Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted July 15, 2010 Member Share Posted July 15, 2010 Anyone have any pics, screencaps, hi res, lo res, lobby cards or any images whatsoever from the 1983 Lee Tso Nam flick, A Life Of Ninja, starring Chen Kuan Tai and Yasuaki Kurata??? Much appreciated if you do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ThunderScore Posted September 24, 2013 Member Share Posted September 24, 2013 Recently came across this. Sounds like it was done sometime after the original English version - perhaps in Canada... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member teako170 Posted September 24, 2013 Member Share Posted September 24, 2013 I've watched this once (years ago) and despite having Kurata & CKT in it, I was a bit disappointed. Think it was fullframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jesse Smooth Posted September 24, 2013 Member Share Posted September 24, 2013 I have the wide subbed version that Crash Cinema had put out. That weird version was on YouTube once upon a time. The opening credits had bizarre names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ThunderScore Posted September 24, 2013 Member Share Posted September 24, 2013 IIRC, Tai Seng also released it on DVD. Never thought it was a classic, but IMHO, anything with Kurata is always worth checking out. The VHS of this new (at least to me) version also had a trailer for it at the end of the tape, which I imagine wasn't supposed to be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Shaolivevil Posted September 24, 2013 Member Share Posted September 24, 2013 I have the wide subbed version that Crash Cinema had put out. That weird version was on YouTube once upon a time. The opening credits had bizarre names. I have that both the Crash Cinema and Tai Seng DVDs. The Crash Cinema DVD was widescreen but the quality sucked donkey ass and didn't have the English dub. Crash Cinema had a bad habit of releasing inferior quality prints. The Tai Seng DVD quality is better by comparison but it's in full screen and had English dub only. I would like to get the best of both worlds with a high quality widescreen print with removable subtitles and original Mandarin audio track and English dub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jesse Smooth Posted September 25, 2013 Member Share Posted September 25, 2013 I have that both the Crash Cinema and Tai Seng DVDs. The Crash Cinema DVD was widescreen but the quality sucked donkey ass and didn't have the English dub. Crash Cinema had a bad habit of releasing inferior quality prints. The Tai Seng DVD quality is better by comparison but it's in full screen and had English dub only. I would like to get the best of both worlds with a high quality widescreen print with removable subtitles and original Mandarin audio track and English dub. Thats's a dream project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted April 13, 2015 Member Share Posted April 13, 2015 I'm not sure what happened between Tommy Lee and Lee Tso-Nam, because they seemed to work together a lot during the late 70s, but by the early 80s, Peng Kong had become Lee Tso-Nam's go-to guy. Obviously, this wasn't a problem, since the man had quite a bit of talent. This film is a trashy little ninjasploitation flick about a sleazy businessman who's marked for death by the Iga ninja clan. Nobody likes the bastard, least of all his alcoholic wife and his sister-in-law, who's also his business rival. Said sister-in-law (Elsa Yeung) is also a martial arts aficionado and has recently started dating a kendo/bujutsu máster named Chow (Chen Kuan Tai). When it becomes apparent that ninja are killing everybody around the businessman, and that the sister-in-law is also on the hit list, Chow becomes to the businessman's bodyguard to ferret out the killers (shades of Erik Von Lustbader's first ninja novel). As far as I'm concerned, a ninja movie must be judged on two fronts: the quality of the martial arts and the creativity of the ninja tricks. With regards to the latter, we get quite a few. Poisoned icicle daggers, ninja hypnosis, deadly ninja sex, wire-assisted ninja jumps, explosives, and more punctuate the action. I must point out that the film's dialogue mainly consists of Chen Kuan-Tai telling everyone that it doesn't matter how many guns and bodyguards you have, the ninja will always prevail in the end. Peng Kong's action is occasionally inspired, although sometimes a little silly. A drawn-out fight between Chen Kuan-Tai and a super-powerful ninja (played by a professional wrestler) doesn't work for me, but a previous scene in which he kills a bunch of ninja with a pair of tonfa does. The finale has Chen hacking a bunch of shinobi down with a katana, followed by a long fight between Chen and Yasuaki Kurata. The lighting is off during the katana portion of their fight, making it hard to see. The last bit, with Kurata adopting an eccentric monkey/cat style while Chen goes into bad-a** mode is a highlight. I regret that the resident kunoichi didn't get to fight more, though. Fun at times, but it's no Heroes of the East or Ninja in the Dragon's Den. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted April 13, 2015 Member Share Posted April 13, 2015 The only reason I rewatch A Life of Ninja is to see CKT vs the sumo ninja. I show it to people all the time, but nobody likes it:tongue: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member paimeifist Posted April 13, 2015 Member Share Posted April 13, 2015 While I don't expect anything to be on the level of Heroes of the East or Ninja in the Dragons Den, this movie does sound interesting! Even if just for ninja cheese, CKT vs said sumo ninja, CKT vs Kurata, and I'm curious to see how he wields a katana as well. Kurata and CKT don't seem to be the best match for Peng Kongs choreography style, at least if Woman Avenger and The Leg Fighters are any indicator.. So I'm also interested to see how he handles these two intense guys! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member QueMuchita Posted April 14, 2015 Member Share Posted April 14, 2015 I don't think I've ever seen A Life of Ninja, I might have to check it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ShawAngela Posted June 3, 2020 Member Share Posted June 3, 2020 Nice movie, with Chen Kuan Tai, but the ending fight with Yasuaki Kurata is shot in the dark for a long while and we can't see nothing of what is going on !! Am I mistaken, or at the end of the movie, during the duel between Yasuaki Kurata and Chen Kuan Tai, Yasuaki Kurata shows a kind of VERY MAD monkey style ? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted November 25, 2020 Member Share Posted November 25, 2020 On 6/4/2020 at 7:36 AM, ShawAngela said: Am I mistaken, or at the end of the movie, during the duel between Yasuaki Kurata and Chen Kuan Tai, Yasuaki Kurata shows a kind of VERY MAD monkey style ? I don't remember Yasuaki Kurata performing any kind of monkey style in the final fight. From what I recall he fights Elsa Yang Hui-Shan's ninja character in the finale?. But I could be wrong as I've only viewed this flick one time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Majin Android Posted August 12, 2021 Member Share Posted August 12, 2021 Elsa Yeung fights Kurata at the end of Ninja Avenger aka Impossible Woman not A Life of Ninja that insane monkey style by Kurata at the end of A Life of Ninja was sick! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlexanderFu Posted August 23, 2021 Member Share Posted August 23, 2021 He did a 'Crab' style in heroes of the East that reminded me of that fight in A Life of a Ninja. He is pretty insane with those moves! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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