The movie is all about a seal that will give a certain military group enough authority to get funding for supplies needed to do a coup. Of course, our movie actually begins with a pointless scene of our Japanese hero stopping an attempt at pickpocketing in a public square. Thanks for sharing that, movie. Our next scene involves a really elaborate attempt at theft. A man discusses the seal with another as ninjas sneak in overhead. The visitor stops an attempt at poisoning and fells the mysterious men. The owner reveals that the men were about to steal a fake one and subsequently pulls out the right one. The visitor promptly stabs him in the heart and takes it, revealing next that the ninjas were actually his men and faked their demises. This does explain why they go down when the swords don't even get close to hitting them. Is this is a ridiculous and elaborate plan? Yes. Is this anything compared to Duel of the Century? No. Unfortunately, the man learns that what he stole was only one half of the seal. Time to get the rest, I suppose.
*
From hereon out the plot gets a little more direct...sort of. The villain seeks out the daughter of the man who has the other half of the seal and kidnaps her with his ninjas. Meanwhile, we learn that the lone good ninja (the sole Japanese actor of note) is there on a plan of revenge, since one of the General's men killed his master. We are shown this via a fight scene flashback, a combination of two things that we will see a lot in these movies. Using his leverage, the man steals both parts of the seal by way of his ninja leader. The good ninja follows in hot pursuit, but gets caught after a long fight. He ends up being held in the same place as the woman, although escape proves harder than they think. It does not help that the place is led by a transsexual (if the dubbing is to be believed) who is quite tough. To make it worse, we learn the secret of the evil ninja: it is three people who work as one. By the way, one of those three is a midget, who proves to be a big- pun completely intended- jerk to every lackey around. A pair of escape attempts by the pair go sour, but, fortunately, there is a Chinese hero to save the day.
*
Say what you will about the plot of Ninjas & Dragons (I sure did), but you cannot fault it for its action. To the film's credit, about one-quarter of the film is the final fight. You get a good mix of men fighting, women fighting and ninjas fighting. The latter fight is quite good, with a fun mix of silliness, drama and flashiness. When an attack is interrupted by a midget kick, you know where the tone lies. Everyone else gets to fight simultaneously on a large, open set. To be fair, the splicing between fights is not nearly as drastic and unsettling as it can be (as covered in Demon Warriors). One part really stands out as completely strange to me. Right after disarming the evil ninja, he/she seemingly commits sepaku. As our heroes celebrate victory, we see that the sword used in the act was a prop sword. It was all a trick! Unfortunately, the villain runs at the ninja with the same prop sword in his hand to kill him. Um...way to not follow-through properly, guy. Now you're dead because of being an idiot. The End.
*
This film is good if you like the fun, quirkier elements more than the serious ones. Don't get me wrong- there is some drama and death in here. When you compare it to Duel or the future reviews this week, it will seem very odd. The acting is not bad, the DVD quality is adequate and the subtitle work is pretty good. Like a lot of these movies, the use of white text proves to be a detriment at times when everyone dresses in so much white one film. You usually don't miss anything major, but it is still weird and distracting. The film stands out amongst the utterly generic films from this era though (many of which are in the same set) and that should be applauded, for better or for worse.
*
Up next, a film with a plot that you will swear that I am making up. I assure you that it is all 100% real. Stay tuned...
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