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Now I just remembered the horrors of Across The Universe and completely regret my decision...

Differences Between a Bad Ninja and a Good Ninja.... Goofus carelessly flips completely over a barbwire fence without thinking twice. Gallant carefully places his jacket over the barbwire before completely flipping over the fence...just in case.

So watching the opening scene gave me a lot of vibes of playing an online game, with the Ninja being a griefer, just a dude who's there to ruin the game for everyone else. He literally just runs up on the scientist and starts slaughtering his party and makes a point to kill and/or maim everyone in it. Then when the police arrive he continues his rampage when there were numerous moments where he could have made his escape. Then he basically had infinite ammo and health cheat codes on with how many damn ninja stars he was whipping around and the fact he kept getting up despite being shot more times than Tony Montana. So then like in an online game like this the mod eventually intervenes and kicks the dude out of the server, which could be seen as the scene where he drops dead in front of Christie and passes his soul onto her. The basic idea that the ninja thought the cops are in the wrong for doing their job of stopping his was fucking insane, especially as he racked up a body count in the dozens by the time he's died. Questions: How did none of those cops end up shooting each other as they were shooting the ninja? They were in a complete circle and there's no way every bullet hit him, statistically there had to have been some friendly fire. Also did anyone else notice that the important scientist with a team of bodyguards was not so important as to be playing on a public municipal golf course? When the call to the cops goes out the operator mentions it's at the municipal court, which are usually the cheapest courses to play on in comparison to non-city owned or private course, so maybe he made it a bit too easy for the ninja to get to him by being on a course that any Joe Blow can walk onto. Omission: The crew were wondering what was eye-patch's motivation for hunting the ninja, it's revealed in a quick flashback that the ninja was responsible to killing eye-patch's entire clan and making him watch, thus making him want revenge against the ninja. Also during the opening fight I'm amazed no one mentioned the stunt where the ninja knocks a cop of his motorcycle in front of the water hazard, and the stunt man is clearly seen landing on the ground as his bike starts to flip, but the very next shot shows him and the bike being rocketed into the water. It was some of the laziest and choppy editing I've ever seen. Also I know there was talk about connecting to the other two Ninja films, but neither movie is connected to one another as well, they basically just share a title and the fact that ninjas are in them, they don't even have a supernatural element to them. And I never thought two things would happen on this podcast: 1. That there would be a more 80s movie than Death Spa. 2. That there would be a longer tangent conversation on the show than the parental/relationship tree of Sleepaway Camp, but the V8 conversation easily passed it.

@Cam Bertwith the assist!

I kinda liked Renee Zellweger playing Bridget.

I can’t stop hearing “Against The Ninja” by Dragon Sound (a new dimension in rock and roll) during this movie. I demand a Ninja Cinematic Universe that does a “Miami Connection/Ninja III” mash-up.

Interesting take, Danny. I think the movie missed a HUGE opportunity in not providing more back story for the evil ninja, especially with the shaman calling “Great Lord.” It would have made the story most compelling to have had the shaman, the good ninja or the spirit itself divulge his history and motivations (or better, yet, if she had been able to see glimpses of when possessed). Like: -has the spirit been passing through different vessels for centuries (E.G., the body we first see it in or has it been in that body for all its time? Having been called Great Lord seems to indicate it’s some legendary demon or ghost of a famous dead Shogun, Samuari, etc -And what happened to make the EN (evil ninja) and/or its spirit so malevolent? And is his malevonce indiscriminate or targeted -Was the spirit part of a clan that had once warred with the GN (good ninja) -And is that why he went after the GN and who were those people holding GN arms when he took his eye out? I could go on forever, but had they taken an hour to write a minute or two of flash backs or exposition to tell us more it would have been much more interesting. And what happened to the EN can only be killed at this specific mountain temple in Japan?

