Shaolin Challenges Ninja is a marvelous piece of work.
It's another Shaw Bros. classic from the Liu brothers.
If your interested inacquiring information on Chinese
martial arts, particularly the weapons side of things,
then this is an excellent and entertaining introduction.
Liu Chia Liang plays Ho a rich, young, Chinese playboy
sort. His dad, a wealthy business man, needs to secure a
contact in Japan. So he arranges a marriage between his
son and his business partners daughter Kuda. Well, Ho is
a bit worried at first but then finds her to be "a bit of alright"
(How he does I honestly don't know !?). Anyway, things start
off a bit dodgy, as she starts smashing up garden decorations
and potted plants etc.in order to practice her Karate chops, and
what not.This Japo tom foolery doesn't go down well at all with
our Ho. So they fight a fare bit, with Ho coming out on top
(don't!) all the time, and smiling in the process.
Kuda, angered by her smug little Chinese husband, nips over to
Japan. Here she grabs a load of top Japanese masters, each
one mastering a different style or weapon. All the lads hop on the
next boat to China so they can challenge Ho and thus illustrate
how inferior his Chinese boxing is.
Well as you can imagine, things don't go as planned for the poor
Japanese boys. At the end of the film Ho has to defeat the
trickiest style of all .............."Ninjitsu".
His Ninja opponent is played by Yasuaki Kurata (Fist of Legend)
and proves to be a worthy one too. This last fight is jam packed
with action and the two fight each other using many different
techniques including .... Weapons, Secret weapons (darts etc.),
"Chinese Crane Style" and even the weird 'n' wonderful
"Japanese Crab Technique".Anyway the film ends on a happy
note, with the death toll at the all time low of zero.
This film manages to take both the Chinese and Japanese
martial arts seriously. So much so that it could almost be
described as an educational film.
Liu Chia Hui's skills are possibly best shown in this film,
as he uses many of the traditional Chinese weapons, and
each one is wielded as if it were his favorite.
An aspect that I find very funny is that Ho is no
master, he comes into class at leisure, and sort of half
trains not particularly shining out from the rest.
However when challenged by a whole group of Japan's
finest, he defeats them all, and without too much bother.
Also look out for little bit parts from Wilson Tong
" The Foot Doctor", Yuen Siu Tien "Sam Seed", and
that guy whose always bald whether he's a monk or not,
Lee Hoi Sang.
