Ninja Assassin = Ninja Awesome

Blood, guts, brains, SHURIKENS, arms, legs, flying blood, KUSARI GAMAS, tops of heads, split skin, missing fingers, KATANAS! Whew! You know when the words Ninja and Assassin are the only two in the title of a film that the movie will probably entertain, and entertained I was! I went into the movie expecting very little, but found the action incredible and the storyline not half bad. Grease will tell you he didn't like the end of the film with Europol storming a mountain in Japan (or so one would assume) with Humvees scaling mountain cliffs and soldiers killing ninjas left and right even though they haven't been able to kill them throughout the entire movie, but I thought it all fit together very well and was more than just an excuse to show a bunch of ninjas fighting each other. Korean pop-star Rain makes a very convincing action hero (the next Mark Wahlberg? Ha.) and ninja, and he doesn't do a half bad job acting either.
The story focuses on a clan of assassin ninjas and one outcast who fights to bring them down. A young Europol forensic researcher stumbles across the secret of this clan and attempts to bring them to justice. With the combined resources of Europol and the outcast ninja, even the Ozunu clan doesn't stand a chance, or do they? The use of a dual storyline (one following the present day, and one following the outcast ninja through his training and eventual denouncement of the clan) adds to the plot and provides a good deal of character background to really understand this masked wonder.
The amount of blood flying around in this movie reminds one of Tokyo Gore Police, Kill Bill or perhaps 300 as it was often over-exaggerated and sprayed more than one would imagine. The number of limbs removed throughout the film was somewhere in the hundreds, and the movie opens with half of a guy's head being chopped clean off. The use of the ninja throwing stars to dismember and destroy is essentially what you always hoped it would be. The ability to disappear into shadows is enough to make one want to go back to school to become a ninja, almost. Whether or not you actually decide to become a ninja after watching this movie, I don't care, but it is a definite must see. While the young lady playing Mika did a fine job, I do think it would have been better if Kristen Bell had been cast in this role. But that's just my opinion. Anyway, if you only go to one more movie in Majuro this year, make it Ninja Assassin.