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Ninja Assassin
Rain, a South Korean pop singer turned actor, moves on from "Speed Racer" to a ninja in this gory flick.
Courtesy
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
Published: 11/27/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 11/27/2009 4:37 AM
Being a modern-day rogue ninja is certainly a bloody business.
Part gooey horror, part action extravaganza, "Ninja Assassin" is certainly obsessed with the gore of the mythic profession.
Understandably, a movie about an off-the-grid ninja should be violent, but director James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") seems more interested in the body count than the story, which ends up almost as sliced and diced as his ill-fated extras.
The lithe star of "Ninja Assassin" — pop singer Rain — is new to America but already a superstar in his native South Korea. His American debut was in last year's "Speed Racer," which like "Ninja Assassin," was produced by the Wachowski Brothers of "The Matrix" trilogy.
Rain plays the cunning Raizo, who belongs to the Ozunu Clan of deadly assassins. They are orphans trained for years to become terrifying shadows in the night.
But as we see in frequent flashbacks, Raizo leaves his clan when his only friend — Kiriko, played by Anna Sawai — is murdered for defying their brutal tradition and trying to escape.
Who can blame her? This poor little ninja refuses to cut her classmate and in turn gets sliced across the cheek then locked in a standing cage for days.
As interesting as this backstory becomes, it's only a side story. The real plot centers on two Europol employees — an agent Maslow (Ben Miles) and a forensic research assistant Mika (Naomie Harris), who inevitably learn the truth: After centuries, ninja clans still exist and are hired to assassinate government officials.
Meanwhile, Raizo has become a freelancing loner with plenty of time to reflect — he likes to do this while performing handstand push-ups on a bed of nails.
As we learn during his many flashbacks, the ninja training camp is brutal beyond belief. Children are forced to fight children and learn disturbing lessons along the way. When a young Raizo makes a squeak on a floor board during training, he receives a nasty lashing leaving his feet so bloody it's a wonder he ever walks again.
But ninjas are trained to be tough and that's an understatement. McTeigue shows us over and over again just how much pain — and mutilation — they can tolerate.
In fact, he seems to chuck the last third of the story for an extended showcase of video-game style action. Raizo's rampage seems like it will never end, and the poor Europol agents keep firing machine guns — as if a bullet could stop a ninja.
But while "Ninja Assassin" satisfies our curiosity with plenty of ninja lore, it offers a lame catalyst as its primary plot. We could care less about the government agents killed or the bureaucratic red tape Mika has to go through to find her ninja.
I understand why people are fans of martial arts and ninja movies — the fighting can be really cool. And while there is action galore in "Ninja Assassin," these fights start to become so bloody they're preposterous. How many ways can you cut a person in half, anyway? The answer is too many.
NINJA ASSASSIN
Stars:
Rain, Naomie Harris
Theaters:
Promenade, Cinemark Tulsa,
Starworld 20, RiverWalk, owasso,
Eton Square, Broken Arrow, Sand
Springs
Running time:
1 hour, 39 minutes
Rated:
R (strong bloody stylized violence
throughout, and language)
Quality:
 (on a scale of zero to four
stars)
Kim Brown 581-8474
kim.brown@tulsaworld.com
By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
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