With the seeming lack of interest that the public had for the film The Forbidden Kingdom during it’s theatrical release (interest may spike DVD wise) one is left to wonder if maybe the Kung Fu revival hasn’t run its course. In the same vein the quickie horror film seems to be appearing and then vanishing rather abruptly and the teen comedy doesn’t have the draw it used to. It seems as though Hollywood is in a pinch to find films that don’t really need great scripts, can be filmed on a shoestring budget and will find a home with audiences when released in theaters as well as DVD. I have the perfect genre for this, a genre I loved as a kid that seems tailor made for this ideal and due for a comeback.

The Ninja Movie.

When I was a boy growing up in the eighties fewer things excited me like spending a Saturday at the local theater watching a Ninja double feature. Ninja films combine all the elements you need for a great action movie. Hand-to-hand combat, awesome weapons bloody violence and hot women. Ninja films basically revolve around the idea of getting revenge and from there you can spider-web out plot wise to whatever you want.

Back then they had movies with Ninjas jumping over lakes, fighting on water, fighting on the top of skyscrapers, whatever they could think of. With the commonality of CGI effects these days Ninja’s could do anything, fight anywhere and excite an entire new audience of young boys as well as old nerds like me who fiend to don the black outfit and sharpen our throwing stars. Imagine weird creature Ninja armies or the idea that you could have a Ninja army without having to have 1000 actors.
 
The Ninja films of the eighties were unmercifully cheap but it was a different era and the movie watchers eye wasn’t as sharply trained as it is today. For instance one of the greatest Ninja movies ever had “Revenge Of The Ninja” was supposed to take place in LA but every car boasted a Utah license plate. Things like that weren’t even hidden, nor was the often badly dubbed dialog over whatever Asian actor they managed to get to play either the good or evil Ninja.

While those films hold a nostalgic place in my heart for the new Ninja films the budgets would have to grow enough to make them palatable to the new movie audience. Even with that thesefilms would be seriously less money than and standard Hollywood production. Really all you’d need was a few decent actors, a great fight coordinator and a few locations. Script wise you’re not going to have to turn to Charlie Kaufman though I’d be really fascinated to see what he’d do with the genre.

With a decent budget in place the script would really write itself. You can set the story in modern times, in ancient times, in both or get really creative and have space Ninjas sent to kill somebody having to be stopped by the anti-hero. The anti-hero is very, very important to the Ninja film. The hero Ninja must not want to fight, usually because something horrible happened to his family or he’s trying to atone for past sins. At some point in the movie he’s forced to fight to defend himself or a friend where he defeats like twenty-five Ninjas at one time. The ultimate bad guy who is usually a mob type will continue to provoke the anti-hero until he snaps and brings the battle to his enemies with very bloody results. You also must have an evil Ninja who is just as powerful as the anti-hero and the film must end with a huge battle between the two. There is on way around this, it is how it must be.

If these smaller budget versions caught on there could even be room for a big budget Ninja film. Imagine Jason Statham and Jet Li in a Ridley Scott directed Ninja film complete with a huge special effects budget and maybe even a really good script. Having never seen a well written big budget Ninja film I’m not sure how it would translate but what a kick ass time it would be watching it go down.

Even if Hollywood didn’t want to risk writing a new movie there’s a plethora of old Ninja films ripe for a remake. Revenge Of The Ninja, American Ninja, Nine Deaths Of The Ninja, Full Metal Ninja, and of course the epic classic Enter The Ninja. Take any of those; improve the writing, update them and you have a new Ninja action classic ready to happen.

Some may say that trying to jumpstart the Ninja movie genre is a silly idea and while they’re maybe be some truth to that s it any sillier than the other genres Hollywood is picking over to make a buck? Is a new Ninja movie any less classy or creative than the world of remakes, which seems to get more and more ridiculous as time goes on. Why remake a classic like Friday The 13th when you could remake a small time Ninja film and actually improve it. To me a new Ninja market can’t be any worse than the umpteenth herky-jerky filmed scary movie which just rehashes scares from older Japanese horror films or another Kung Fu film or another hot kids race some kind of fast something to win respect or whatever.

Hollywood will always try to exploit smaller genres to make a quick buck. That game plan has been going on since the days of Roger Corman and with the addition of DVDs it is now just a fact of life. So if we have to endure those types of movies why not enjoy a solid ninety minutes of throwing stars, swords, fighting staffs, blood, murder and mayhem. Perhaps Ninja films will catch fire like comic book movies and we could get big name actors to play Ninjas and at the same time take some of the focus off of comic books. It would also be another way that old nerds like me could relive our youth through a capitalistic market that seems hell bent on exploiting it.