Born a Ninja / Commando the Ninja (1988) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Joseph Lai
STARRING: Man Fei, Patrick Largent, Hung Kuan
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:33/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Visual Vengeance
There are action movies crafted with precision, coherent storytelling, and carefully choreographed fight scenes. And then there are Born a Ninja and Commando the Ninja — two gloriously stitched-together fever dreams from the wild cinematic universe of something in the vein of Godfrey Ho, a man who seemingly directed movies by throwing ninja costumes, unrelated footage, explosions, and confused white guys into a blender set to “maximum chaos.”
And honestly? Cinema is better because of it.
Released as a single-disc Blu-ray double feature from Visual Vengeance, this collection is basically a loving preservation project for one of the weirdest corners of VHS-era martial arts insanity. If you’re unfamiliar with the magic of Godfrey Ho, imagine someone taking three unfinished movies, adding ninjas afterward, dubbing everybody with entirely different emotional performances, and then somehow releasing it to unsuspecting video stores worldwide. But this isn’t Ho, this is a guy named Joseph Lai doing this to the lowest degree.
That’s the experience.
Born a Ninja is pure bargain-bin action delirium. Plot coherence is optional at best, but thankfully the movie compensates with endless ninja fights, random betrayals, bizarre editing, and dialogue that sounds like it was translated through several dimensions before landing on the final dub track. Characters appear and disappear with absolutely no warning. Entire scenes feel disconnected from reality. And every few minutes somebody in brightly colored ninja gear flips into frame like the movie suddenly remembered its title.
Which is exactly what you want.
Then there’s Commando the Ninja, which somehow feels even more unhinged. The movie charges forward with the confidence of a VHS tape that fully understands nobody renting it in 1988 cared about narrative consistency as long as somebody got kicked through a wall every ten minutes. Guns, ninjas, explosions, awkward slow motion, aggressively synthesized music — it’s all here in wonderfully cheap abundance.
The thing about these Joseph Lai movies is that traditional criticism almost feels irrelevant. These aren’t movies you watch for nuanced character development or carefully structured storytelling. These are movies you experience like a late-night sugar rush after falling asleep in front of cable television sometime around 1993. They exist entirely on pure chaotic energy.
And somehow that makes them deeply entertaining.
Of course, Visual Vengeance treats these wonderfully ridiculous relics with the same level of care Criterion gives arthouse classics, which honestly makes the whole thing even funnier and more lovable. The transfers look solid considering the source materials, preserving all the VHS-era grime and tape-sourced weirdness fans actually want from these movies. Nobody’s buying a copy of these ninja movie expecting reference-quality cinematography anyway. You’re here for dubbed madness and someone trying to make their own neon ninja chaos with less than usual money.
And this release absolutely delivers.
The extras are genuinely great too, especially The Essential Godfrey Ho video essay, which does a fantastic job contextualizing the bizarre cinematic empire Ho accidentally built out of recycled footage and ninja masks. It’s informative, entertaining, and honestly necessary viewing if you’ve ever wondered how movies this gloriously nonsensical even came into existence.
And then there’s the artwork by The Dude Designs, who once again absolutely crush it. At this point, The Dude Designs could probably make a tax instruction manual look like the coolest VHS rental on earth. The cover art perfectly captures the loud, ridiculous, neon-drenched energy of these movies and makes the release feel like a genuine collectible instead of just another dump of obscure action trash onto Blu-ray.
Which is important, because this is premium action trash.
That’s ultimately what makes releases like this so much fun. Visual Vengeance
understands these movies aren’t “good” in the traditional sense. They’re weird artifacts from a glorious era where video store shelves were overflowing with cheap ninja movies designed to lure unsuspecting renters using explosions and men wearing headbands.
And honestly? It worked.
Born a Ninja and Commando the Ninja are messy, incoherent, cheaply made, and assembled with all the structural integrity of a folding chair in a hurricane.
They’re also ridiculously entertaining.
Extras
- SD masters from original tape elements
- Commando the Ninja commentary with Justin Decloux and Will Sloane of The Important Cinema Club
- Born A Ninja with commentary by Justin Decloux of The Important Cinema Club
- The Essential Godfrey Ho – Video Essay
- The Law Chi Touch – Video Essay
- Actor Kwan Chung interview
- Image Gallery
- Original Trailers
- Visual Vengeance Trailers
- Optional English subtitles
- Two folded mini-posters with original VHS art
- Reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art
- ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set – FIRST PRESSING ONLY – WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
- Limited Edition O-Card by Uncle Frank – FIRST PRESSING ONLY – WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
- Booklet with essay by ninja movie expert C.J. Lines
- Blu-ray sleeve featuring art by The Dude
