It’s quite hard to write a great deal about this film, as it’s so brazenly shallow. The plot is the most simplistic excuse for joining a bunch of action scenes together: a clan of martial arts heroes known as the Alliance (who strut about wearing virginal white and not-very-macho little capes), challenge a local bandit gang. If the Alliance win, the bandits must go straight. In amongst the gang is a ringer in the form of a Samurai swordsman. He is defeated, and upon his death by Seppuku, gives the bandit king a note to send to a Ninja master to avenge his supposed disgrace. The Ninja master (Chan Wai-Man) arrives with his troops to finish of the Alliance, incorporating five clans named after the elements gold, earth, fire, water and wood.

FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS is one of those kung fu films that obtained a large fan base in the US, which has kind of blown its reputation out of proportion a little. Seen in context, it’s actually quite a desperate film. The studio was in trouble and this is a pretty cynical attempt to get bums on seats by painting the screen red and throwing action scene after action scene at the viewer. Oh, and a pseudo-naked ninja girl in a fishnet body stocking. Sounds like a winner on paper, obviously, and if anyone could have pulled it off, Chang Cheh could.

The film is outrageous in every respect. The Alliance’s outfits are highly questionable and there’s an air of campness quite unparalleled in films from this era. In many ways, it has the look and feel of a mid-70’s film rather than one from 1982. As with all Shaw movies from this period, it’s entirely shot indoors on the soundstage, and the artificial colours and landscapes add to the comic-book appearance of the film.

However, it’s in the violence that FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS comes into its own, and this is by far the most outrageous aspect. The fight with the “earth element” Ninja clan is too gruesome for words, but the guy tripping on his own entrails was hilarious (OK, so I’m a sick bastard). Mind you, that’s nothing compared to what happens later, but you’ll have to see it yourself to find out...

The only depth aimed for is with Junko (Chen Pei-Hsi), a ninja girl sent to infiltrate the Alliance and ends up on a killing spree. There are hints that she’s a more complicated person, and capable of loving. But then someone kills her. Oh well - easy come, easy go.

It’s a shame that there aren’t more big names on show. The hero by default is Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi, and you’d be forgiven for scratching your head trying to remember where you’d seen him before. It seems he didn’t have such a stellar career in the movies, but he certainly puts on a decent show here. Venom Lo Meng appears as the heroic Liang Zhi-Sheng and has a few great action scenes, but is definitely not the star of the film. It could be said that the star of the film is the Ninja weaponry, which the film takes great pains to explain has been extensively researched for the production. This is one of those films (like LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA) which puts a caption on screen whenever a new weapon is shown, and I do find it distracting and a little annoying. Nevertheless, the weapons are shown in all their gruesome glory and the fight scenes (of which there are many) are usually quite inventive, albeit somewhat implausible!

Oddly for a film made in 1982, the soundtrack on the IVL DVD is in Mandarin and does not feature a Cantonese track, which, if it was released in this way, would have been another very unfashionable choice for the era. If you’re after something about as challenging as a Peter and Jane book, this could be for you. But it’s nothing to get too excited about.