Official Synopsis:
“Aerobic instructor Christie Ryder (Lucinda Dickey – Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo) becomes possessed by the spirit of an evil ninja when she comes to his aid after being shot down. Dominated by the killer’s vicious and relentless rage, she sets out to brutally attack his enemies. Her boyfriend, confused by Christie’s changing personality and afraid that he might be her next victim, enlists the aid of Yamada (Shô Kosugi – Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja), the quintessential martial arts hero. In a life-threatening exorcism and ultimate fight to the death, Yamada proves that he is Christie’s only chance for survival. For only a ninja can kill another ninja!”
After watching the first thirteen minutes of this movie I stopped it, just to restart it and watch the first thirteen minutes again! There is no introduction, no information given; all you know is that a Ninja is on a golf course and is massacring everyone! There is no clear protagonist at the beginning, and you really don’t know who you should be rooting for, a single man, or an entire police department. Regardless, you find yourself siding with the Ninja, who somehow manages to dispatch 39 (if I counted correctly) police officers armed to the teeth and at point blank range. This is wildly over the top, and already you can tell you are in for the ride of your life! You may ask yourself “Do I need to watch the first two?” As far as I can tell, the first two films: Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja have nothing to do with each other, so feel no shame as you bask in the glory of mindless thrills with no backstory.
You find out shortly after that the Ninja in question is bad, if you couldn’t already tell by the murder of innocents and three dozen police officers. We are then introduced the heroine of the story, Christie. Christie has a lot going on in her life. She works for the telephone company and is an aerobics instructor who beats up jerks who stare at women in gyms for too long. After she comes to the aid of the dying assassin in the desert, his spirit possesses her body, giving her a glimpse into the final bloody moments of the Ninja and of course all his skills.
After giving a statement at the police department, Christie becomes the object of affection of one of the officers present at the massacre, Billy Secord (Jordan Bennet). Secord is relentless in his romantic pursuit of Christie, and armed with a tacky wit and an extremely hairy back, he proceeds to stalk her until she agrees to go out with him.
Christie has flashes of the men involved in the final killing blows to the Ninja, which brings out his spirit trapped inside her and sends Christie into a supernatural rage and killing spree. She tries to fight it with all her strength, even trying to dance the spirit out of her, to no avail. The spirit seems to taunt her at every turn, causing arcade machines to have a mind of their own and send her into an 80’s psychedelic trance, and levitating swords around her apartment that seem to hate her choices in music. After a visit to an old Chinese wiseman, Christie’s fears are confirmed. There is nothing to be done because naturally, only a Ninja can kill another Ninja.
Thankfully there just so happens to be one available. Yamada, a Ninja who has just arrived from Japan, is on the Evil Ninja’s trail and the only one who can stop his spirit from using Christie as a weapon of destruction and corrupting her body forever!
Ninja III: The Domination was a lot of fun to watch. There will always be something special about that era of filmmaking, where B-Action movies were churned out on an assembly line. Quantity overruled quality in most cases, but there are a few that defy explanation to the point where it doesn’t matter if the plot makes sense or the characters are well written. These are the types of movies that should be a guilty pleasure for anyone to watch, movies that are so bad they are great.
Video
Ninja III: The Domination is presented in 1080p High Definition 1.78:1. The transfer on the blu-ray disc is in remarkable shape considering the age and profile of this film. Although there are a few noticeable scratches and blemishes every now and then, the majority of the film is quite clear with great detail. Color levels are excellent and very crisp, probably the best treatment this film will ever see.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For a 2.0 mix, this sounds fantastic. Although the track is very dated with a lot of synthesizers and horrible 80’s music, it really utilizes all aspects of the surrounds. Levels may be a bit off in some scenes, as well as some glaringly bad dubbing, but overall I enjoyed the track.
Special Features
Unfortunately there aren’t that many special features to choose from here. The commentary is interesting, particularly for the first thirteen minutes of mayhem. It would have been great to see an interview with Lucinda Dickey if they could have managed that.
Commentary by Director Sam Firstenberg and Stunt Coordinator Steve Lambert
Still Gallery
Ninja III: The Domination is hard to put into any specific category, it just needs to be seen to be believed that something like this exists. While I can’t quite call this film good, I can tell you that it will take you on a wild ride of 80’s music and ninja assassins, and with a mix like that how can you pass this up?
