The early 80s were a high time for ninja movies such as Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and American Ninja, just to name a few. At the height on “Ninja Mania” in 1984, Taiwanese martial arts legend John Liu wrote, directed, and starred in New York Ninja, that would have undoubtedly packed audiences at grindhouse theaters around the country if given the opportunity to see it.
Unfortunately, New York Ninja was never completed and all that existed of the abandoned film were the unedited reels without the originally recorded audio tracks.
Luckily for genre fans everywhere, the “preservation ninjas” at Vinegar Syndrome have been able to not only restore the film, but they were also able to re-record every single line of dialogue using actors from the same era such as Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Linnea Quigley, Michael Berryman, Vince Murdocco, Matt Mitler, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Ginger Lynn Allen, and Cynthia Rothrock, to assure that they captured the vintage 80s aesthetic. New York Ninja also contains “period-appropriate music and sound effects” in an attempt to get as close to Liu’s unfinished original as possible.
New York Ninja will be released on Blu-Ray on November 1st with a limited cinematic release in early 2022.
