SAKURA KILLERS
aka SAKURA KILLER
USA/Taiwan 1987
Directed by: Richard Ward
Cast: Cara Casey, Mike Kelly, George Nicholas, Chuck Connors, John Ladalski, Thomas Lung, Manji Otsuki, Brian Wong...
Running Time: 88 min. (German Tape)
Tagline
(taken from the German tape) Chuck Connors is the Colonel! Tagline
(taken from the German tape) Ninjas contra USA Covertext (taken from the German tape) Operation: Gen-Manipulation! Durch einen brutalen Ninja-Überfall auf ein streng bewachtes amerikanisches Gen-Labor gerät das geheime Videoband mit den Formeln, die die Welt beherrschen, in die falschen Hände. Kein normaler Mensch kommt an die Formeln heran – keiner, bis auf die besonders trainierten Ninjas. Ihr Auftraggeber: Sakura – ein Mann, der keine Gegner hat – bis auf einen: „THE COLONEL“ (Chuck Connors). Ein tödlicher Wettlauf um das Videoband mit den geheimen Aufzeichnungen beginnt… Translation: Operation: Gene-manipulation! After a brutal Ninja-attack on a strictly guarded American gene-lab a secret video tape that contains the formulas to rule the world falls into wrong hands. No normal man has a chance to come up to the formulas – nobody, except but the specially trained Ninjas. Their client: Sakura – a man who has no opponents – with one exception: “THE COLONEL” (Chuck Connors). A deadly race against for the video tape with the secret recordings begins…
My Thoughts
The opening is pretty good: a bunch of Ninjas are attacking a laboratory and steal a secret videotape before they continue by attacking “The Colonel” (Chuck Connors). Big mistake! Chuck grabs his shotgun and bumps them off in slow motion. Seems that Ninjas are not that good, eh? Although at one point in the movie one character asks “What are Ninja?” and the single correct answer is of course: “Killer! The very best there are!” While this film is not good at all it still manages to entertain for one and a half hour. There are some funny dialogues and cool remarks (“A bunch of monkeys in black pyjamas”, one guy says contemptuously about Ninjas), and the fights aren’t that bad either. The fights are pretty brutal too, but sadly not gory – a bit of blood wouldn’t have harmed the movie at all. The Ninjas have got some fine tricks in store. For example they crawl over the ground on their backs, and damn quick they are! Besides they are able to jump both high and long, and they even are able to dig themselves through the earth like those worms in TREMORS (1990) (that, by the way, can also be witnessed in the awesome MAFIA VS. NINJA (1984)). And, last but certainly not least, they place cool Ninja-puppets for deception and distraction. But whatever they do, they are no match for Sonny (Mike Kelly) and Dennis (George Nicholas), particularly after they’ve attended a Ninja crash-course by a Ninja master (complete with important advises such as “a dead fighter is worth nothing”). In the movie’s highlight they throw a pair of ropes at an opponent and their ends are wrapping around his legs. Then they drag him along with full speed, legs spread, against a tree, smashing his private parts. Ouch! Chuck Connors, who is promoted as the movie’s star, hasn’t got many scenes but that doesn’t matter to me as I’m not a fan of him. The first half of this B-flick is (with the exception of the opening sequence) pretty unspectacular, but the second half more than makes up for this, as there’s enough action to please any B-movie action fan. Special mention must go to the showdown that is pretty terrific and a worthy conclusion to the movie. I’ve seen better and worse Ninja flicks than SAKURA KILLERS but as far as I’m concerned SAKURA KILLERS is clearly above average. So I think I can honestly recommend it.
© Copyright 03/2005
All text by myself (except for some quotations where mentioned)
All photos are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced here in the
spirit of publicity. All screenshots are by myself.