Movie Review: Ninja Dragon

Ninja Dragon

IFD Films and Arts Limited, Hong Kong, 1986. 

International crime lords play poker with banker and ninja master Gordon (Richard Harrison). Bank always wins so Gordon wins lots of properties. The crime lords want revenge. Tiger Kwok (Shut Chung-Tin) plans the assassination of Gordon's business partner Ronald. 

International crime lords

Ninja master Gordon

Tger Kwok

Tiger Kwok goes to Shanghai Triad Godfather's wake (so Ronald was the Godfather). He vows revenge (although he arranged the murder). Godfather has two daughters Phoenix (Lily Lan Yu-Li) and Fanny (?) who will take over the Godfather's businesses. Gordon asks Dragon (Chang Kuo-Chu) to help the daughters restore their power. Paul (Paulo Tocha) and Fox (Miao Tian) are trying to gain advantage so Dragon must stop them. 

Dragon

Paul (Paulo Tocha)

Phoenix and Fanny

Dragon arrives just in time when goons of Fox are trying to kill the sisters. Then Dragon goes to Godfather's funeral. Also Fox goes to the funeral to bring flowers. Tiger plans to kill Dragon and take over the leadership of the gang (however no one does not notice anything fishy even when Tiger shows his unreliability several times). 

Fox Chan

Ninja Camo!

Triad warfare

Then we see ninja (Richard Harrison) training in camouflage suit (the evil ninjas wear red). Little pickpocket kid steals Dragon's keys and foils assassination attempt. The captured killer then bashes his own face so he can't be recocgnized. Gordon starts his own war against Paul and his gang. Fox wants to take over Phoenix's turf. After Dragon foils another attempt to assasinate Phoenix, the mobsters kill Dragon's girlfriend. Dragon does not notice anything. Lots of scheming, murders and ninja battles ensue.

Sword training

Godfrey Ho films are made by cutting scenes from different movies and inserting some new footage. This film is an uneasy mash-up of unknown Taiwanese triad gangster epic "Dark Trap" and ninja film. Also the music is "loaned" from other films, at least music from "Dune" was used here. The IFD Film opening logo uses music from "Star Wars". 

Ninja workout

The plot is confusing mess. It is hard to figure out who is on whose side. The dubbing is hilariously awful. Mob boss Paul's (Paulo Tocha a.k.a Bruce Stallion) fake cockney accent cracked me up every time he appeared on screen. The action ranges from Hong Kong gunplay to ninja action where ninja suits and weapons appear magically from thin air. Although the repetitiveness and brutality of the original "Dark Trap" take away some of the wackiness, it is narrowly so bad it is good. 

Rating: So bad it is good 

Starring: Richard Harrison, Paulo Tocha, Chiang Tao, Pierre Tremblay, Suen Kwok-Ming, Chang Kuo-Chu, Shut Chung-Tin, Lily Lan Yu-Li, Lau Yin-Fong, Wang Hsieh, Miao Tian, Cheung Chung-Kwai, Chen Yan-Yan, Melvin Pitcher, Cheung Yiu-Sing, Man Man, Cheung Bo-Sin, Lo Dik, Liu Wai, Chiang Chi-Ping, Lam Gwong-Chun, Yung Shun-Hing, Choi Chung-Chau, Freya Patrick, Martin Lee, Konrad Chang, Jean Tang, Mason Shin, Billy Pang 

Director: Godfrey Ho