COBRA VS. NINJA
aka COBRA AGAINST NINJA
Hong Kong 1987
Directed by: Joseph Lai
(COBRA VS. NINJA might have been (co-)directed by Godfrey Ho)
Cast: Richard Harrison, Stuart Smith, Gary Carter, Paul Branney, Alan Friss, Alfred Pears, Jimmy Bosco, Roger Seller, Debra Patan, Alban Ramaw, Bella Chumpon, Henry Wang...
Running Time: 87 min. (German Tape)
Tagline
(taken from the German tape) A merciless fight between good and evil Covertext (taken from the German tape) Die vier Army-Rekruten David, Kirk, Ben und Chester nehmen Abschied von ihrer Truppe. Ewige Freundschaft haben sie sich und ihrem Ausbilder, dem Ninjutsu-Spezialisten Gordon, nach der knallharten Spezialkampfausbildung geschworen. Eine Freundschaft, die sie sich schon kurze Zeit später gegenseitig beweisen müssen, als sie in üble Machenschaften skrupelloser Glücksspieler hineingezogen werden. Korruption und schnelles Geld regieren diese brutale Szene. Ein tödlicher Konflikt bahnt sich an, als die Gangster Chesters Mutter töten und seine Schwester mit eiskalter Methodik kidnappen. Mit brennendem Verlangen nach Rache und mit Unterstützung Gordons nehmen die vier Freunde den unerbittlichen Kampf gegen die Verbrecher auf. Translation: The four army recruits David, Kirk, Ben and Chester take leave of their troops. After the tough and brutal special fight training they have sworn eternal friendship to themselves and their instructor, the Ninjutsu specialist Gordon. A friendship they have to prove to one another a short time later, as they are drawn into nasty machinations of unscrupulous gamblers. Corruption and fast money are ruling this brutal scene. A deadly conflict is paving its way as the gangsters kill Chester’s mother and kidnap his sister with icy methods. With a burning craving for revenge and with the help of Gordon the four friends take up the merciless fight against the criminals.
My Thoughts
COBRA VS. NINJA opens with a guy screaming “Ninjaaaaaaaaaa” from the top of his lungs for no apparent reason. And that’s about the best part of the film, since it all goes downhill from here on. Basically, COBRA VS. NINJA is a very bad film (very, very bad, to be more accurate), intercut from time to time with hilarious Ninja fights that have nothing to do with the storyline. And the few Ninja scenes are by far the best part of this awful flick. The cast is unbelievably bad, the story is boring, the dialogues are of the jaw-dropping variety, and the fights are incredibly poor too. In spite of all this I give three points for entertainment value: because of the opening “Ninjaaaaaaaaaa” scream, a handful of laughable Ninja fights, and one evil guy who explodes to bits and pieces. By the way, one Ninja is wearing a red headband that has the word ‘Ninja’ written across it and this almost makes me want to give this damn movie another point. Almost.
© Copyright 01/2005
All text by myself (except for some quotations where mentioned)
All photos are copyright their respective owners and are reproduced here in the
spirit of publicity. All screenshots are by myself.