Ninja In The Dragons Den

Director; Corey Yeun
Starring; Conan Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jang Lee Hwang.
Genre; Martial Arts
Year; 1982
Release; U.K. HK Legends, magazine cover

Largely overlooked, and forgotten. This is an absolute gem of chop socky flick.
Made in Hong Kong, cashing in the Ninja craze of the early 80's. A little advanced, in actually bringing in an established Japanese martial arts star, Sonny Chiba protoge Sanada. Chinese films of the era usually cast Chinese in Japanese roles, as relations were still very frosty. It's hard to review without mentioning the very similarly themed Zatoichi Meets The One-Armed Swordsman, and earlier, Japanese made co-optive effort. They share the themes of the two main protagonists being unable to understand one another, and consequently, fighting without realising they are basically on the same side. Unlike the Zatoichi film though, here they do manage to realise their mistakes, and team up to fight the bootmaster himself, Jang Lee Hwang, in a truely international finale (Lee is Korean). Typically poor production values are a slight distraction, but these films are not about that. They are about good entertainment, and this is a great way to spend 90-odd minutes.