Friday, September 24, 2021

 'Tiger Ninja Part 2' aka 'Ninja Death 2' (1987) - Joseph Kuo.


After a beautifully balletic Kung Fabulous title sequence which boisterously introduces our main preternaturally agile pugilists, we then soon discover that the handsome, aesthetically muscular Tiger (Alexander Rei Lo) was born under a bad sign, since his beleaguered mother was almost assassinated by ambushing Ninjas, and then cruelly driven into exile by this nihilistic mob of pyjama-wearing warlords, also being estranged from his unknown, mysteriously elusive father,thereby making tinky-tiny Tiger's turbulent childhood one of enormous privation, but eventually this plucky, hard-luck orphan is raised to martial arts manhood by one of the deadly, hush-hush 'Plum Ninjas', Aye!!! These 'Plum Ninjas' are an especially rum lot, a killer cadre of morally suspect, fist-fighting freaks, being the last practitioners of the ancient, long-forgotten, absolutely elite martial art of 'Royal Ninja Kung Fu'. While there's a pleasingly hectic quality to 'Ninja Tiger Part 2' it is, sadly, not quite on the same histrionic levels of a gonzo Cut N' Paste Joseph Lai Ninja mash-up, the frequently jarring narrative, and somewhat cavalier approach to film-making being further obfuscated by muffled, wildly variable sound levels, overly brusque editing, deliciously comedic dubbing, and hilariously incongruent music cues; a few stolen themes from 'You Only Live twice', and some joyfully jaunty, fabulously inappropriate library music, perhaps surreptitiously culled from an early 70s Bavarian sex comedy! While wholly absurd, 'Ninja Tiger part 2' is quite wonderfully mad, and the righteous fight scenes are aggressively choreographed with considerable elan, the fleet-limbed actors being clearly skilled, miraculously flexible, Kung Fu artisans, and there is even some wholly deranged, built like a brick-Khazi George Eastman-type in a wickedly ominous silver samurai mask, who gorily tears out the still-living guts of all the unfortunate kung Fools who have the fatal misfortune to cross his ceaselessly psychotic path! 'Tiger Ninja Part 2' is a gleefully bizarre, incandescently insane Kung Fu calamity, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!



















 

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