Paul talked about Eyepatch’s eyepatch and how its weird nature called attention to itself. The eyepatch he wore was actually made from a tsuba. The tsuba is the guard on the sword that separates the handle from the blade to protect the person holding the sword from touching the actual blade. I guess it was also convenient to wear it as an eyepatch as it allowed him to conceal all those different tiny weapons he used to kill those cops after he was arrested.

This movie. Let me say at the top, I enjoyed all its campy goodness. What a crazy ride. But also, woof. What a product of its time-- The music, the sets, the hair/body hair, the misogyny, the casual racism... Ninja III posits a world in which there is *an Asiatic division on the police force* and where a preoccupation with Japanese culture is part of a medical diagnosis. And by Japanese culture, the doctor doesn't mean a rich tapestry of art, literature, and history stretching back thousands of years-- it means mystical stuff of demons and ghosts. The "Black Ninja" of the movie, and like many movies of its time, is presented as a supernatural being more like a vampire or (based on all the shenanigans in the apartment) a poltergeist. It's all very Yellow Peril 101-- afraid of the "other," who is uncivilized by Western standards with mystical connections, something unnatural and inherently evil. Something to be distrusted and belittled while at the same time feared because it is exotic. Paul rightly goes into the more traditional and historically accurate understanding of "ninja," although the movie was never really concerned about that, and preferred the standard pop culture definition. 80s' America was consumed with Japan in fear and wonder-- you might say a "preoccupation with Japanese culture." The US was in a recession and dominated by the juggernaut of Japan's rising economy. It's no wonder that the ninja became more symbolic-- it was something so powerful it could travel unseen and cut you down instantly, so inscrutible, so relentless. It was also something very cinematic. It made for a great villain, and was also great for appropriation. Take down your enemy by assimilating it, infantilizing it until you get such classics as Surf Ninjas and 3 Ninjas. And also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which tried to be parody and turned into something beloved in its own right. Culture is weird.

I put out a message to CakeBug to see if he wanted a pick, but I haven’t heard back. For now, I’m going to swap his and @Cam Bert’s weeks and see how it goes.

You are missed as well. I gladly give the floor over to you. Pick away my good man.

I'm here! I'm here! But I guess... if it's already been flipped... I can come back in 2 weeks. I have a pick here but I'll wait to see if CamB has already picked something. I miss everyone!

I now realize I agree with you, Graham, after writing this suggestion about doing more “good, bad movies.” Soulless tripe is the least likely to produce a classic episode. I’ll still hold out hope though.

No film suggestion, but a general suggestion: I think HDTGM has its highest ratio of classic episodes (EG, where the hosts are super energized and we hear lots of huge host + audiences laughs & crazy movie provoked digressions) when they review critically hated movies that are widely loved (or at least widely considered entertaining/fun yet understood to be ridiculous by its own fans). Off the top of my head, I’d cite Blood Sport, Face Off, Cobra, Time Cop, Deep Blue Sea, Con Air, The Running Man and the Twilight w/the huge, imagined battle as examples of great episodes from this type of movie. We can’t miss out on amazing stuff like Miami Connection & Hell Comes to Frog Town, but maybe less widely panned big budget garbage like Speed 2, which is often just soulless tripe rather than garbage with life. The last paragraph makes me see now why a lot of folks are not thrilled to see HDTGM doing Transformers (I had said I thought it’d be funny).

Scientist and the Secret Service. Growing up my best friend's dad was a scientist for TRW in Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s. Whenever he traveled out of the city for business, he was accompanied by a security detail. Growing up we knew never to ask for details about what he did.

As a former Angeleno and current Phoenician, I knew this was filmed in Phoenix from the first golf course scene. Papagos, South Mountain, Encanto Park. It was an unexpected bonus for this great movie. I hope you guys will do a live show here someday; we are only a 1 hour flight, the fifth largest city in the country, and we are turning more blue all the time. Paul may be interested to know that V8 now has Spicy Hot and Hint of Pepper versions. You were ahead of your time.

