Ninja Assassin (2009) is 15 years old this year...

[DarthKato]

Damn, I didn't realize it was that old. Got it for my birthday when it first came out and I loved every minute of it. Stil one of my favorite movies. The action scenes are mind-blowing. 

[One Armed Boxer]

6 hours ago, Karlos said:

If Ninja Assassin came out today, would it do better, I wonder?

Netflix already has the answer to that question - yes - the similarities between the artwork are ridiculous!

As for me I've always been a big fan of 'Ninja Assassin', and feel like a lot of the lambasting it received from fans at the time was a result of circumstance rather than quality. I recall the months leading up to its release it was almost impossible to discuss it without also throwing the other upcoming ninja flick into the mix as well - the Scott Adkins starring 'Ninja' - which for most seemed to result in them turning against 'Ninja Assassin'. One was a low budget martial arts flick featuring a real martial artist who was going to be re-teaming with the director of 'Undisputed 2', the other was a big budget Hollywood flick starring some Asian pop star, and God forbid any Asian action movie should be headlined by a pop star in the 2000's, let alone a Hollywood one! It seemed like many who watched it had pre-programmed themselves to hate it - the action took place in the dark, the blood was CGI, Rain was too softly spoken etc. etc. But for me at least I thought it was a stellar effort, and one that I find myself going back to more than the Adkins and Florentine outing from the same year.

Ironically this thread made me remember a post I wrote waaaay back in 2012 for the Korean Film Festival in Australia blog (@mpm74 - don't worry, this was pre-my COF era ) detailing the similarities between 'Ninja Assassin' and 'The Warrior's Way'! - 

https://koreanfilmfestivalinaustralia.blogspot.com/2012/03/going-international-look-at-ninja.html

[Yihetuan]

About the whole headlined by a pop star thing, I doubt anyone knew who Rain was back then. I remember watching with buddies in the theater and most followed Asian/Kung Fu cinema but none had heard of Bi. I knew who he was because my fiancee was a burgeoning Kpop stan. The actor who played young Rain was another Kpop idol, Lee Joon ex-MBLAQ which was a group created by Rain & I'm sure that played a decision in the casting for young Raizo. A few years after that I saw him in Rough Play which was written by Kim Ki-duk and it was horrible! Never saw him in anything after that but I did like the song & MV for 전쟁이야.

[Karlos]

The only thing I didn't really dig was casting a guy as younger Raizo who looked nothing at all like Rain.

Was it "buy one K-pop star, get one free"?

[One Armed Boxer]

2 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

About the whole headlined by a pop star thing, I doubt anyone knew who Rain was back then.

Sorry mate, I should have made it more clear, these were actual discussions that were taking place on the forum back then (which unfortunately got lost in the great forum blackout) vs. speculation on my part. Korean cinema was pretty big within the Asian cinema fandom scene in the 2000's, so a lot of members on here were aware of Rain from his starring role in Park Chan-wook's 'I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK', which was the directors first movie after the Vengeance Trilogy. I think a lot of spite was coming from the fact that, even if they didn't know him musically, the guy from a quirky romantic drama set in a mental asylum (which likewise got a lot of hate at the time because it wasn't another revenge thriller from Chan-wook) was now set to star in a big budget Hollywood ninja flick. A lot of the comments were around the fact that the role should have gone to Scott Adkins, rather than being left to star in a DTV ninja movie.

[Yihetuan]

6 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Sorry mate, I should have made it more clear, these were actual discussions that were taking place on the forum back then (which unfortunately got lost in the great forum blackout) vs. speculation on my part. Korean cinema was pretty big within the Asian cinema fandom scene in the 2000's, so a lot of members on here were aware of Rain from his starring role in Park Chan-wook's 'I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK', which was the directors first movie after the Vengeance Trilogy. I think a lot of spite was coming from the fact that, even if they didn't know him musically, the guy from a quirky romantic drama set in a mental asylum (which likewise got a lot of hate at the time because it wasn't another revenge thriller from Chan-wook) was now set to star in a big budget Hollywood ninja flick. A lot of the comments were around the fact that the role should have gone to Scott Adkins, rather than being left to star in a DTV ninja movie.

Sounds like some interesting back and forth banter going on and makes me wish I had known about this forum back then. Definitely no to Scott Adkins in this role! Glad the casting worked out the way it did in the end. Just a shame that this film flopped and became a cult hit only and Bi never cracked the 'bamboo ceiling' of Hollywood.

[One Armed Boxer]

5 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

Definitely no to Scott Adkins in this role!

Times have definitely changed, it'd be hard to imagine fans petitioning for a white guy to play the role of an Asian in todays more culturally aware environment!  

[laagi]

5 minutes ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Times have definitely changed, it'd be hard to imagine fans petitioning for a white guy to play the role of an Asian in todays more culturally aware environment!  

[Yihetuan]

2 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Times have definitely changed, it'd be hard to imagine fans petitioning for a white guy to play the role of an Asian in todays more culturally aware environment!  

yeah, not sure if it was The Last Airbender or Ghost in the Shell that finally pushed it over the edge.

2 hours ago, laagi said:

well Keanu is like a quarter Chinese from his father's side isn't he? so he gets a pass as Asian in 47 Ronin and Little Buddha.

[hembruh]

I saw this for the first time in years the other night. it came out when I was in my early teens, saw it in the theater and loved it. I wanted to grow my hair out like Rain in this movie but it ended up growing poofy and I had more of a Robin Shou in Mortal Kombat thing going on, lol. I hadn't seen it since probably 2012. all in all it holds up as well as I thought it would. it's a lot of fun, has some bad cgi that I remember thinking was a little out of place when I watched it last too. I think it's one of the better examples of a hollywood movie of this type. I was actually surprised at how little I remembered from it. other than Rain himself all I really remembered was Sung Kang's friend's head getting lopped in half right before the opening titles. when I saw it in the theater my friends and I were laughing hysterically because some guy in his 40s the row in front of us went "GOD DAMN this ninja isn't screwing around!" super loudly at that part. it's got some goofy stuff in it, the acting and script are very mixed throughout but it feels like a nice update of some of the more serious and violent (but still goofy) ninja movies of the mid/late 80s. the action and violence is good and it's a pretty nice movie to look at. I wish it had done better and we might have got more movies like it around that time.