Five Elements Ninjas (1982)

This week’s post is going to be a little different than normal. This is going to be a little more of a free flow. Normally I have a structure that I try to stick to, though I can sometimes get a little too in depth or go on unnecessary tangents. “Kill your babies” doesn’t matter when you edit your own work for your own blog. It’s just about getting the post out in time, or close enough to it. I’m writing this on Saturday night, right before the Sunday that the post is going up. I just finished the movie. Rather than spend time coming up with a full topic, I’m going to write whatever comes to mind. As long as it’s about the movie, obviously. I’m not going to spend 200 words on Pepsi Blue, as much as I like the stuff.

I’m going to put this out here right away. I don’t think this week’s movie was bad. Not at all. It was a highly entertaining, action-packed martial arts film that delivered on the martial arts promise. To the person who suggested the movie for me to watch, I understand why you did it. I understand why you thought this movie could fit into the Sunday “Bad” Movies repertoire. It makes sense. But, having now seen it, I wholeheartedly disagree with the bad part. This was a fun ass, good martial arts flick. It was simply lacking a compelling story.

Five Elements Ninjas came out in 1982.  Two martial arts studios battled it out to see who had the better fighters. One of them beat the other without much of a struggle. The loser then enlisted the help of a ninja from Japan to take down the rival school. The ninja and his cronies killed all but one member of the winning school, and that one member sought revenge for the slaughter of his friends.

The action of Five Elements Ninjas was truly the standout aspect of the film. Luckily, that was the majority of the film. There was very little downtime between the five-minute-long fight scenes that filled it. There would be a fight, followed by a fight, followed by two more fights, one scene of characters talking, then four more fights. The movie was much more about the fighting than the story. It showed. The fighting was like a dance routine. Everything was perfectly choreographed. People dodging. People slashing. People parrying. There was even a section of the movie where characters were blindfolded and had to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge without being able to see. The amount of practice that would have had to go into that fight to allow the actors to perform it must have been a lot. I was blown away by the masterful physical work of every performer.

Paired with the fight scenes were the sets. It seemed like every fight scene played out on a set built on a soundstage. This kind of set use allowed for more elaborate fighting elements. Ninjas were disguised at trees. Others hid underground, stabbing upwards at their opponents. People flew around on wires and bounced off trampolines or springboards, though the wires and trampolines or springboards were hidden from the camera’s view. These things could only be done on a soundstage, which would allow the wire systems above the actors and the space beneath for people to hide in.

Now, I love a good set. By that, I mean that I love a good set that looks like a set, but is well enough designed that it fits into the aesthetic of the movie. I’m not talking a set where they clearly just slapped some walls to some A-frames, painted them a solid colour, and shot a movie. I’m talking the sets that people put work into, but they look like a stylized set instead of a real location. I love that kind of stuff.

Five Elements Ninjas was full of those kinds of sets. The Earth set allowed people the fly out of holes in the ground. The Water set had a bridge over a pool. That set never really got utilized to its full potential, but it was a fun set to see, nonetheless. The Wood set had fake trees that became hiding spots for ninjas, as well as spots for other characters to jump onto. Even the more typical, mundane locations were brought to life during the fights, thanks to set design. There was a scene where the ninjas stormed the Chinese martial arts school’s courtyard and a few great things happened, utilizing the set. The ninjas stabbed through a lattice-like wall to injure many of the students. There was a spiderweb of rope between the rooftops to allow ninjas to lower themselves into the fray. Everything within the set was designed to further the entertainment and visual aspects of the fighting. It was a delightful use of set design.

The other major detail of Five Elements Ninjas that should be noted is the use of sound throughout the film. The foley work within the fights stood out. It wasn’t realistic in any way whatsoever, though the fights weren’t realistic either. One fight had a guy tripping over his own innards. It’s not realistic that he’d be fighting with some of the inner parts of his body flopping about, but that’s beside the point. Back to the sound. Swords slashing through the air sounded like whips. If metal hit metal, there was a high “shing” sound, like the stereotypical shimmer sound of a gem in a cartoon. Every sound was as heightened as the action itself. It brought everything together as a whole.

Five Elements Ninjas could be seen as a live action cartoon. It certainly had the elements of a cartoon pushing it creatively. The action was fantastical, over-the-top in a stylistic way. People were flipping over people at heights that would be impossible. They were running through the air. There were injuries that would have killed a normal person having almost no effect on the characters aside from blood. The sets might not have looked like real locations, but they resembled them enough that you could believe they were those places. This unrealism allowed for much of the action to happen because the set designers could incorporate set elements into the fights. The set design allowed people to explode from the ground. It allowed trees to attack people. It made it possible for people to stab upward through the earth. The outlandish action was made possible by the set design. It was all brought together by the sound work. A spear would stab upward, cutting someone open, and there would be a “shing.” It was the final touch to make the action special.

I completely understand why you might think that Five Elements Ninjas would make a perfect Sunday “Bad” Movies flick. In a way, it is a perfect one. It had similarities to many of the movies that have been featured in the blog. I would argue that the movie might be better than this blog would have you think. It’s not the first movie like that. There have been numerous movies that I included and realized, upon watching, that they weren’t bad. That’s why the “Bad” in Sunday “Bad” Movies gets quotations around it. Sometimes the movies end up being better than their reputation or, in this case, suggestion might make you think. I’m always glad to find a movie like this. A diamond in the rough, shimmering with a “shing.”

Now for a few notes before heading off into the Sunday sunset:

• Five Elements Ninjas was suggested by @Matarael.
• You-Sing Cheung and Yung-Chang Ho were in both Five Elements Ninjas and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (week 112).
• Have you seen Five Elements Ninjas? What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
• If there are any movies that you think should be a part of Sunday “Bad” Movies, tell me what they are. Find me on Twitter and we can have a conversation. Or you could just leave the title in the comments. Either one works.
• Make sure to take a look at Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram for other Sunday “Bad” Movies fun.
• Next week will feature another number based movie title. I’m going to be checking out a little movie called 3 Strikes that I don’t know a lot about. I’ll know more by this time next week. See you then!