Tuesday, April 12, 2011

five element ninjas (1982)

growing up in north york, ontario during the mid-to-late 80's i was lucky to catch imported late-night TV from buffalo, new york on WGRZ-TV, an NBC affiliate. one program that caught my young mind was the cat's pajamas, which often screened fantastical movies from hong kong-based shaw brothers film studios. supplemented by regular trips to the local video store and screening flicks like master killer (aka the 36th chamber of shaolin) (1978), i was hooked for life... at the last waldorf history of dance event, i brought a DVD of five element ninjas (aka super ninjas, chinese super ninja) to screen as visuals while dancing bear and i dropped vinyl tracks. behind the projection scrim was a pile of unused rattan chairs. they definitely added an extra dimension to the trademark sound stage sets favoured by the shaws and prolific director chang cheh. here's a few quick snaps i took from the memorable opening sequence...





3 comments:

  1. though i did see some fancy footwork in the leetag room library that night, the fluid movements of the shaw brothers actors were hard to top... thankfully waldorf patrons left their swords, axes, and throwing stars at home...

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  2. i had my nunchaku on me all night, but thankfully i never needed to use them...

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