Revenge of the Ninja is a 1983 US action film by Sam Firstenberg. See IMDbPassed 18 uncut after the BBFC waived their cuts for:
Previously the pre-cut US VHS was passed 18 after a further 57s of BBFC cuts for:
From IMDb:
The US VHS cut scenes include:
- In the opening scene when Sho Kosugi’s family is murdered, a ninja throws a star at his older son. As he falls, you see a close-up of the star stuck in his head.
- When Sho Kosugi stabs Brayden in the stomach, blood spurts out for about a good 5-10 seconds before Sho slices his mask in half.
- Towards the end, when Brayden (evil ninja) hears someone in the stairwell. In the cut version, all you see is Brayden open the door and throw a smoke bomb. The un-cut version has the scene followed by Brayden slicing up both men, including cutting off one of their hands.
- The last cut scene is when Brayden comes down through the ceiling and stabs two guards in the head with mini-spears.
The BBFC added their usual cuts at the time for martial arts weaponry:
- Among the footage removed were all shots of throwing stars and nunchakus,
- plus additional cuts to kicks and blows
- a deleted blowpipe scene
- a deleted fight in the gymnasium.
From the running time it appears that the final result is similar to the cinema version as cut just by the BBFC.
Summary Review: Lost Classic
An influential work that may be the pinnacle of the American ninja genre.
A legendary ninja Cho Osaki (Sho Kosugi) is forced to flee Japan when all of his family bar his infant son and his Mother are mercilessly executed. Arriving in America Cho looks to establish a new life for his and his family and settle down. But when a string of mysterious murders point towards Cho his ninja identity is compromised and he discovers that he is being hunted by a deadly enemy.
There are some great stunts from Sho who in one chase scene is hanging on to the back of a van and takes a nasty tumble to the climax of the film, the great skyscraper roof-top duel with his American partner; this scene is probably responsible for a lot of fans claiming it to be the best Ninja film ever made.
