I just can’t get enough eighties cheese, and this Cannon production is about as cheesy as they come—and any film that mixes ninjas and demonic possession is a must-see in my book!
ENTER THE NINJA (1981) and REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983) were fun movies, offering up the expected chop sockey foolishness and featuring the skilled and charismatic Sho Kosugi. In a sharp reversal of the quality of most movie sequels, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984), featuring Kosugi in an entirely different role (he plays different parts in all three movies), is far and away the best film of the series. That’s not saying a whole lot, of course, since the three films were produced and distributed by the late Cannon Group, and bear much evidence of the cost-cutting favored by Cannon’s notoriously cheap honchos Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus.
In a remote hillside cave a scruffy ninja—i.e. a black robed practitioner of the “Art of Invisibility” Ninjutsu—finds a wicked looking samurai sword and wastes no time putting it to use…by indiscriminately slicing up a bunch of people on a nearby golf course! Eventually he’s surrounded and shot to death by cops—only to pop back up and possess the body of a passing aerobics enthusiast named Christie (BREAKIN’S Lucinda Dickey).
Christie finds herself undergoing disquieting flashbacks to the ninja’s crimes and impulsively following a cop who helped facilitate the ninja’s death. One night Christie is hypnotized by a flashing beam emitted from a video game, which deposits a sword that she grasps lovingly. This somehow leads her to the cave where the whole mess began, and a cache of throwing stars and other deadly weapons.
From there Christie heads to the home of the cop she followed and, dressed in full Ninja regalia, kills the fucker! Next she tracks another member of the death squad to an indoor hot tub and offs him there, along with his two bimbo girlfriends.
Christie’s boyfriend takes her to a Japanese sorcerer but the hoped-for exorcism doesn’t happen. Christie remains possessed, and embarks on a cop killing spree.
Shadowing her, however, is another guy schooled in the art of Ninjutsu: the tough but kind Yamada, who was nearly killed by the guy whose soul is dominating Christie and now wants revenge!
This film begins in agreeable fashion with an eight minute blast of slashing, stabbing, piercing and shooting—and so runs a serious risk of peaking too early. Yet director Sam Firstenberg keeps the action and silliness jumping, from a ludicrous aerobic smack-down to an even more ludicrous ketchup-enhanced sex scene. The film’s pinnacle is the attempted exorcism sequence, which with its ultra-garish lighting and outre camera angles is as insanely over-directed as just about anything I’ve seen.
The narrative is complete nonsense (was anyone expecting otherwise?) and the Sho Kosugi choreographed action sequences will never rival those of ENTER THE DRAGON or THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS. Firstenberg and Kosugi, however, make up for their lack of skill with a lot of enthusiastic carnage (most evident in the opening kill-a-thon, of course). The film for all its faults is unpretentious and action-centered, just as you’d expect from a ninja movie. The martial arts slaughter, combined with the horror business, makes for an irresistible package, a definite case of two great tastes that taste great together.
Vital Statistics
NINJA III: THE DOMINATION
The Cannon Group
Director: Sam Firstenberg
Producers: Menahem Golan, Yorum Globus
Screenplay: James R. Silke
Cinematography: Hanania Baer
Cast: Sho Kosugi, Lucinda Dickey, Jordan Bennett, David Chung, Dale Ishimoto, James Hong, Bob Craig, Pamela Ness, Roy Padilla, Moe Mosley, John LaMotta, Ron Foster, Steve Lambert, Earl Smith