Did they change the plot after filming the beginning?

I mean, at first it looks to be very serious. Blood is drawn, in several different ways - shurikens in the forehead, sword cuts on the arms and legs with visible blood and everything.

The 'white' ninja even wipes blood off his sword!

He even cuts the 'black' ninja with his sword in a fight.

Then more of the same stuff, and the beheading of the 'master' happens so quickly that it's pretty hard for the viewer to think that even a ninja master could have changed his head into a rubber head (or replaced his whole body with a dummy) so fast!

Also, isn't it a bit redundant anyway to use any rubber head? It's clearly just a plot device, a movie gimmick, a 'something for the viewer' - if you look at it from the ninja's and the master's perspective, what's the POINT? To show that he could have performed such a move without harming his real head in the process (if he was crouching inside the jacket)?

The whole beginning sequence makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE, if the plot was planned to be what it turned out to be.


This could have made a pretty interesting movie up until the 'white' ninja arrives in the house - from there, I could think of perhaps 900 more exciting plotlines to continue with, and being -consistent- with what just happened, than what ACTUALLY happens in the movie. It's so weak, it's so "ha ha, fooled ya", without taking all the blood, cuts and shurikens into account.

But I have to admit, the scene where the 'white' ninja takes his mask off, is the most hilarious in the movie - I laughed so much when I saw it, I am lucky my pants didn't get moist. I mean, you look at it, thinking you are going to see some 'cool' Ninja-face - and then this HUGE, bushy moustache explodes into view with the silliest looking face since Daffy Duck got shot with a shotgun! Man, I don't know who 'franco nero' is, but my guess is he must have been a comedian at the time. A NINJA should not have a friggin' moustache, damnit!

Also, the editing in the beginning is so "wtf" at times. So the red ninjas start a fire.. which is never seen or heard from again? What was the point of that? So the 'white' ninja shoots an arrow at the 'black' ninja, but it hits a tree near a RED ninja, who was nowhere to be seen previously? The 'black' ninja is shown looking menacingly at something, holding two shurikens - and then he throws them! Into a tree. Both of them. One after another. What the fúck was the point of THAT?

Why would they go to such extents as to fake the BLOOD and CUTS and how the hell could they be sure they wouldn't be killed by the shurikens and arrows? I mean, the 'white' ninja shoots one right in the neck of one red ninja, if I remember correctly (the one that dies with the shuriken in his forehead). Did he have a neck-pad, too? Just in case?

It doesn't make any sense.

Then after the 'supposedly breathtaking' waterfall falling scene, a scene is shown that should never have been shown. We see a weak-looking sho kosugi with his mask off, and the 'white' ninja swims to the shore slowly, soaked, with his funny moustache showing. Aagh, no.. that scene should have never been shown! Show the ninjas being powerful and interesting, not slowly struggling to swim to the shore, like some amateurs!

The smoke bombs before the 'white' ninja 'meets' the 'master' .. were they really practical, necessary, realistic (well, I mean realistic in the context of the movie) and a well-planned defense? Whose idea was that? How would THAT increase the odds of protecting/guarding the premises against intruders?

As I said, think about all this from the ninja's and the 'master''s viewpoint, and you will realize how completely unnecessary and stupid so many things were - and how were they, even as ninjas, be able to FAKE all that blood, cuts, shuriken hits, etc.? And how could they be so sure that they wouldn't 'accidentally' get hurt anyway, even with the wooden pads? It's like.. "Hehe, this was just a rubber head and some wooden pads, and that's good enough explanation for EVERYTHING"..

It's certainly NOT.

I think this could have been a really good and interesting movie, if that bushy-moustache guy hadn't been cast into it (should have just let Sho Kosugi take the lead and no westerners involved more than necessary), and if the inconsistencies never happened.

I mean, if the movie had been -completely- different from the moment the 'white' ninja touches the door to open it. Up until that moment (with that awful swimming scene cut, and the smoke bomb-scene rethought), there was real potential for the movie to be really something else. Instead, the beginning was just like those throwaway opening gambits in MacGyver - completely meaningless, and tricking the viewer into thinking he's actually watching something pretty cool.

Also, in the title screen, before the movie actually begins, the 'white' ninja jumps and flykicks the 'black' ninja in the face - how was this possible, when the 'black' ninja sensed/heard his coming a long time ago, and even took a ready pose to face any danger - then he just stands there with his ninja reflexes, allowing someone to simply come and kick him in the face.. unacceptable. He should have blocked the kick and killed the 'white' ninja in the spot, and then vanished into the shadows.

If the beginning scene was re-edited, some bits of it cut, some confusion removed from it (a lot of the time it makes no sense whatsoever), and the 'black' ninja's shurikens actually being aimed at the 'white' ninja, instead of a tree (why throw both of them in a tree? This was not explained, either), among some other stupidities, the resulting footage could be used to create a real Ninja-movie gem.

But thankfully, there's always Ninja III: Domination.. ahh. I hate the ugly hag in the lead (why did they cast someone so man-jaw and masculine, I'll never know), but the plot is at least something more imaginative, and although the end battle is quite lame and silly (yeah, burying yourself in the sand -AGAIN- is very practical - it's like someone had a sand-burying fetish when making this movie), that movie has some real 80's magical atmosphere, with some cool musics and really neat Ninja feats and fights.

(Although the whole beginning scene doesn't again make that much sense. I mean, why is the Ninja killing everyone in sight, and why does he do it in the daytime, in a public golf course of all places? What's his motive? Who are the people he's killing? Why can't a ninja escape some stupid cops? Why can't he be killed by bullets, but why is he 'dying' nonetheless in the desert, before bumping into the feminist hag?

Well, that's a bunch of questions for another post, in another board..)