My Cultural Diet

As it turns out, Godfrey Ho wasn’t the only one putting out low-grade ninja movies in the ’80s. Case in point: Kuo-Ren Wu’s Ninja USA, in which two cops take on a vicious drug lord named Tiger who has plans to create an evil ninja empire. There’s just one catch: Tiger is the one who saved them during the Vietnam War. And even worse, Tiger’s henchmen have kidnapped the wife of one of the cops. That makes Ninja USA sound a lot more dramatic than it really is, and it’s nowhere near as cool as its psychedelic poster promises. Still, there’s some legitimate action choreography and stunt work in the midst of the supernatural ninja silliness, undercranking, and reverse footage. Unfortunately, Ninja USA is also plagued by terrible cinematography (half the film looks like vaseline was smeared on the camera lens), incoherent editing, and terrible dubbing. As a former taekwondo champ, lead actor Alexander Lo is no joke, which makes one wonder what might’ve been had he teamed up with a director like Chang Cheh or Ching Siu-tung. (Ninja USA aside, Lo primarily worked with Robert Tai on such cult classics as Ninja: The Final Duel and Shaolin Dolemite.)

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