Ninja, 2009
The first Ninja, was the very first movie with Scott as the leading man in a movie.
Scott Adkins portrays American Ninjitsu expert Casey Bowman. In or out of his sleek ninja attire, Scott is absolutely flawless as a ninjitsu master, and sure you’ll find it interesting that he’s adopted an American accent for this role!
Lacking in charisma, but excelling in martial arts and stone-faced, deadly ferocity, Scott Adkins plays Casey, an American studying the ninja ways in Japan. He’s tasked with protecting a chest containing the last Koga Ninja weapons from the assassin Masazuka, a former student of the Dojo Casey learned to ninja at. Masazuka was exiled for attempting to steal the weapons and murdering their Sensei, so Casey then takes the weapons to New York to protect them, but the deadly Masazuka isn’t too far behind.
Ninja is pretty damn impressive.The fight scenes are flashy, expertly choreographed and often brutal, and the action is non-stop throughout, with hand-to-hand combat, sword fights and shoot outs offering variation for Adkins to display his skills at being a killing machine.
If a good old fashioned bloody action is what you’re in the mood for then this will entertain you for 90 minutes. It helps having a lead like Adkins could legitimately kill people with his bare hands, along with a supporting cast who are just as capable. If this was the 80’s or 90’s movie you’d find it in the video store sitting next to the Van Damme and Schwarzenegger movies begging to be picked up!
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, 2013
Fight everyone and trust no one: it’s the code of survival practiced by martial arts master Casey Bowman (Scott Adkins) after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. With the help of his friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi), the fearless American retrains his responses and elevates his battle skills to seek justice for his wife’s murder. Casey stealthily tracks the man responsible on his mission of vengeance, but just when he has his prey cornered, an unexpected twist forces him to see even those closest to him as enemies. In the ultimate confrontation, Casey must reflect on his teachings to become an invisible warrior worthy of the title Ninja.
Scott Adkins only wears the ninja suit for a small part of the movie. But there is a lot of action in this movie. Ninja 2 has great fight scenes, and will show you everything that you can expect from a Ninja movie. Scott is using barbed wire, knives, swords, scissors, hatchets and more. He even fights when he is drunk, like Jean-Claude van Damme did in Kickboxer.
When a character of the film (Nakabara) tells: “remember, the man who seeks revenge should dig two graves”, Scott Adkins ansers: “They’re going to need a lot more than that”.
If you compare Ninja, and Ninja Shadow of a Tear, the last one is the better one. Seriously though, this movie is absolutely amazing. Everything you want from these films is here, executed with an unprecedented level of skill, old school technique, and clarity. It’s incredible.
Who knows, Ninja 3 will follow some day. It is certainly something Scott Adkins would like to work on!
