Leofwine_draca NINJA III: THE DOMINATION is the last of Cannon's unconnected ninja trilogy, which began with the good ENTER THE NINJA and peaked with the excellent REVENGE OF THE NINJA. This one's the worst of the three but still a fun watch for fans of 1980s cheese. The extended opening sequence in particular is outstanding, featuring evil ninja David Chung going on a random massacre at a golf course and taking down innocent folk right, left, and centre. Things move down a notch after this point as his spirit randomly possesses a fitness girl with big hair and a fondness for this sleazy cop with the most chest hair you'll ever see on a guy - he makes Chuck Norris look bald. She occasionally turns into the evil ninja and kills some folk off, until good-guy ninja Sho Kosugi shows up to exorcise her and kick ass. Things culminate in a fun battle between good and evil. With cheesy effects, random plotting and lots of surreal violence, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION night not be art, but it certainly qualifies as a good example of '80s excess.

BA_Harrison Ninjas are notoriously hard to kill, but the black ninja in Ninja III: The Domination is tougher than most, effortlessly laying waste to a dozen or so cops after carrying out the assassination of a scientist, and then making his escape despite being caught in a hail of bullets. He eventually dies of his injuries, but not before his spirit has passed into the body of sexy telephone maintenance worker and part-time aerobics instructor Christie Ryder (Lucinda Dickey). Unaware that she is possessed by the malevolent ninja, Christie begins to date hairy policeman Billy Secord (Jordan Bennett), but whenever she is alone in her apartment (playing her arcade machine, doing aerobics, listening to her boom-box, or admiring her neon wall art), the spirit takes control of her body and proceeds to exact revenge on the policemen involved in the firefight. Will Billy fall victim to the black ninja's wrath before he can figure out a way to exorcise his girlfriend?Produced by the Cannon Group, who were responsible for countless crap-fests during the 1980s, Ninja III: The Domination is pure, unadulterated trash, with inept direction from Sam Firtsenberg, dreadful performances from everyone, terrible martial arts choreography, and hopeless special effects. The film opens with a poorly executed action sequence that quickly sets the amateurish tone: the black ninja unconvincingly beats up some bodyguards, (stopping one by blowing a dart into the barrel of his gun), kills his target with ease, outruns a police car, and then jumps onto the car and punches the driver through the roof (the car, which was trundling along at approximately 15mph, then flies 40 feet through the air). After this, the ninja climbs up a tree, leaps onto a helicopter, and kills the pilot by throwing a shuriken with his foot!This, however, is far from the worst part of the film…A supposedly sexy scene in which Christie seduces Billy by straddling him and pouring fruit juice down the front of her shirt is ham-fisted in the extreme. A scene inspired by The Exorcist, in which Christie visits Japanese spiritualist Miyashima (played by James Hong), is unintentionally hilarious, the poor girl happily allowing herself to be restrained via chains and a harness, after which she spews green smoke into Miyashima's face (it's far less messy than pea soup) and spins around at top speed like a human windmill. Another craptabulous moment sees Christie, possessed by the ninja, tracking one of the cops to a health spa: as he frolics in a jacuzzi with two bimbos, Christie slips into the slinky black swimming costume she just happens to carry around with her, enters the water, makes out with the cop, and then kills everyone!Other unforgettably dumb moments include Christie (possessed) crushing a ball from a pool table with her bare hands, several impromptu aerobics/dance scenes (allowing for lots of shots of Dickey in lycra!), a battle between the black ninja and some monks on an assault course inside a Japanese temple (?!?!), and the black ninja disappearing into the ground like a drill after fighting good ninja Yamada (Shô Kosugi).There is no denying that Ninja III is a really, really, really bad film, but, with so much craziness, it is hard not to be entertained at least a little bit. Even if it is only by Dickey's dancing.

ichocolat Let me repeat my question; How many police officers does it takes to kill a possessed ninja ? Come on, have a guess. 10, 20? Not even close. It takes hundreds of them to kill one enraged, possessed ninja ! Never mind the body count, the police chief will just shout to his subordinate to conduct another round of attack to finish the ninja off, knowing full well that those subordinates will not return to their families ever again.And the flashdance, was it really needed? I mean, I imagine ninja flicks should be all fight and cool moves, not some aerobics class with sweaty people in the crowded gym.A stupid sequel, did not warrant a good comment. So sorry dear producer, but 1/10 is the best rating I can give.

