Video Synopsis: A U.S. Congressman is the prime kidnap target of a murderous group of Oriental terrorists. Together with his entire tourist group, he is held hostage in return for the release of a violent criminal with a drug-racket background. To combat crisis on an international scale, the U.S. deploys its feared DART squad, a top-level anti-terrorist task force. Led by Spike Shinobi, a Ninja combat guru, DART takes on the underground army of a power-crazed drug tycoon with a combination of cunning, Ninja techniques and state-of-the-art weaponry. Spike Shinobi is played by SHO KOSUGI, who broke into films after becoming All Japan Karate Champion at the age of 18. (94 Mins)

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Views: Every time I think of 9 Deaths Of The Ninja, I still laugh-out-loud at how ridiculous this 1980's action flick really is. It must be a good 20+ years since I last watched it and had actually forgotten just how badly written and camp the whole thing is, with the first 10 minutes alone proving to be the switch-off moment for any sane person watching it. The film opens with a dreadfully staged musical number, delivered in the style of a James Bond opening credits sequence - complete with a cheesy power ballad, dancing girls, and a topless Sho Kosugi dancing with his weapons. Jesus Christ, who came up with that one?!? A busload of tourists in the Philippines are captured and taken hostage by a crazed group of terrorists/drug dealers, including two kids (Kane and Shane Kosugi). One of the tourists is a U.S. Congressman who becomes the perfect bargaining chip when the terrorists demand the release of one of their leaders – a violent criminal who is imprisoned back in the States. The U.S. Government send out a trio of agents (known as the DART Squad) who include Spike Shinobi (Sho Kosugi), Steve Gordon (Brent Huff), and Jennifer Barnes (Emilia Crow), on a special mission to track down crazed terrorist leader, Alby The Cruel (Blackie Dammett) and his wild woman, Honey Hump (Regina Richardson). Together, they must defeat the oddest bunch of villains ever and bring the American hostages home!

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If I'm going to be honest, I don't really know how to take 9 Deaths Of The Ninja. Was it made as a comedy? Was it not? I mean, we have the typically serious Sho Kosugi trying to pull off his best Jackie Chan impression – kidding around, pulling funny faces, and having fun with the baddies during fight scenes – and then there's the introduction of some of the most wildly over-the-top villains. These include a quartet of 'kung-fu' midgets who are easily defeated by picking them up to shake them, or by simply spinning them around. And then, of course, there is Alby The Cruel and Honey Hump – the two main villains of the piece who are so utterly over-the-top and ridiculous, you just can't take 9 Deaths Of The Ninja as a serious action flick. Alby, played by Blackie Dammett, is a wheelchair-bound German terrorist with a pet monkey and a bad accent. He's backed by the crazy Honey Hump, a gun-toting, loud-mouthed lesbian played by Regina Richardson, both of whom deliver equally dreadful performances. In fact, pretty much everyone in 9 Deaths Of The Ninja does...

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As an action movie, this one falls in comfortably with classic action flicks such as Naked Gun, Airplane, and Laser Mission although to be honest, it's genuinely embarrassing to some degree! How Sho Kosugi (with all due respect) got to be a huge Asian star in 1980's America and Jackie Chan didn't, is beyond me. I'm not saying that the negatives of this film are down to him, but what a waste of talent. We have seen what Sho can do in other movies and how good he can actually be, but in this – my god! This was the 3rd movie from cinematographer-turned-director Emmett Alston after the horror-comedy Three-Way Weekend and New Year's Evil for the Cannon group. And given the humorous element in those films alone, I am leaning more towards the fact that 9 Deaths Of The Ninja may actually have been made for laughs. Mind you, if that is the case, then this could most certainly be a masterpiece IF it was made as a parody of 80's action (and ninja) movies. Emmett would follow this one up with another martial arts adventure called Tigershark, staring Mike Stone from American Ninja 2: The Confrontation, and returned to the ninja genre in '88 with Force Of The Ninja (but the less said the better) before ending his career with Little Ninjas in 1993 in a bid to cash in on the success of the passable family film, 3 Ninjas, from the year before.

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Overall: So bad it might just be good for other people, 9 Deaths Of The Ninja isn't the greatest film of the Cannon catalogue!