If youвЂ™ve not seen it, I canвЂ™t stress enough that you should take two minutes to watch it right here.ДЄ post-credits sequence in which our hero Cole (Franco Nero) graduates ninja school sustains the momentum and introduces what would become one of the defining tropes of the genre. Even if the film ended there, IвЂ™m sure audiences wouldвЂ™ve come out satisfied. ItвЂ™s a bravura volte-face that takes the breath away. To make it even better, thereвЂ™s a twist at the end! Just when youвЂ™re dizzy and awestruck, thinking вЂњthis is the most badass dude I have ever seen in my lifeвЂќ another ninja dressed in white appears out of nowhere and jump-kicks the black ninja off into the darkness. ItвЂ™s immense and dangerous and beautiful. Exotic percussion thunders across the soundtrack. The credits вЂ“ in a stark white oriental font вЂ“ flash next to him as he stares out from under the hood with eyes of trademark rage. It was the first time audiences got to see Sho Kosugi onscreen, posed against a plain black background, dressed in the deadly black ninja suit, performing an array of incomprehensible weapons tricks. I canвЂ™t even imagine what it mustвЂ™ve been like to see it in cinemas back then. If youвЂ™ve seen the movie, youвЂ™ll remember one thing most vividly: the credits sequence, an unforgettable Shaw-Bros-Meets-James-Bond spectacle that plays like a wordless religious mantra and is jaw-dropping even now. Their grandiosely retitled Enter The Ninja dropkickstarted a genre that would dominate 1980s action cinema. With Fox snapping up the rights to LustbaderвЂ™s lyrical potboiler (which, ironically, got shelved and still hasnвЂ™t been made to this day), Cannon decided to shoot their own cheaper, scrappier version from a script called Dance Of Death by stuntman/martial artist Mike Stone.Дespite these tawdry beginnings, something special grew. Ninja, the Eric van Lustbader novel, had recently been published to enormous success and there was public appetite for the mystical power of ninjutsu, especially вЂ“ it seemed вЂ“ when wielded by a white guy. Some of its success is down to the timing. While Enter The Ninja (1981) is by no means the first appearance of the ninja in western cinema, itвЂ™s arguably the most impactful one and commonly referred to as вЂњThe Grandaddy NinjaвЂќ (which, IвЂ™m sure, isnвЂ™t just a reference to Franco NeroвЂ™s advancing age at the time of filming).

Enter the ninja