Five Elements Ninjas
五遁忍術 | Ren zhe wu di
1982
Synopsis
Evil Japanese ninjas—who attack with fire, sun, wood, water, and earth—brutally slaughter the students of a noble Chinese kung fu school. The sole survivor finds a ninjitsu teacher, and with three other students, he studies how to counter ninja skills. Soon, the five will take revenge on the ninjas.
Editorial
As the golden age of kung fu movies drew to a close, the great filmmakers at Shaw Brothers began questioning the very tenets of the martial world. Punctuated with fierce stabs of color, this brutal late-period epic from director Chang Cheh calcifies the path of vengeance into nihilistic abstraction.
