NINJA ASSASSIN

Rain is a Korean pop star in a martial art flick where bodies are sliced in half by swords and throwing stars in Ninja Assassin, a movie likely to please its genre fans on the basis of its slick looks and propulsive action. As Raizo, Rain makes for a ripped, dexterous action star, one who sheds conceit in favor of being a little humble and self-effacing. Naomi Harris is a forensics expert for Europol, and while her occupation never feels pertinent to the plot you are engaged by her resilient hang-in-there presence.

But let’s stick to the fundamentals. You mostly come to this movie for the action scenes. On those terms this is an entertaining exploitation flick that gives you lots of splatter, bloody geysers, mutilations and less concern for restraint. The movie contains cool training sequences and many requisite action combat sequences (some of it filmed in too many obscured shadows), including one of those action chases through a high-rise parking garage where the hero hops from hood to hood. Further appealing are those high-flying leaps by Rain, assisted by CGI (computer generated images). Also CGI are the blood squirts spraying the camera lens as well as close-up shots of festering wounds.

The hyperactive bloodletting is not as original as some of you may think. It has existed in such ’70’s kung fu flicks like “Five Fingers of Death,” and was brought to a peak by the House of Blue Leaves sequences in “Kill Bill Vol. 1.” But “Ninja” wants to utilize CGI in order to achieve new heights in excessiveness. If you get wicked chuckles from a scene of a man being sliced in half down the middle, then you’d be giddy to the extremes by “The Machine Girl,” a Japanese import made a couple of years ago that really pushes the grindhouse limits (it is available on Netflix). For decapitations and eviscerations, it is the ultimate in exploitation schlock.

Bloodshed aside, every action movies needs leveraged with a human interest plot. “Ninja” finds two parallel sensitive stories to balance the carnage, both stories interconnecting. In the past, Raizo in his youth is forced by a secret society into a training camp which molds ninja killers. His first sweetheart is also a forced student, but killed cold-blooded within the camp in front of all the entire school for being too inconsequential. The present story, in a flash-forward in time, demands that Raizo gets revenge against Lord Ozuno (Sho Kosugi) as well as secondhand baddie Takeshi (Rick Yune). Raizo also has to evade German agents, but you feel that this is shoe-horned into the plot, just so the movie has something to take up time.

“Ninja Assassin” is an efficient example of today’s Far East whizzy action spectacles made in mind for broader American consumption. The early scenes of blooming love between young Raizo and the girl have an appeal, but besides those brief moments, the film is short on sex appeal except for a mysterious beautiful stranger at a laundermat that demands a double-take. And Harris as the forensics expert is there to play the good-looking professional. The humor is understated, even poking fun at the genre conventions: a character looks dead, oh my god, the suspense is she dead or not? Raizo takes a quick look and dryly observes, “She will be okay,” in the most hunky-dory delivery imaginable.

That said nothing here is groundbreaking, but if any of this drives your interest then you might be wowed by the climactic action sequence that takes place inside a traditional style Japanese house. Your jaw might drop a second time, not in wow but in disbelief, when you see a Special Operatives squad that machine-guns the outside of the house long after there are any targets that are worth the bother to shoot.

GRADE: B-