial arts
mania. Visual Vengeance has been steadily
announcing and unveiling new titles like no tomorrow lately, but these ones
will be hard for even them to top.
--Andrew Kotwicki
