Music N' More: Ninja Assassin

Friday, February 17, 2012

Ninja Assassin

-2009 American martial arts film directed by James McTeigue
-Story was written by Matthew Sand
-Stars Korean pop musician Rain as a disillusioned assassin looking for payback against his former mentor, played by ninja film legend Sho Kosugi.
-Explores the topics of political corruption, child endangerment, impact of violence.

Did You Know?
-After Raizo(Rain) is first captured and chained to a wall, his captors look at him and say "He should be in a boy band". In fact, Rain started his career in a boy band called Fanclub
-Korean pop singer Rain had no martial arts experience whatsoever for this movie. He trained nonstop for 6 months to prepare

Why does it seem like alot of Asian guys are cute?

Plot
-Raizo(Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become the most lethal, most dangerous ninja assassin in the world. As a child, Raizo(being an orphan) was taken by Lord Ozuno(Sho Kosugi) and is enrolled in severe brtual training to become his next successor. The only generosity he ever gets is from a kunoichi(female ninja) named Kiriko(Kylie Goldstein) with whom he begins to fall in love with. As time goes on, Kiriko becomes less happy with the Ozunu's routine of kill, kill, kill and wants to leave it all behind for freedom. One rainy night, Kiriko decides to escape and encourages Raizo to go with her. He stays. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko was caught and later killed in front of Raizo by her elder ninja brother Takeshi(Rick Yune). As a result of her death, Raizo begins to harbor hate towards the Ozunu. However, this is the past and it switches to modern day where a disguised female assassin(Linh Dan Pham) attempts to kill Raizo at a laundromat. He fends her attacks off and kills her, leaving her remains in the washing machine

-It switches back to the past where Raizo is seated in a car and told by Lord Ozunu to complete his first assassination mission. Afterwards, Raizo meets the rest of the clan atop a city skyscraper in Berlin. There he is told by Lord Ozunu to kill another kunoichi traitor like Kiriko. He rebels against Lord Ozunu by cutting his face with a kyoketsu-shoge(double edged blade) and engages in fight against his former ninja kin. Barely surviving, he falls over the edge and into a nearby pool. Raizo recovers and begins to intervene and foil Ozunu kill attempts. Elsewhere, Europol agent Mike Coretti(Naomie Harris) has been investigating money linked political murders and finds that they are possibly connected to the Ozunu. She defies her boss, Ryan Maslow(Ben Miles) and retreives secret files to find out more

-Mika and Raizo meet and she convinces him to go to Maslow for protection as well as provide evidence against the Ozunu. Raizo is arrested by Maslow and abducted by agents from Europol for interrogation. Feeling betrayed, Mika is assured by Maslow that he is still on her side and gives her a tracking device for emergencies. The Ozunu ninja infiltrate the Europol safehouse where Raizo is being held in an attempt to kill him and everyone else inside. Mike frees Raizo and they escape, but Raizo sustains near mortal wounds. She takes him to a nearby motel to hide. Resting in the motel, Mike implants the tracking device into Raizo, as the ninjas continue their pursuit. Unable to fight off the encroaching ninjas, she hides outside the motel until Special Forces arrive to help her. By the time they arrive, the ninjas have kidnapped Raizo, bringing him before Lord Ozunu for prosecution. During transport back to the Ozunu, Raizo uses his ninja techniques to heal his own wounds

-Europol special forces and tactical teams by Maslow storm the secluded Ozunu retreat(in the mountains) using the tracking device on Raizo. Raizo kills Takeshi and confronts Lord Ozunu in a sword fight. Mike interferes, but is stabbed by Lord Ozunu. Angered, Raizo uses a 'shadow blending' technique for the first time to distract and kill Lord Ozunu. Mika, fatally wounded, is saved by a strange thing; her heart is actually on the opposite side of her chest. After Europol leaves, Raizo stays behind to tend to the ruins of the Ozunu retreat. He later climbs the same wall Kiriko did while trying to escape and looks at the surrounding countryside. He then recognizes his freedom for the first time.