Five Element Ninjas [DVD]

I saw this movie years ago - wasn't even 10 years old at the time - and I remember how amazed I was. I'd never seen anything like this before! Awesome fights, strange weapons, hard-as-steel characters, elaborate costumes, sets and props. Disappointingly, I didn't get to see the movie again for decades.But now the release of the DVD has given me the opportunity to watch it again, and - oh my god! This is the stuff, people. This does what kung fu movies should do. The movie's primary villains, the Five Element Ninjas, display some very cool techniques that - despite the limitations of inherent in the 1982 Hong Kong special effects - kept me very entertained.One can see the huge influence that 'Five Element Ninjas' had on one of Japan's best mangas, the 1993 film known as 'Ninja Scroll' in English. The major action in 'F.E.N.' starts, like 'Ninja Scroll,' with the brutal slaughter of pretty much the entire supporting cast by the eponymous ninjas.Another (sort of) similarity: 'F.E.N.' has these 'wood ninjas' who can change their bodies' substances to become tree-like, these 'water ninjas' who attack people from underwater, and these 'earth ninjas' who 'jump' in and out of the ground and can attack from underground. Sure, it's Hong Kong, it's 1982. There are no rock-skinned giants here, or snake tattoos coming to life, or wasp-nests hidden in hunchbacks or anything like that. But 'F.E.N.' more than makes up for its lack of the 'magical' kung fu styles with a boatload of well-choreographed fights and an impressive array of Chinese and Japanese weapons.For example, the first fight is between a warrior wielding what appears to be a giant pair of table-saw blades with holes/handles in their centres, and the protagonist Xiao Tian-Hao (Cheng Tien-chi, who was also one of the film's action choreographers) wielding a large-bladed silver spear. Looks very cool, but it is far from being the film's best fight.Plot rundown: (Amazingly enough, there's actually a plot in this one)Xiao Tian-Hao and Liang Zhi-Sheng (played by Lo Mang, in top form as a bare-handed fighter) are kung fu students, whose Master has answered a challenge from the archetypal evil master of another, evil kung fu school. In the ensuing tournament, Xiao and Liang and their kung fu brothers win 9 out of 10 rounds, but in the 10th round, the other school brings out a ringer: a Japanese samurai.Although the empty-handed Liang defeats the katana-wielding samurai (this fight RULES and ends with some great reactions from the two combatants) and compels him to reclaim his honour by committing 'seppuku'... this samurai has a powerful friend back in Japan, one who will avenge his death-by-suicide: Ninja-master Kembuchi.Kembuchi Mudou (Chen Wei-Man, whose icy manner had to be the inspiration for 'Ninja Scroll' villain Lord Gemma) is the 'King of the Ninjas' and the final 4-versus-1 fight against this guy absolutely has to be seen to be believed. In that fight alone, Chen's unstoppable ninja-master pulls out more secret weapons and dirty-fighting tricks than you ever thought existed, and nearly wins the final battle royale.Anyhow, after receiving the dead samurai's invitation from the leader of the evil Chinese kung fu school, Master Kembuchi comes to the `aid' of the evil Chinese kung fu school, and sends Xiao and Liang's kung fu school a challenge to fight against the `Five Elements Formation,' which is a wholly unfamiliar technique to the Chinese characters. The protagonists are wary, because they have no good info on what ninjutsu actually is, but they accept the challenge. Big mistake.From then on, it's non-stop action and brutal death. The ninjas fight, fight dirty, and attack the Chinese challengers without mercy (Best fight from this set: the 'earth ninjas' vs one seriously hardcore Chinaman whose character's name is 'Huang Han'). Then they attack Xiao and Liang's school. Then they attack Xiao and Liang's master. And these ninjas don't stop attacking. The Chinese defeat them, eventually, but only after knuckling down for some serious training. The memorable training sequences are almost as fun to watch as the 'Kung Fu vs Ninjutsu' end-fights that come afterwards.You wanna see some serious martial arts action, all of it in beautifully restored, vivid colour, and boasting a fantastic widescreen transfer? Get this DVD.

