Rating: **
Review Date: 7/11/99
Cast: Sho Kosugi, Lucinda Dickey, cameo by James Hong
Christie (Lucinda Dickey) is a cute and buff telephone maintenance gal who also teaches an aerobics class on the side. She stumbles upon a dying ninja assassin, who gives her his sword and manages to transfer his spirit into her. The evil spirit awakens in her and she goes on a killing spree, taking out all of the cops that killed his original body. All except for one totally annoying jerk that Christie has inexplicably fallen for (after blowing him off several times, she has a change of heart and seduces him by invitingly pouring a can of V8 down her shirt). Sho Kosugi arrives from Japan as the sworn enemy of the evil ninja, and it's his job to exorcise the foul demon out of poor Christie and send it into oblivion. Much of the film is painful to watch, as it's drenched in god-awful 1980's pseudo-pop music, embarrassing aerobics and dance sequences, and of course, the irritating cop boyfriend. But, the ninja fight scenes are palatable and even enjoyable, and Sho's form and execution is great. He alone saves the film in the last twenty minutes and qualifies it as my favorite Sho Kosugi film to date. Ms. Dickey also looks great as a ninja, and does a surprisingly good job with the material she has to work with, bouncing between tough bitch, sexy bimbo, telephone worker, aerobics instructor, bad-ass ninja, and demon possessed monster. She handles her fight scenes well, even though she's heavily doubled with male stuntmen. Fun, lightweight martial arts action fare.