Last night I attended a screening of this movie. Before the preview started there was a demonstartion of martial arts by a Chinese Kung Fu gym. Also, before the movie started, the star of the movie, Korean singer Rain, made a brief, very brief appearance before disappearing into the shadows and making his egress, just like a ninja. May have been a whole 30 seconds. He was wearing a hat that covered most of his face, just like a ninja.
Parental warning. There is copious amounts of blood and alot of graphic slicing and dicing. For the ladies, Rain does go topless quite a bit in the later half.
The story tells of a clan of ninjas who abduct young children and raise and train them to be deadly hires in the ways of the stealthy killers of lore. Specifically, we follow Raizo(Rain) from his introduction into the family to present day. He trains, learns, and is forced into the ways and laws of the master ninja. But, only to a point as his conscience can no longer permit him to become the master's prodigal son. There is no leaving the clan once you are in. He commits betrayl and becomes the hunted. His mission in life then is to bring down those who brought him up.
Theres some good martial arts and fighting scenes peppered with gunplay. The climactic final fight was shot very well against the backdrop of a burning building. The combatants sihouetted as dark shadowy figures with red-orange flames accentuating and highlighting their attacks and parrys. Theres some CG but its not as obvious and does not get in the way of the visuals. Instead it enhances the spectacles, as it should. Rain has very few lines and the ones he does have are very short. However, that is to be expected of foreign actors who are trying to break into the American movie market, ie Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, etc.
I was sitting in the second row so my viewpoint was not very good but I can still reccommend this as a bargain matinee
