Yes, yes, let's get the jokes and formalities out of the way so we can properly discuss Master Ninja I: the film isn't really a film at all. Instead, it's the first two episodes of an Eighties action television show entitled The Master which only ran for one season. The show was a weird combination of martial arts, the buddy cop formula, and David Carradine's Kung Fu. Lee Van Cleef plays an American soldier who stayed in Japan after World War Two and became the very first Occidental Ninja. However, after hearing that he has a daughter in America, he abandons the "Ninja Lifestyle" to seek her out. This, of course, results in his former Ninja comrades trying to kill him. But after teaming up with a young American hot-shot played by Timothy Van Patten (who also becomes his pupil), he continues his quest to travel the country and find his daughter. In the first two episodes which would become Master Ninja I, they fight against two separate incidents where corrupt businessmen try to cheat a father/daughter team out of their livelihood. What a coincidence. There really isn't much to see here. It's boring, predictable, and disjointed.
4/10
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