Just because I think right now correct statistics are super important when discussing these topics I looked this up and according to the 2010 US Census Hispanic/Latinx Americans make up 16.3% while Black/African Americans make up 12.6% of the population. While we may be splitting hairs, those few percentage numbers actually do make up a lot of individuals and are important to factor in. Also looked up what they expect to be reported this year and the Census is expecting it to be reported as 13.4%. Also not criticizing - only think stats are important lol! Also didn't see this movie, but I really appreciate how vocal June and Paul have been on this subject. Please consider looking up your local bail funds because many protestors are being arrested without even being read their rights (happened here in Dallas) and shit is just getting insane.

Maybe you answered your own question, and the scientist was researching on demon ninja! Suddenly, we're sharing a universe with that other movie that featured university research professors studying paranormal-- Ghostbusters! And now we can finally have that cinematic crossover with Ghostbusters vs. demon ninja and assorted Japanese ghosts and monsters!

Darn. You beat me to it by literally a few minutes (shouldn't have made lunch first). I too am surprised that as a gaming enthusiast Paul (go 3DO!) didn't bring it up. I hope Paul includes this in the C&As because the best hope of finding one of the possibly three remaining copies of this game is the (uncredited) Special Effects guy who worked on this movie and the hope he didn't throw it in the trash or sell it for $20 at a garage sale. Maybe he'll listen to your podcast ("Hey, I worked on that! I'll give it a listen.") and get in touch with the owner of the Turbosub website. To make an analogy for Paul relative to Unspooled, finding a copy of this game would be the film equivalent of finding Orson Welles' original cut of the Magnificent Ambersons.

Two things struck me watching this cinematic masterpiece. First, I was elated to see character actor supreme (439 credits!) James Hong as Miyashima, the Exorcist. And my first thought on his performance was "Oh, he's channeling David Lo Pan from 'Big Trouble in Little China'". But, much to my surprise, I look up the production date of this movie and it's 1984 meaning it was made two years before "Big Trouble". So I guess from now on, when I watch that movie, I'll have to think "Oh, he's channeling the exorcist from 'Ninja III'". However, I think the most exciting thing to me in this movie was the appearance of the arcade game "Bouncer". For those who aren't 80s arcade nerds, "Bouncer" is pretty famous as a lost arcade game. It was developed by a small company, Entertainment Sciences, and it was quite advanced for the time--"high" resolution graphics, novel gameplay, new technology, see some gameplay here--and tested out in California. You play a bouncer at a bar tossing drunks, flashers, and other bad guys out of the bar. It was on display at a video game convention in New Orleans in 1983 and its appearance in "Ninja III" is probably product placement. But in the end, the high cost of the game and legal disputes between the developer and the company contracted to build it led eventually to all the known parts, boards, etc. being destroyed. It is thought that three working versions might have survived (one of which is the cabinet in "Ninja III") but only rumors of those machines exist (i.e., "a friend of a friend knows someone with one"). For more info on "Bouncer", there is a website dedicated to it (with a long story about one man trying to find one) as well as a Youtube video about it, including a compilation of all the "Ninja III" appearances of the cabinet:

I just want to know what that scientist could have been working on that he required that level of protection. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that no one working on the Manhattan Project or Apollo Mission ever had that kind of security detail. This movie centered on demon ninjas but yet somehow there was a more interesting story somewhere off screen. This movie went a long way towards fighting the stereotype of the the silent ninja during the fight in the dilapidated house. The sound mixer turned all their knobs up to 11 for the floorboard creaking in that scene.

Chris' teetering stacks of manga and Sailor Moon cosplay outfits would have blown her doctor's mind.

next five! 6/4 Blade Runner 6/11 Shane 6/18 Modern Times 6/25 It Happened One Night 7/1 Jaws

https://www.intlgymnast.com/news/world-champion-gymnast-kurt-thomas-passes-away-after-suffering-stroke/ Very sad news in my Google feed today. RIP to a gymnastics and HDTGM legend.