Another dubbed kung fu film I thought was a sequel (to 5 Deadly Venoms). It was not (not a comedy, either). On par dubbing, meh story line, but my gosh it felt like 2 movies. First half was spent watching a Chinese martial arts team get destroyed by some Japanese ninjas that follow 5 elements of style (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth). At the midpoint, you feel like you've watched enough and are ready to move on....but the last living member of the Chinese team had a little ninja training himself. He goes back to join his ninja master, teams up with 3 others who were being trained by the ninja master, and the four of them set out to beat the elemental ninjas at their own game. The film seems like it goes on forever, but I will admit the back half does have quite a bit of innovative fight scenes. A lot of the costumes, and some of the fights, are awfully damn hokey, but some of the fight scenes are extremely well choreographed and executed (particularly the fight against Gold and the final boss fight). I wouldn't recommend this film, but if you are really into the genre, you can kill some time with it.

Cheh had a long and colorful career as one of the top directors at the Shaw studio but by 1982 his stock had fallen as trends moved away from the period costume kung fu action films he was so fond of. While fellow kung fu film director, Liu Chia Liang was still able to pull off hits, Cheh was perhaps getting too quirky and obvious with his favorite themes of heroic men in revealing outfits, gruesome fights and few if no women in the story. A few films followed in this year with one released the next, but none rival Five Element Ninjas. Cheh was out of the Shaw studio by 1983 and working in low budget Taiwanese cinema he never was able to achieve anything remotely near his past successes. This is his swan song at the Shaw studios,The plot is absolutely silly and full of absurdities even for your average Chinese made Ninja film. It's as if Cheh saw the competition and said, "Oh yeah? Well watch this!". Except for Venom star Lo Meng, the cast is composed of Shaw second stringers but that doesn't mean the action is anything less then excellent. This film has the best fight scenes in a Cheh film since "The Crippled Avengers" of 1979. Everyone is fighting with weapons in mass fight scenes that are incredibly choreographed. Unfortunately, many production credits are not translated and I don't know who was the genius behind the fight scenes. Lo Meng is the only one doing open hand fighting and he fights a samurai in the first extended fight scene! Granted the samurai sword skills on display are from outer space but it goes with the absurd nature of the entire movie. So much of this film is wacky that it's a waste of your time to recount it. It's as if everything you'd expect from a late Cheh film (good and bad) was turned up to "11" including the pace.Bloody and nuts. Just the way a good Cheh film should be. See it.

I remember seeing this movie as a kid and thinking it was the best Kung-Fu movie I had ever seen. I recently saw it on sale and purchased it,not knowing if it was going to be as good as I remembered. It was better! The fight scenes are fantastic and the story keeps you interested. There are some scenes that made me laugh out loud, but that's to be expected from a low budget Chop-Sockey flick. The different weapons and fighting styles are what keeps the story going and the elements (gold, wood, fire, water, earth) are really a force to reckon with. This movie isn't to be taken seriously, have fun with it. If you do like this movie, check out "Five Deadly Venoms".

I saw Super Ninjas years ago and it kicked butt. I especially loved the tree Ninjas and the Earth Ninjas that came out of the ground. They rule. The weapons were also cool. That other Doug guy should say where he got his copy. The best line in the movie is "Loss of a fight means loss of one's life to a samurai. Give it an action packed 10 out of 10.