NINJA ASSASSIN

Director: James McTeigue
Stars: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Rick Yune, Sho Kosugi, Randall Duk Kim, Sung Kang
Year: 2009
Rating: R

Ninja Assassin's first and extremely bloody ten minutes are the perfect indication of what you're going to get for the rest of the film: lots of adrenaline-packed action, killer (pun intended) special effects that often appear just a step or two short of 3D, and a (more or less) throwaway storyline that pretty much exists as a vehicle for the extremely well-done fight scenes and action sequences.

Korean actor/pop music star Rain, in his first leading role for a feature film, plays Raizo - a young man ripped from the streets as a child by the centuries-old Ozunu clan who has spent nearly his entire life under the brutal training of necessary to become a world-class killer ... one of an order of modern-day ninjas. After a very cool (and blood-soaked) opening scene featuring just a sample of what ninjas can do (not necessarily for the squeamish), the film opens with a young woman named Mika (Naomie Harris), who works in Berlin for Europol and has just learned a very powerful - and very dangerous - secret.

Mika, you see, has been able to tie together a string of extremely high-profile political assassinations to a clan of ninja warriors in Asia; in effect, uncovering a conspiracy of very powerful and ruthless men who, when necessary, hire the silent, deadly, and very untraceable ninjas to assassinate an unwanted enemy. Mika is fairly freaked by what she discovers, and in fact is made fun of by her boss at Europol, Ryan (Ben Miles), for her ridiculous theories.

But as Mika goes deeper into the conspiracy, it becomes clear that she and Ryan are being watched ... investigated ... and could even be in danger themselves, in a situation where you don't know who is friend or enemy.

Meanwhile, via seamless (and well-done) flashbacks, interspersed through this unlikely plotline is the story of Raizo's upbringing, and the flinch-inducing tests (again, possibly not for the squeamish) the young boy and man was constantly put through during his training. You learn of the devotion he was forced to show to his master/"father" Ozunu (Sho Kosugi) to prove himself worthy - and even learn of the first and only love of Raizo's young life, before his heart was turned to stone forever. One of the best aspects of the film is the non-disruptive scenes between Raiso's past and present-day; all flow effortlessly and you truly come to like and care about Raizo, even as Mika gets closer and closer to tracking him down.

To say too much more would be revealing a bit much, even though I know other reviews have gone a bit farther than you may read here. Let's just say that Raizo and Mika DO meet, that everything is not quite what it seems ... and that Raizo ends up having to fight to protect Mika's life, as well as his own, when he abandons the order and all his ninja clansmen (and women) come after him with everything they have.

Ninja Assassin was given a huge, very harsh amount of criticism when it debuted in theaters - and with the semi-silly plotline, as well as a few mediocre supporting players in the film, I guess remarks made in those directions were justified. But is it me, or who goes to a film like this for the plot and performances? Uh-uh; martial arts fans go for the action, the fight scenes, and the blood - all of which Ninja Assassin has in enough abundance to quench the thirst of even the most die-hard martial arts fan. Rain takes the role of Raizo very seriously, yet balances the character of sensitive yet bad-ass Raizo well enough to show the guy's got some real acting chops. Naomie Harris, playing it straight, turns in a good (if sometimes overwrought) performance, working well with Rain - and even with very few lines, model-turned-actor Rick Yune manages to pull off the right amount of menace as Takeshi, Raizo's closest "brother" in the Ozunu clan who - in turn - becomes his worst enemy.

Soaked in blood though it is, Ninja Assassin is stylish wall-to-wall action, with beautifully-shot fight scenes that may induce a gasp or two from the stuntwork. One of the better martial arts films to come out in awhile, it's surely worth seeing for fans of the genre ... or even for the performance of Rain, who proves here why he's the mega-star he is in Korea. *** - Reel Cool