[Susan Foreman]

"Friday announcement #2

Hong Kong's ever-evolving film industry was beginning to drift away from period-set kung fu craziness by the time FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS appeared in 1982. However, just before the dawn of POLICE STORY - and sundry heroic bloodshed blockbusters - director Chang Cheh showed that there was plenty of life left in straightforward wuxia chopsocky mayhem! Indeed, leave it to the Shaw Brothers studio to offer up a story as spirited as this one - with a young martial artist pitting his wits against a gang of well-disguised, sneaky and unthinkably sadistic masked men versed in Japanese combat techniques.

Drawing on the age old tension between The Land of the Rising Sun and China - which famously led to colonialism and conflict before and during World War 2 - FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS, which was released in America under the culturally confused moniker CHINESE SUPER NINJAS, is a riotious rollercoaster ride of spilled blood, bludgeoned skulls and seductive, but deadly, Far Eastern femmes.

Starring the mighty Cheng Tien-Chi - also of Jackie Chan's FEARLESS HYENA (1979) - FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS is one of the crowning achievements from the great career of legendary director Chang Cheh (THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN/ THE BRAVE ARCHER). Rediscover this carnage-packed classic on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films!"