Bi Rain new film-Ninja Assassin-Info

Ninja Assassin

Director: James McTeigue Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles

The does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin film title has been in vogue since Snakes on a Plane, and with the upcoming release of Hot Tub Time Machine, it’s probably not going anywhere fast.

But while Ninja Assassin carries on this tradition, the film lacks the sense of humour that such a title demands.

It takes place in a world where nine clans of highly trained ninjas will kill any target with ruthless efficiency for 100 pounds of gold. Their clients range from gangsters to governments. If everyday people learn of the ninjas’ existence, they are dispatched in an orgy of blood that hardly seems in keeping with the clans’ secretive nature.

But when Raizo (played by the Korean pop star Rain) decides that being a ninja isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, he goes on the run with the Europol agent Mika (Naomie Harris), who has been investigating the assassinations.

The film revels in its bloodiness, and most of the assassins’ targets end up in several pieces before actually dying. While over-the-top splatter and gore have proved amusing and effective in films such as Shogun Assassin and (more recently) Kill Bill, Ninja Assassin has a leering and sadistic feel about it. Some of the fight scenes are stylish, but their heavy reliance on computer-generated imagery and camera tricks leave the action feeling rather lifeless.

With its heavy melodrama and unwavering confrontation of violence, the film bravely nods to the glory days of martial arts cinema, but unlike many of its predecessors, it lacks a heart or a soul.

Source:The National Newspaper.