A ninja, betrayed by his mentor, helps lead the authorities to a ring of deadly assassins. Raizo was an orphan, destined for a life of violence, when he ends up on the doorstep of Lord Ozunu, the leader of a circle of deadly ninja assassins. The training is violent and severe, and one vows loyalty to the clan when engaging in training, so freedom is out of the question. Raizo also strikes up a romance with Kiriko, a young female ninja who shows him kindness. Kiriko decides she wants to escape the clan, and she begs Raizo to come with her. He refuses, and when Kiriko is captured trying to escape, Lord Ozunu makes her brother execute her-- right before Raizo's eyes. This makes Raizo begin to hate the clan, and when he is asked to execute a female ninja some years later, he instead engages all of the ninjas in combat and barely escapes with his life. Since then, Raizo has existed to do two things: try to stop Ozunu's assassins from doing their jobs, and try to avoid Ozunu's assassins bent on killing him. He meets a young police investigator named Mika, who has been investigating a series of assassinations across Europe. She tries to put Raizo into protective custody, but Mika's boss, Maslow, instead arrests Raizo and throws him in prison. While temporarily stored in a safehouse and guarded by agents, Ozunu's ninjas attack and kill everyone. Mika helps Raizo barely escape with his life, and she plants a tracking device on him. When the ninjas return and take Raizo home to Lord Ozunu, Mika and Maslow bring military forces to showdown with the Ozunu clan. Raizo must fight through his injuries, kill Ozunu, and help the police defeat a far superior power.
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Best part of story, including ending:
This is such an awesome martial arts movie, with some amazing combat sequences and some truly terrific violence. Raiko and Mika have nice chemistry as our heroes.
Best scene in story:
It doesn't get much better than the first action sequence, in which ninjas pop in and out of shadows-- literally-- and do devastating damage on their victims.
Opinion about the main character:
Raizo doesn't have a great deal of personality, and Rain isn't the most expressive actor, but he's an incredible physical specimen who is awesome in action scenes, so he's a suitable hero.
