Year: 1978
AKA: Deadly Silver Ninja, Eighteen Martial Arts
Starring: Dragon Lee, Phoenix Kim, Marty Chui, Ben Lee, Kelvin Chan, Jackie Lee
Directed by: Godfrey Ho (Kim Si-Hyeon)
Running time: 85 minutes

The movie opens with this guy getting his ass whupped as some evil doers take a map from him. As he lies wounded a mysterious figure approaches, you know he's mysterious as we only see his feet (are those the new Nikes?!). The wounded man calls for help and the mysterious figure helps him out by sticking a sword into his chest (that's some serious accupunture). With his dying breath the dying guy lashes out wounding the mystery figure. The mystery figure staggers away towards the beach.

Now the usual stupid henchmen are escorting a gold shipment when they are attacked by some guy dressed all in white and a black lampshade for a hat. It's the Silver Ninja! The Silver Ninja beats the henchmen senseless and leaves without the treasure. He leaves a note on it, I can't read Chinese so I have no idea what it said. Maybe "Take A Penny, Leave a Penny" or "One Per Customer"? Now who's this?! Dragon Lee strolls into town and even before getting there gets into a fight with some guys, but don't worry soon as he does get into town he gets into another fight saving Phoenix Kim from more stupid henchmen. At a food stall even more stupid henchmen are harrassing a blind oldman, so Lee steps in beat them up including a guy with a helmet with horns on it (see William's review). The blind man is thankful, so he takes Dragon Lee home, where Dragon Lee meets his daughter, Phoenix Kim. For some reason the Blindman wears an excessive amout of white eye liner, I'm sure he could apply it better if he wasn't so BlIND! Lee tells the Blindman he's looking for the killers of his father, the guy killed in the opening scene.

Now, the stupid henchmen have reported to their master, Ming, that Dragon Lee must be the Silver Ninja (and well he is!). For some unknown reason this moustached guy has been following Dragon Lee around. He goes to Ming and informs him Lee is staying at the Blindman's place. Two stupid henchmen head out to the Blindman's and run into Phoenix on the way, so she kicks their asses. The useless pair are saved by the Moustached guy who lassos Phoenix. Some villagers witness the kidnapping and go tell the Blindman and Lee. Lee sets off to rescue Phoenix, but on the way runs into the Moustached guy and the two get into it on a frozen lake. After some slipping and sliding Dragon Lee manages to tie the guy up with his own rope (talk about humiliating). Turns out Phoenix didn't that much help as she throws a jar of ink in Ming's face and beats up all his stupid henchmen. Ming gets into the action just as Dragon Lee shows up who easily defeats him. Lee leaves Ming with a table smashed over head with his head popping through a hole in the middle (talk about even more humiliating).

Moustache guy hops back to Ming's and ask him to untie him, instead Ming just beats on him and tells him to get lost. Moustache hops off swearing he'll get Dragon Lee. Which he does! Moutache shows up at the Blindman's and challenges Lee and the two go off to settle their differences. In the ensuing fight Lee breaks the guy's leg, and we know this because Moustache curses him, "You've broken me bloody leg!" As Lee walks off Moustache swears he'll get revenge, but he is never seen again. So far the entire movie has been non-stop fights broken up by short dialogue sequences. The Blindman reveals the he is in fact the mysterious figure who stuck a sword into Dragon's father. Dragon's father had a map to a treasure and so did the Blindman. The men that attacked Dragon's father and left him wounded are nonother than the Ming Brothers. Phoenix manages to stops Lee from killing her father. Now that part at the begining makes sense!

Meanwhile, Ming (who shall now be called Ming 1) has called in backup in the form of his brother, Ming 2. Phoenix has taken the liberty of going through Dragon Lee's things and finds his spare Silver Ninja costume. Thing is Dragon Lee is never shown carrying a bag, so where does he even keep the Silver Ninja costume, forget about the spare. The Blindman sneaks off disgraced leaving a note for his daughter and Lee, the two go out looking for him. Too bad the senile old fool forgot to give Lee a copy of his father's treasure map. He heads back to the house and runs into the Ming Brothers once he gets there and subsequently get killed by Ming 2. I believe that's the first time I've used the word "subsequently". You read it here!

Upon returning home, Phoenix and Lee discover the Blindman, the old guys mumbles something before finally dying. You know this can only mean one thing...the final showdown. Lee and Phoenix take on the Ming Brothers wearing their Silver Ninja outfits. It must help as they kill both of them, but then again you didn't think they'd lose did you?

Oh man, that was way too much typing. Anyway, I did enjoy the movie and as I said before it's pretty much non-stop fighting for the entire running time of 85 minutes. You won't be bored as there is constantly something happening onscreen. There are also some pretty funny wacky type scenes to entertain as well like the horned guy, Ming 1 getting the table broken over his head, and the apple scene. Ming 2 shows off his martial skill by slicing an apple sitting on the head of one of the stupid henchmen. Funny thing is that the apple changes colour! It's a nice red colour, then when the henchmen removes it from his head, it has a green colour to it (see the pics!). It also makes you wonder where the apple came from when there is snow on the ground. Making this movie must've sucked as there is snow on the ground (which comes and goes) and these guys run around in kung fu slippers and cotton pjs. But I guess they get paid the big bucks to put up with that kinda stuff. Well, Ming 1 did have that faux tiger fur vest, that thing looked pretty warm and Dragon Lee did have his Silver Ninja ski mask. I thought those things only came in black?

So many words, yet it doesn't make much sense. I should've just copied William's review, but I tried to be original. Let me put it this way, if you like Dragon Lee you'll like this movie. If you like watching non-stop b-grade kung fu fights, you'll like this movie. If you like old guys in makeup, you'll like this movie. I know I did.

"Review" by Keith.