Challenge of the Lady Ninja (1983)
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■ Shaw BrothersShaw Brothers was a legendary Hong Kong film studio, run by the Shaw family (especially Run Run Shaw), famous for its prolific output and pioneering the global popularity of martial arts (kung fu) films, operating like a factory with in-house stars and massive sets at its “Movietown” studio, creating iconic films like The One-Armed Swordsman and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, influencing cinema worldwide from the 1960s to the 1980s before shifting focus to television
You know by now that I am a big Shaw Brothers fan. While I am familiar with the Hong Kong company and their films, I have a big blind spot when it comes to Golden Harvest or any independent Taiwanese companies making similar Kung Fu movies. My brother gave me this film as a gift, and as much as I love the presentation, the movie is not good.
First of all, I have never heard of The Challenge of the Lady Ninja (aka Never Kiss a Ninja or Chinese Super Ninja 2). Based on the English Dub availability, I am assuming the film was made available to the US and UK market (but I think this is still a rare movie). I don’t think the film was celebrated, but that never stopped very niche specialized companies from securing the film rights and releasing it on DVD or Bluray.
The company that worked on the 2K restoration of The Challenge of the Lady Ninja is a small independent company called Error 4444 – the unluckiest name ever. You see, Four, in Chinese, sounds like Death, while Eight is for Luck and Wealth. I’m sure the name was intentional.
The transfer looks amazing. The blacks are deep, and the film noise aren’t out of control. This is possibly the best representation of this film you’ll ever find. If you’re a film fan, you’ll always want the best representation. There are interviews with the director, two audio commentaries, and it has both Chinese and English audio tracks (with subtitles).
That’s not all, you also get a hardcover slipcase (as well as a cardboard slipover the Bluray case), posters, stickers, and lobby cards. I always appreciate all these extras… but that mean that the film also costs nearly $50. In the grand scheme of things, this is incredible value due to the rarity of the film.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the film is not that great. The story is all over the place. It’s set in somewhat modern times (the 60s?). It’s about a Lady Ninja in training. Supernatural stuff/magical stuff. I think there’s a vampire in the film too. It’s definitely an exploitation film… not enough boobs in the film to make it blatantly obvious, but enough for the fans.
Even though the title isn’t amazing, I just really appreciate the love and respect and dedication for these films. So, if I could afford it, I would probably buy every title that Error 4444 released – just based on the treatment for Challenge of the Lady Ninja.
If you’re interested in buying the title, it’s available at error4444.bigcartel.com. You won’t find this release in retail stores – there are no UPC code, this is a small production run that is sold exclusively from this company.
