Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).

 

I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja”, but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine (“Undisputed II: Last Man Standing”, “Undisputed III: Redemption”, “Ninja”) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the first one and just as good-looking. It’s actually very much an old-school, 80s/90s western martial arts movie in terms of plot and action, if you ask me. And that’s not a criticism, as someone who grew up on the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal.

 

I felt the first film was good-looking but clunky and with nowhere enough ninja action. Well, there’s certainly plenty of action in this one, even if Adkins doesn’t dress like a ninja for much of the film’s length. Florentine, Adkins, and fight choreographer Tim Man do their usual top-notch job on the action front here, even though Adkins suffered an injury during filming that didn’t allow him to do all of his own work. I’m pretty sure he’s doing most of it however, and the man delivers. Given he had a back injury for much of the film, it’s all the more impressive that Adkins really is performing a lot of the fight scenes himself. If you didn’t know about the injury, there’s nothing to suggest here that Adkins is in anything other than peak fighting form here, whilst “Undisputed II” director Florentine again shows that he’s an excellent director of action, this time giving us much more martial-arts action than the squib-happy gunplay that dominated the first “Ninja”, well-staged as it all was. Look at the bar fight for instance, or the outstanding final fight with a ‘surprise’ villain I should’ve but didn’t predict. Truth be told all of the action is great, I shouldn’t even single anything out. Par excellence in action, even if it takes about 70 minutes for Adkins to don the appropriate ninja garb. Quite possibly the most violent film to be given the M-rating in Australia since the introduction of the more adult MA rating was introduced, it looks like you can get away with a hell of a lot of violence so long as you don’t show much blood. The action may not be bloody, but it sure is bloody marvellous throughout.

 

 

Acting-wise, it’s not one of Adkins’ best turns, but he’s a little better than last time at least. He’s got undeniable presence and charisma, and certainly isn’t out of place engaging in dialogue scenes. The best performance by far comes from Kane Kosugi, the son of martial-arts movie legend Sho Kosugi, star of the outstanding “Revenge of the Ninja” (My favourite ninja film). It’s the best performance I’ve seen either Kosugi give, to be honest. I also enjoyed the lively performance by Mukesh Bhatt as a cabbie named Mike. He’s talkative, Adkins isn’t, and they’re a funny odd couple for a few scenes. Shun Sugata is effective in his few scenes as a rather nasty crook, with a brutal implement/weapon for killing in particular. I do wish that “Only God Forgives” co-star Vithaya Pansringarm was given a better role than a harsh Thai General, but he’s appropriate casting and speaks English rather well, too.

 

Scripted by David N. White (writer of all three of Adkins’ entries in the “Undisputed” series), it’s no “Revenge of the Ninja”, but if you’re a Scott Adkins fan like I am, you definitely want to see this rather old-school martial-arts film. It’s definitely a massive improvement over the dull first film, and a great-looking film to boot. I’d still put “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing”, “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning” and “Accident Man” ahead of it in the Scott Adkins vehicle department, though.

 

Rating: B-