As someone who will happily watch just about anything and everything, I'm not about to fuss about the anticipated quality of a film I receive as a gift after being plucked from the bargain bin. I am also, however, very familiar with the antics of Hong Kong schlockmeister Godfrey Ho; at his best he has made some wonderfully fun movies, and at his worst, one has to question the legality of his productions and his credibility as a filmmaker. Just as 1993's 'Angel the kickboxer' was merely the silly but fun 1992 Cynthia Rothrock vehicle 'Honor and glory,' dubiously recut, redubbed, and spliced with new material, I'm given to understand that 'Silver Fox and Ninja Terminator' is new footage edited together with an existing South Korean feature. And, well, it doesn't take long after we sit to watch that this begins to heavily test our patience as viewers. It's not that I specifically regret watching - there's a backhanded, somewhat masochistic measure of entertainment to be derived from even the sorriest of pictures, and in the very least, the avid cinephile can't truly appreciate the greats without also suffering through the slop. Yet from top to bottom this is so flummoxing and poorly made that I can't possibly fathom what merit it could claim.
And so we have stereotypical lousy dubbing, and thanks to the opening credits we know that it's Sally Nicholson who served as coordinator in this capacity, and who is therefore responsible. We have shots and scenes in which the characters speaking aren't even in frame, and the camerawork is often a tawdry mess in and of itself. We have clips of terrific, recognizable songs like Pink Floyd's "Echoes" - and a hilariously remixed rendition of Gustav Holst's "Mars, the bringer of war" - inserted almost at random. There's terrible dialogue, a paper-thin plot that struggles to make sense or hold itself together, and extremely bad elucidation of that plot or of who characters even are, or how we progress from A to B to C. We're treated to perplexing costume design, and novelty props. Where they aren't hideously chopped up by the editing or camerawork I think the stunts and action scenes are pretty swell, but these by themselves cannot save the title at large. I suppose that ultimately we do get the action film we were promised, but for everything we have to sit through to get it, I don't know why anyone would bother. What lasting value is there in 'Silver Fox and Ninja Terminator' except as a baffling curiosity? I'm glad for those who find a way to like this more than I do; I'm unsure how they do it, is all.
There are genuinely, incredibly, far worse things you could watch. This flick can be enjoyed on some level. If there is any cleverness herein, though, there is much, much more that raises a deeply skeptical eyebrow, including substantial portions of the new footage - and that's to say nothing of the fact that eighty-eight minutes manage to feel more like a full two hours, or more. For as shoddily as it was assembled, it's best reserved as something frivolous of which to partake on a very lazy day, when you're not in the mood to watch anything else. Maybe I'm being too harsh; then again, maybe I'm being too kind. Take that as you will.
And so we have stereotypical lousy dubbing, and thanks to the opening credits we know that it's Sally Nicholson who served as coordinator in this capacity, and who is therefore responsible. We have shots and scenes in which the characters speaking aren't even in frame, and the camerawork is often a tawdry mess in and of itself. We have clips of terrific, recognizable songs like Pink Floyd's "Echoes" - and a hilariously remixed rendition of Gustav Holst's "Mars, the bringer of war" - inserted almost at random. There's terrible dialogue, a paper-thin plot that struggles to make sense or hold itself together, and extremely bad elucidation of that plot or of who characters even are, or how we progress from A to B to C. We're treated to perplexing costume design, and novelty props. Where they aren't hideously chopped up by the editing or camerawork I think the stunts and action scenes are pretty swell, but these by themselves cannot save the title at large. I suppose that ultimately we do get the action film we were promised, but for everything we have to sit through to get it, I don't know why anyone would bother. What lasting value is there in 'Silver Fox and Ninja Terminator' except as a baffling curiosity? I'm glad for those who find a way to like this more than I do; I'm unsure how they do it, is all.
There are genuinely, incredibly, far worse things you could watch. This flick can be enjoyed on some level. If there is any cleverness herein, though, there is much, much more that raises a deeply skeptical eyebrow, including substantial portions of the new footage - and that's to say nothing of the fact that eighty-eight minutes manage to feel more like a full two hours, or more. For as shoddily as it was assembled, it's best reserved as something frivolous of which to partake on a very lazy day, when you're not in the mood to watch anything else. Maybe I'm being too harsh; then again, maybe I'm being too kind. Take that as you will.