HaemovoreRex Following the movie that represents the pinnacle of the 1980's Ninja genre namely, 'The Revenge Of The Ninja' salivating fans were 'treated' to this bizarre offering that mixes Ninja shenanigans with spiritual possession....the end result being not dissimilar in nature to that somewhat horrifying experience when one spies a nugget of human poop floating menacingly towards oneself in a public swimming pool.Take for instance the supposed 'action packed' introduction which is set of all places on a golf course(!) Here we witness an evil green clad ninja slaying a group of golfers for apparently no discernible reason whatsoever (although I must admit that the shallow elitist attitude adopted by many participants of this particular sport does irk me somewhat though...hmmmm perhaps THAT'S why he murdered them?.....yep I can relate to that after all). Actually later in the movie we are told that one of the golfers was a top scientist but this story line is never elaborated upon nor alluded to ever again!!!Anyway back to the intro, the police proceed to surround the golf course and basically shoot the absolute hell out of the assassin....and they have to keep on shooting him because he just won't stay down!!! Yes literally hundreds of rounds are pumped into him and STILL he gets up to slay evermore of the law enforcement numbers.Finally (after what seems like an eternity) our miscreant detonates a smoke bomb and disappears.....or so it seems, for in actual fact he is merely hiding beneath the soil and upon our decidedly gormless officers leaving the scene to search for his body, he crawls out from hiding and staggers away.We next see the lovely Lucinda Dickey, a truly beautiful actress and in superbly fit physical condition, here playing a telephone repair worker. From her high vantage point she happens to spot the dying (AT LAST!!!!!) ninja. However, upon closer investigation the man, supposedly on his last legs suddenly leaps upon her and grapples her to the ground. After a bit of a struggle our feisty heroine manages to break free luckily but doesn't count on the ninja possessing hypnotic powers and she inevitably succumbs to them. It is at this point that the dying ninja actually projects his soul into our heroine! His intention is to use her corporeal form to slay those officers who killed him (the few he didn't actually manage to wipe out initially!)From this point on, throughout the film, whenever our heroine spots one of the aforementioned officers she is subjected to some overwhelmingly awful cinematic scenes of flashing lights, smoke effects and the sword that the ninja bequeathed unto her levitating towards her in a most wobbly manner!To make matters more complex, a particularly irritating police officer (who sports enough back and shoulder hair to put an average yak to shame!) persists in trying to win her affections (in a most bloody annoying manner!!!)......well of course it doesn't take the gift of preconception to work out that in a rather feeble 'shock' (less) twist towards the end of the film, HE is revealed to be one of the officers she must slay!But wait there's some hope yet! Step forward the one and only Sho Kosugi!Yes, THE ninja himself and looking here as cool as ever! Golf club news obviously travels fast and upon learning of the said events that transpired there, he flies all the way from Japan to sort the situation out (suspecting the worst!) In a brief sub story (that amounts to all of a few seconds!) Sho's interest in this particular ninja is demonstrated to be personal after the said villain is shown to have murdered Sho's father/teacher(?) and blinded one of Sho's eyes (thus necessitating Sho to wear a really decorative looking sword guard eye patch!)After stealing his dead nemesis's body from the morgue and then tracking down our heroine who provides an unwitting abode for the evil soul, matters climax at an oriental temple (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) where our man Sho manages to reunite the two disjointed aspects.Now reanimated from the dead, the evil ninja and Sho battle it out in traditional ninja style with swords with the winner being........well yes you can probably guess.Really this movie has only two things going for it, namely the always excellent Kosugi (who looks absolutely fantastic in the role as always) and the lovely Miss Dickey. What a shame that the material they found themselves in here is such a rancid pile of ordure.Oh well, to be fair, I've seen a lot worse than this in my time although I certainly still can't recommend this other than to those desperate to complete their Sho Kosugi/Ninja movie collections.