Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies

Little mise en contexte first.In the dark age of civilization known as the 80s, there was a general martial arts/ninja craze. Some utterly genial films from HK also generated a genuine interest for asian cinemaMore darkly, this was the age were the Dark Side of the Force ruled for the home entertainement market.

IE, this was the age of VHS and no bit torrent. There was thus a huge market for cheap movies that could be sold or rented by naive saps. So, here come our dark hero, Godfrey Ho, a HK producer with a complete lack of scrupules only matched by his lack of talent.What did our friend Godfrey ?He imagined what is now know as the Ninja franchise. This consist of taking a (usually bad) unfinished asian movie and buying rights to it. (Sometimes).

The movie as usually positively nothing to do with NinjasBut you splice this movie with scenes of ''Ninjas''. Ninja being drifters are washed out Westerners in HK in need for a quick buck. They are wearing flamboyant pajamas (have you ever saw a Ninja in a red and yellow camo suit ?) and sometimes big bandanas with the word Ninja written on it. I have seen Halloween costumes with better looking swords than the ones in those movies too....

But how, you may ask, how you can put Ninja scenes in movies without Ninjas ? The wonder of dubbing ! The asian flick is rewritten with dialogues trying to ''link'' the action with the Ninja scenes.If only Godfrey Ho had secured good asian movies...or at least asian movies that were credible to use. But no. He got movies that were so removed from the concept (IE, dudes that keep hitting each other) that it's impossible to figure way of making them ninja movies.Before linking actual video examples, I will let you ponder about those cinematics atrocities with one question that will melt your brain

How do you convert a Taiwanese erotic ghost story in a movie about western Ninjas huting a golden statue stolen from their murdered sensei ?