UW Cinematheque | New York Ninja (2021)

NEW YORK NINJA
USA | 2021 | 35mm | 93 min.
Director: John Liu, Kurtis Spieler
Cast: John Liu, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Leon Isaac Kennedy

When his wife is brutally murdered, sound technician John (co-director John Liu) dons a white ninja outfit and becomes a sword-wielding vigilante hell bent on cleaning up the streets of New York. John soon finds himself the target of every criminal in the city, including a mysterious villain known as The Plutonium Killer. Originally filmed in 1984, this was the lone American project for John Liu, a Taiwanese martial arts actor known for his work in several Hong Kong action movies. Abandoned before production was completed, Liu’s footage for New York Ninja remained untouched for 35 years and all original sound materials were lost entirely over the ensuing decades. The unedited picture was finally assembled in 2019 and a number of genre-friendly actors – Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, and Leon Isaac Kennedy, among many others – loaned their voice talents in order to complete this one-of-a-kind experience, presented here on a new 35mm print! Presented through the Asian American Media Spotlight with the support of Asian American Studies at UW–Madison.