‘What Could Have Been’ is a continuing look into the reels of film history, analysing movies that could have been something special, but due to problems with script, production, budget, or any other type of issue, did not reach its full potential.
John Liu: “Why? Why is this happening? Why won’t anyone do anything? I don’t understand. Why? Why? Why?”
There may be no better film to fit within the ‘What Could Have Been’ category than New York Ninja. Filmed all the way back in 1984 by famed martial artist John Liu in the Big Apple, as things progressed, they really didn’t. . . as 21st Century Film Corporation Inc. was going through financial issues and internal changes – meaning the money dried up. Soon, the movie, though relatively close to completion, was shelved, leaving it to sit ignored for close to 35 years.
Never edited into any sort of complete form (nor having a soundtrack created for it), as the years passed, all the sound that was recorded was lost to time – leaving just the raw footage (there wasn’t even credits or notes for any of the actors who worked on the project). Jump forward all those years later, and home distribution company Vinegar Syndrome procured the numerous reels, though with no original scripts, story boards, or notes for how it was meant to be assembled. Finding a reclusive John Liu in Vietnam, he had no interest in being involved in the project, but gave them his blessing.
Bravely taking on the job, Kurtis Spieler took up the gargantuan task of forming the scattered threads into a film that made some sort of sense. Spieler then had to write a new script, dub it with voice actors, continuously edit it into a workable movie, and produce it too – making him everything from director on down the line.
Finally released in 2021 and set in a violent New York City, John Liu (voiced by Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson) works as a sound guy at a news station that often covers the chaos and kidnappings. Working with reporter Randi Rydell (the only other original credited actor known – Adrienne Meltzer; voiced by Linnea Quigley) and cameraman Jack (Vince Murdocco – from here on, only the voice actors will be referenced), they are all traumatized (especially John) when they learn that his pregnant wife Nita Liu (Ginger Lynn) has been murdered – after witnessing the abduction of an attractive young woman off the streets.
With detectives Jimmy Williams (Leon Isaac Kennedy) and Janet Flores (Cynthia Rothrock) seemingly useless at their job, the martial arts trained John decides to become a vigilante to clean up the streets (though his hidden identity doesn’t make any friends with the coppers).
As roving gangs of hoodlums cruise the streets, an atomic bomb wielding trafficker of women nicknamed The Plutonium Killer (Michael Berryman) is chauffeured around in his limo, and drug dealers terrorize children, the sound guy will have his work cut out for him. Thankfully, he befriends a lonesome street kid (Zihan Zhao), who is able to rally other urchins to join the New York Ninja’s fan club of sorts – these children also love getting into the action.
Funnily enough, his fellow teammates at the news station continuously record the now dubbed New York Ninja saving the day, only for John to be off getting lunch or some other excuse – amazingly, they’re never able to put two and two together. Will John be able to put an end to the waves of crime, while also tracking down the human trafficker? Has he thought far enough ahead to realize bullets might one up his ninja skills? Will the useless cops ever change their negative policy aimed at the vigilante that is actually doing some good? And, perhaps most importantly, will Randi and Jack ever discover that their conspicuously missing Asian sound technician might just be the New York Ninja?
It’s hard to tell how close Spieler got to Liu’s original vision (as there was close to eight hours of footage found yet no clearly completed conclusion), but one has to assume that it is relatively there – as the original quirky video footage certainly takes a throw everything at the wall but the kitchen sink approach. Pulling from those anti-establishment vigilante pictures of the 70s – think Dirty Harry and especially Death Wish (with its NYC setting and what happens to the protagonist’s wife and daughter), it also decides to linger in the film noir realm – with the Plutonium Killer’s glowing briefcase clearly resembling the Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly premise. Add in the kung-fu aspects, some melodrama, more than a touch of quirkily camp comedy, caricatured characters, as well as some other bizarre touches, and it’s most definitely a weird and wild ride. It is also an authentic snapshot of what New York City was, graffiti and all, in 1984.
A most bizarre standalone piece that is unlike any other, New York Ninja feels like both an 80s B movie knocking off Bruce Lee and others, as well as a lovingly dubbed tribute to that era rescued from oblivion by Vinegar Syndrome. Though a word like ‘great’ might never be attached to this film, it cannot be denied that it has a certain quirky charm to it. So, helicopter in to see this forever forgotten movie, and don’t let it escape again.