10 Things You Didn’t Know About Revenge of the Ninja

The fine folks over at Kino Lorber recently released the Cannon classic Revenge of the Ninja on Blu-Ray for the first time.

Revenge of the Ninja was the second film in Cannon’s Ninja Trilogy, it was preceded by Enter the Ninja and followed by the very off the wall Ninja III: The Domination. The movie stars Sho Kosugi, who was actually in all three of the films but as different characters.

Among the special features on the Blu-Ray release of Revenge of the Ninja is a commentary track with director Sam Firstenberg and the stunt coordinator of the movie, Steven Lambert. And it was the audio commentary that was the source material for…

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Revenge of the Ninja

1. Revenge of the Ninja was actually the first action movie directed by Sam Firstenberg. But it certainly was not his last. Sam directed the follow up Ninja III: The Domination, Avenging Force, American Ninja, American Ninja 2: The Confrontation, American Samurai, Cyborg Cop and Cyborg Cop II. Sam is a real treat to listen to on the audio track as you pick up on his love of making movies and the fun he was having while doing it. He definitely has fond memories of his projects.

2. Revenge of the Ninja was also the first starring role in a movie produced in the United States for martial arts master, Sho Kosugi. I was actually surprised to learn that Kosugi’s voice was dubbed in this movie. Unlike in Enter the Ninja where I immediately knew that the voice of Franco Nero’s character was not Franco Nero’s voice.

3. Another first for Revenge of the Ninja, it was actually the first film to be distributed by MGM after Cannon and MGM announced their partnership.

4. The opening sequence, which was actually filmed after principal photography had concluded and added in to give the movie more of a backstory, featured several of Sho Kosugi’s martial arts students portraying the ninjas that attack the family of Cho Oskai (Sho Kosugi).

5. This was Kane Kosugi’s first film appearance, he even gets the “Introducing” credit at the beginning. But his younger brother Shane Kosugi was also in the movie. He plays Cho’s  son in the opening sequence who ends up with a shuriken (throwing star) in his eye.

6. One of the more popular scenes in the movie, the sequence involving Cho Osaki and a moving van, took a full week to shoot.

7. The longest sequence to shoot was the final rooftop battle between Cho Osaki (aka Black Ninja) and the evil Silver Mask Ninja.

8. Most of the film was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although some scenes were shot in Los Angeles where the story is set.

9. One of Cannon’s early movie posters for Revenge of the Ninja had martial artist Keith Vitali as the star of the movie. Vitali would play Dave Hatcher, a cop and friend of Cho in Revenge of the Ninja. Vitali was also in American Kickboxer 1.

10. Stunt coordinator Steven Lambert plays the “Rhinestone Cowboy” who gets his mustache chopped off in the playground fight. Lambert also doubled for Sho Kosugi through out the movie and for the Silver Mask Ninja as well.

This Blu-Ray release is a must have for fans of Cannon’s Ninja Trilogy. Revenge of the Ninja is without question my favorite of the three but I never had it in my personal collection until now. Kino Lorber did quality work on this one and I look forward to checking out more of their releases in the future. Michael Dudikoff in River of Death seems like a good place to start.

But before I end this post, I wanted to include some of the great work done by composer Rob Walsh on the Revenge of the Ninja soundtrack. 2:40 is where the truly epic music begins. Enjoy!