Though it’s undeniably saddled with a title befitting a Michael Dudikoff film circa 1987, the debut trailer for Ninja Assassin hints that the final film may be a return to form for Larry and Andy Wachowski, the production duo responsible for 1999’s The Matrix.
Further enhancing the comparison to any number of 80s-era ninja-sploitation flicks is a plot synopsis that reads like an amalgam of every beat-em-up, fighting game and Shinobi sequel ever made:
Ninja Assassin follows Raizo (South Korean pop star-turned-actor Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.
As with most tales of hyper-masculine men however, Raizo’s revenge gets a bit muddled when he stumbles upon a pretty girl and she falls into the tangled web he calls his life. Being smitten and all, Raizo feels responsible for his new lady friend and finds himself defending her from the cabal of ninja killers he’d been plotting to kill all along.
Quite convenient, huh?
Honestly, at this point I’m not sure if I’m being sarcastic about this whole thing or if I actually think it’s a great throwback to an earlier, more violent era. I only know that that debut trailer up there was awesome and Rain could beat the faces off of our wildly inferior American pop stars.
In all truth I’m really only going to get a first look at what innovative visual technology other filmmakers are going to steal from the Wachowski’s latest for use in the next decade of action flicks. Kind of a “I saw it before it became mainstream” ideal, only way geekier than if it were applied to a rock band.
