CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA (1983, aka. CHINESE SUPER NINJAS 2)

[KUNG FU BOB]

I popped onto cityonfire.com for some reading during my lunch break and came across a great review for this film: http://cityonfire.com/challenge-of-the-lady-ninja-1983-review-chinese-super-ninja-2/

Gotta say @One Armed Boxer, every time I read one of your reviews it is both a joy and a relief. The last decade especially, has seen countless so-called "reviewers" plopping their poorly written opinions onto the internet (I'm guilty of this myself), often with slapdash grammar and punctuation, uneducated guesswork, and rarely with any context as to where the given film or its makers fit into the overall history of the genre. There are exceptions of course (Impact, Twitch...), but these days they seem rarer than a green-eyed Chinese beauty. I miss Mark Pollard's terrific reviews from the heyday of kungfucinema.com, and wish he was still writing today. But your reviews are way up there near the top, brother. You know your stuff, yet you still (obviously) do your research before posting anything, and I almost always learn something I didn't know about a film or its creators (even those that I'm very familiar with) that I hadn't heard before. So anyway, thank you. Now don't get a big head about this or anything, I'm only saying you're a good writer. I'm sure that despite what I've heard, you're probably a horrible person in real life.  LOL

As far as CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA goes, my first encounter with it was back when NS (which I think later became Ground Zero, but I'm not certain) were releasing the very first (that I know of) Shaw Brothers DVD releases. They were a mighty mixed bag as far as quality and which version of a film they'd put out, with most being sourced from full-screen, multi-generation VHS copies. I seem to recall their release of KILLER ARMY (an aka for THE REBEL INTRUDERS, 1980) even being a disappointing edited-for-TV print. But the DVDs were still (for the most part) a step up from the VHS, and at least we could slow-mo the action when we wanted, and take in every cobra-fast strike we wanted to see. Now, this was all happening at a time when resources for researching these films was even less available/reliable than it is today, and a fan/consumer often had to take a leap of faith when buying titles. So when I saw the title CHINESE SUPER NINJAS 2 I thought it was a dubious-at-best, attempt to cash in on our love for FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS (1982, aka. CHINESE SUPER NINJAS) with some completely unrelated nonsense. But still... I wondered: what if it was actually NINJA IN THE DEADLY TRAP (1981)? That film was in many ways a retelling of FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS, featuring much of the same talent, so it would make sense (in a sleazy, give us all your money kind of way) that the label might be trying to connect the two films. The DVD cover photos and info were not the most reliable on these, but I still remember looking at the back cover text in search of familiar Shaw Brothers related names. "Starring Polly Shan Kwan" it stated. "Okay, I like her" I thought, recalling her performances in many films I'd seen. The text also proclaimed that "the action team that brought you 5 Venoms, Kid with the Golden Arms and the original Chinese Super Ninja strike back with the follow up to the Ninja classic." Okay, in that one sentence they screwed up two titles, changing "Arm" to plural and "Ninjas" to singular, and they decided that the word "ninja" is a proper noun, awarding it a capitol N. When a company releasing a film can't even bother to proof-read the text on their own packaging it's sloppy, and a sign of carelessness, but that doesn't mean the movie won't be good. Right? Plus it was advertised as a "Limited Collector's Edition"! "Limited"? Oh man, I knew I had better jump on this opportunity before it was too late. I was ready to take a chance on this, based on the actress and choreographers, and I plunked down my fifteen bucks.

When I put the DVD on I was immediately bummed. Aside from the crummy-looking full-screen picture, it was instantly obvious that this was not a Shaw Brothers film in any way shape or form. Oh, and Polly Shan Kwan is not the star. In fact, she doesn't even appear in the film at all. I found out later that she had stopped making films before CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA was even made. The actual star of the film is Elsa YangHui-Shan, an actress that you may have seen in PINK FORCE COMMANDO (1982), A BOOK OF HEROES (1986), or A LIFE OF NINJA (1983) with Chen Kuan-Tai and Yasuaki Kurata.

When the credit appeared that it was made by Taiwanese film director Lee Tso-Nam, who I knew from SHAOLIN INVINCIBLE STICKS (1979), THE HOT, THE COOL AND THE VICIOUS (1976), EAGLE'S CLAW (1977), and other entertaining fu flicks, my curiosity was peeked somewhat, but as I was totally in the mood for a SB flick I turned it off, cursing NS for their lies.

Now, here I am 27 years later (where does the time go?) reading this review and thinking that this sounds like a cheesy good time. (If only I could've collected rent on the shelf space that the DVD has been taking up for all these years!) At least now I have a widescreen print to watch, and will be checking it out (beyond just he opening credits) in the near future.

So, what do you guys and gals think of this film?

Here's the NS DVD cover. Okay, maybe the naked ninja lady influenced my purchase a little...

A couple of posters...

Below is the Ocean Shores oversized clam-shell VHS packaging. It drove me crazy that they put the titles backwards on their spines!

[lungfei]

taiwanese ninja movies are the best.  

have to post this awesome song.

 

[One Armed Boxer]

14 hours ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

Gotta say @One Armed Boxer, every time I read one of your reviews it is both a joy and a relief. The last decade especially, has seen countless so-called "reviewers" plopping their poorly written opinions onto the internet (I'm guilty of this myself), often with slapdash grammar and punctuation, uneducated guesswork, and rarely with any context as to where the given film or its makers fit into the overall history of the genre.

You make me blush good sir, but thank you very much for the kind words, and glad that the amount of time and effort I put into any reviews I write is appreciated.

Here's a few stills from its entry over at the Korean Movie Database - 

Link - http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/vod/vod_basic.asp?nation=K&p_dataid=03663#none