One of my absolute favorite Shaw films. Worth the purchase.

Super Ninjas, Five Element Ninjas, Chinese Super Ninjas, call it what you will, but if you know this title, than you know it is pretty much the greatest, classic kung-fu film ever! Not only is it the best kung-fu film, it is arguably the greatest ninja flick as well. This movie is action packed from the start, and chock full of glorious weapons in action, flowing glue-on facial hair and side burns, and copious amounts of fake gore. And the story is actually pretty damn good as well, not difficult to follow or lost in the translation like so many other films from the Far East. But enough about the movie, this is a review of the Blu-Ray DVD. As a fan of this film, I have collected nearly every release on VHS and DVD to come out, including all the European import versions, bootlegs, and most recently a Mandarin standard DVD release that included a restored wide-screen version with the original Chinese dialog. This was a treat, because for the past 30 years I have only been able to watch this film in 4:3 TV mode with the English dubbing. So to see the film in its original scope with the original audio was a real treat for a long time fan. I figured this version would be the best I would ever see, and that was until this Blu-Ray version came out, which is not only in its original wide-screen format, but it includes both the original dialog audio as well as the hilarious, nostalgic English language track. The picture is excellent, and appears fully restored. And perhaps the most important part of any good release, is that the film is devoid of cuts and edits. In many previous releases, this film had much of the excessive violence removed and the film cut for length. But this Blu-Ray release is pretty much perfection on plastic! This is the ultimate version to own, and I suppose the only additional comments I can make about this release, is regarding the special features, which are not all that exciting, but worth a watch once.

As soon as i discovered that this film is on blu ray, i went and ordered this film, with expedited shipping. And i will say that i am happy to be a owner of this film. This film includes some of the best fight scenes, than any shaw brothers film in the SB catalog. The opening alone, in which the narrator descibes the different forms of martials arts you are about to see, derived from many different manuals and techniques/weapons is one of the most memorable scenes to me. The Five Element ninjas while campy, still gives a aura to the film, as the action sequences and stringwork is derived from Wuxia films and it is in full effect here. This combined with the many beautiful yet obviously handpainted drawn backgrounds compliment the feel of the film and succeeds in it. Now keep in mind i am speaking for myself, and i base my opinion on the many films i watched growing up appreciating Grindhouse films and Kung Fu. This is one of those films you will love if you appreciate the aforementioned genres of film i watch.This film in short, is a fun movie to watch,has many forms of martial arts and weapons represented in it, beaufully shot and choreographed fight scenes, lots of gore (as i read that the blu ray is the uncut version, which was rare to see on vhs in the 80's, a real gem) and to see that they actually got to clean it up, keep the same silly and quirky english dubs from the original release of the film, AND the original language version of the film LOOKING BETTER than when i first seen it, this was a no brainer for me. Lots of good memories of this film, that i had to reown it. Than you TOKYO SHOCK, i been supporting your releases since you were only known as Media Blasters in NYC. Since way Back in the vhs days... :)

Great movie ,non stop action and fun to watch if you like martial arts.

