The first live action feature from director Go Nagai (Devilman, Cutey Honey) is a hodge podge of campy horror, sci-fi weirdness and kung-fu mayhem. This film literally has it all and despite a few evident weak points The Ninja Dragon wound up as an extremely pleasant surprise for both my DVD player and me. There's no depth to be found here, everything is surface level only, but it sure is a hell of a good time nearly all the way through. A no brainer hasn't been this much fun for quite a long time.

I'm going to keep the story synopsis short because this film is so silly, I'm afraid you just won't believe me. The Ninja Dragon needs to be taken with a grain of salt, the filmmakers obviously aren't taking the material too seriously so why should we? Some of the highest Yakuza bosses are being knocked off one at a time by a mysterious and powerful presence. Shinobu the daughter of one of these bosses is kidnapped and it's up to some powerful Ninjas to come to her rescue. See that wasn't so bad, was it? That's because I never told you that Shinobu's nerdy chauffeur transforms into one of said ninjas and the aforementioned "evil presence" are actually aliens who want to plant their demon seed in the young and fertile Shinobu (Oh what fun!).

The brilliance of The Ninja Dragon is in its defiance to take itself too seriously. The moral of the story here is that there really is no moral. If you're looking for cinematic substance, well you've come to the wrong place. There are no earth shattering story lines, there's no clear-cut character development and nobody really "learns" anything. What we do have however is a decent story to carry us through all the insanity. The insanity is clearly what's so much fun in a film like this. With a little bit of everything, The Ninja Dragon is literally a Manga come to life and for lack of better words, it's pretty fuckin' cool.

Within The Ninja Dragon there is a seriously brilliant mix of old school and new wave martial arts and the two seem to merge and strike a comfortable balance. In this world, anything is possible so leave your logic caps at the door and just enjoy the ride. There is plenty of ninja/samurai action and believe me, the blood flows freely. Arms and heads get loped off and sliced to bits, Asian schoolgirls run amok and renegade chicks run around firing semi-automatics. People turn into rubbery/slimy creatures and to top it off, The Ninja Dragon has one of the coolest scenes of a face being ripped off that I've ever witnessed. To ad insult to injury (in a good way mind you) the production is balanced off with some so cheesy they're good optical effects and there's a break in the action for a brief girl on girl wrestling match (can you see I'm serious?). The film does lag a bit (considering its brief 70-minute running time), but the slow bits didn't really bother me nearly as much as they could have. I think it's the action lapses of attempted character development and comedic insanity that help to break up the exploitative elements and make the whole affair seem a little less exploitative (does that make any sense?).

The Ninja Dragon is presented full frame and appears to have been shot on video (originally intended for TV perhaps?). Picture quality is pretty damn good (all things considered) with a nice clear picture and hardly any evidence of visual defects. Colors are a bit muted (it is video after all) but blacks remain solid and the disc exhibits very little in the way of compression artifacts. This is definitely a solid video presentation, not too much (if anything) to really complain about here (aside from a couple of minor ghosting effects and some minor video noise in a few choice locations). Minor quibbles aside, the film was shot on video in 1990 so these slight imperfections are to be expected.

Audio is presented in a Dolby Stereo Surround mix and is quite impressive. Stereo and surround effects are nice and active and the audio seems to have a real depth that is rarely found in your basic surround mix. Audio is really clear and there is excellent separation between music and effects. We have the option of watching the film in either its original Japanese language with nice readable yellow subs or in an atrociously dubbed English version (that really sounds like a mono mix with barely any surround coolness here). I chose to watch the film in Japanese with subs, I suspect you'll want to do the same, seems like the smart thing to do.

Extras are thin, but at least the folks at Central Park Media tried, I'm sure there wasn't much available as far as extras are concerned anyway. There is a feature called Meet the Ninjas, which basically amounts to a few brief character profiles along with a brief text history of the ninja. Also included are trailers for a few other Asian Pulp Cinema titles, Ninja Dragon included. Most of the films appear to have been shot on video as well, and the trailers appear to be home made. I have to admit that I'm intrigued by some of the other trailers, I may have to take a closer look now (look out, here comes the Terminatrix, reeowwr!). Also included are some DVD ROM extras accessible through some web links (script, photo galleries et al) and a DVD ROM drive.

The bottom line here is that this moniker doesn't lie as this is in fact Asia Pulp Cinema (emphasis on the pulp) and it was a hell of a good time. Great characters, action, effects and some inspired comedic moments make The Ninja Dragon a highly recommendable treat. Central Park Media has done an admirable job in bringing this neato title to DVD. The MSRP is a bit high, but if you look hard enough (meaning not too hard at all), you'll find plenty of online retailers selling this title for less than 20 bucks, not a bad deal. If you're looking for some brainless digital fun then be sure to check out The Ninja Dragon. It has it all and is a blast. It's definitely worth a look.

For more info on this and other Asia Pulp Cinema titles click here.