I had a blast talking ninja movies and their actual place in the larger martial arts realm with East Asian cinema expert and frequent disc commentator The Fanatical Dragon. It’s looooong, and honestly primarily audio in nature (who wants to look at my 32-pound head anyway) but we discuss some great stuff — discovering the source Japanese genre as an American 80s boom fan, the early days of disc trading in the 2000s, being a ninja fan in the UK vs the US, why more 1960s Japanese movies didn’t make it to us during the 80s craze, and whether or not many ninja movies even belong in the martial arts genre at all.
I’m even kind to Ninja Assassin for a moment… FUN STUFF!
Enjoy.
And while we’re here, RIP to the great Robert Duval. I still despise The Killer Elite, well, I mostly despise how the ninja are such a big joke to the likes of Burt Young (and honestly the director behind the camera too), but none of that is ‘the other Bobby D’s fault…