AKA: Chinese Super Ninjas (Western Dubbed Version).This is one review where it's gonna be hard for me to contain myself but i'll try to focus and bring you the down low. So the basic story is as follows: Two Kung Fu schools come together every so often to show their fighters skills and see which school is the best. Suffice to say one school is filled with honourable good guys and the other is filled with sneaky little monkeys, and in true sneaky monkey style when the deciding bout comes they bring in a Japanese samurai to fight the good guys. The outcome of this fight brings on a whirlwind of the brown stuff in the form of an army of angry ninjas headed by the Five Element Formation. These are five groups of ninjas with very different styles based on the slightly different and extended eastern elements set. So as well as including fire, earth, WOOD and water based ninjas we have another set of ninjas who are synonymous with metal. I won't ruin what tricks each of these sets of ninjas has up their fishnet sleeves but the scenes including these sets of ninjas are worth the price of this DVD alone. So what else is there to look forward to in this old school ninja mash-up. Well as you probably know, to be frank, ninja movies are usually a bunch of guff, they can usually only be appreciated in that sort of ironic, cheesy, way that seems to make up 90% of a student's sense of humour. So is this one any different? Read on to find out more:THE HIGH KICKS:- There are loads and loads of ninjas in this beast - I mean they are (literally at points) crawling out of the woodwork. If you want all-out ninja war then you've come to the right place, my Kung Fu brother/sister.- As I said before the five element ninja scenes are the winners for me - their cool tricks and sneaky manoeuvres steal the show and I'm truly thankful they show up a good couple of times in the film.- The fighting is smooth and technical in true `Shaw brothers at their best' style.- Meng Lo is wicked as always. He's my favourite! Yay!- The action starts pretty much straight off the bat and doesn't let up till the end, it's highly frenetic and almost non-stop - and any time there is a pause in the action it's simply to implement yet more awesome action.- Tons of strange sneaky ninja tools and amazing weapons are utilised throughout this film, nearly every scene has a fantastical weapon to behold, and they are all used to their full effect.- The ninjas are everything you'd want them to be: silent, sneaky, cool looking and in a full range of colours and sizes. A ninja fans soggy dream.- This film is bloody, buddy - I mean you get nasty gut slices, innards dangling out, all kinds of blood spurting jabs and stabs, dudes ripped apart by chains with crescent hooks on `em - you even get stilt impalements for Geoff's sake!- The female ninja is well sexy, fish net, ninja skirt, hotness in motion, but being a ninja she's a bit of a treacherous little filly....well owrth it though, if you know what i'm saying *wink, wink, nod, nod, say n' more*- Man, I'm purely overwrought with great things to say about this film: Chang's direction is on fire, this is simply his finest moment in my eyes and I'm more than sure a good few old school fu fanatics will concur with my analysis.THE LOW BLOWS:- If you've never liked old school kung fu then this may or may not change your mind - it is, for me, one of the best but it's great because it's old school done to near perfection.- There are a few hokey elements that I know are there but simply pass me by because I love older fu flicks, however others may find some bits and bobs too silly (e.g. the wuxia inspired water skimming scene and so on.).THE FINAL BLOW:This film is the business: Hands down not just one of the best kung fu films ever made but definitely one of the best ninja films out there. It's filled with action, gore, awesome direction and choreography, tons of inventive weapons and ninja tools....yeesh, I'm out of breath...look, I could gush over this all day and all I'm really trying to say is: watch this film by any means - buy it, own it, study it because this is how it's done.P.S. This is a great transfer with decent extras and all the sound options you could wish for! score!FURTHER RECCOMENDATIONS:Hmm - this is a toughy...as i've already said there ain't too many good ninja flicks out there, I suppose you could give the new Ninja Assassin movie a go if you're just looking purely for ninjas and tons of gore - it's not in the same league as this of course but it's a decent enough bit of modern, gruesome, popcorn, cheddar. If you want more fu like this then I can only reccomend that you delve further into the, near religous, Shaw brothers collection.

Picture and sound quality is excellent

When his school is destroyed and his colleagues all slaughtered by Cheng Yun and his five element ninjas,Tsiau Chin Hau sets out to take his revenge!He approaches his former master,who has inside knowledge of how to defeat the ninjas.Hau challenges the five element ninjas (gold,wood,water,fire and earth) to a duel to the death.This is one of Chang Cheh's latter day masterpieces,it's not a Venoms' film as many people think,because it only contains one Venom (Lo Meng).The action is superlative as once again,Chang Cheh displays his unique talents for marshalling aggression,violence and balletic grace within an inventive format.A film that every old school fan should own.Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy the film.

Classic!!