How Bad is Ninja Assassin?

On the heels of directing V for Vendetta, James McTeigue decided to bring a stylized ninja story to the silver screen called, Ninja Assassin. Legend says that the movie cut the hearts of viewers everywhere who loved it, but the hearts of critics were apparently made of iron. Join the team of The Bottom Shelf as they look to discover if it's better than what the critics say, or if it truly belongs on, The Bottom Shelf!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello, kitties.
It's your old pal John Kaseer, the voice
of the Cryptkeeper
and you're listening to
the bottom shelf.
John, why are you wearing black pajamas?
It's the middle of the day. I you

(00:25):
can't see me. I'm literally looking at you,
John. No. I'm invisible. You can't see me.
John? No. John, we've had this conversation. Watch
this. I'm gonna see if you just turn
the lights on. Where did you come from?
Where did you come from? Guys, I've been
here since last episode. I just haven't said
anything to me. What?
Yeah. Yeah. I stopped by because I needed
some advice on a taco machine, and y'all

(00:46):
were doing your thing. And I was, like,
waving, and I guess y'all didn't see me
or something. But to be fair, I was
in the shadows a lot. That's how you
do it, John.
Prepare yourself to discover a world of terrible
movies.
High above the planet Geekery, a group of
intrepid explorers
hover over the dangerous planet in their fabulous

(01:08):
super orbital spacecraft.
Their mission? To conduct a complete analysis of
movies known throughout the universe as Terrible.
So grab your space popcorn, grab your freeze
dried ice cream, and join us for today's
mission of discovery and wonder.

(01:29):
Are these movies better than the galaxy thinks?
Or do they really belong
on the bottom shelf?

(01:53):
Good evening, movie lovers and movie haters. It
is I, your dark lord,
John Harju, and I have come to tell
you about the dark arts of the ninja.
And with me this week, I have Bam
and Dallas
hanging out. John Hey, guys. John, I've told
you this before. Just because you wear
all black clothes doesn't mean you're a trained

(02:14):
ninja. It worked for me.
I just just would throw that out there.
Brent's What? You're not helping.
If I try doing what you did, I
just come off looking like Chris Farley. Alright.
That was a timely reference.
And hello to everybody else out there.
We have Bam on the show with us
this week. We have this last time too.

(02:36):
Oh, but if it I'm sure he probably
intentionally
chose not to watch that last movie. To
be fair,
he might have been here, but we were
just so comatose from watching whatever that was
that We were too busy staring at the
screen trying to look at what they were
looking at. You mean the green screen they
were looking at? Mhmm.
Yeah. Yeah. Word of the worlds, you made

(02:57):
me angry.
Alright. Ranting aside, what are we doing this
week, guys?
That's a great question. Let's check the box
here. And since coming out of the shadows,
ladies and gentlemen, we have
Ninja
a
Assassin?
Is that like,
an is that like a an, a knockoff

(03:17):
Assassin's Creed?
Maybe?
Wasn't there an Assassin's Creed game in Japan?
There was one here in The States too.
I meant, like, one that was based in
Japan. We don't talk about that game.
Oh,
I'm so I stepped on a nerve. I
believe I believe that game was called Ghost
of Yotei. Yeah.
Maybe.
If you wanna know more about Ghost of

(03:38):
Yotei, check out Calm Talk by Geek Devotions
where John and I gave our thoughts on
it. Anyways podcast dedicated
to letting you know that you are loved,
you are cared for, and that there is
a purpose for your life. Click, like, and
subscribe.
Oh my goodness. Alright. Ninja Assassin, I believe,
is what we're gonna watch today, gentlemen, since
John's wearing his PJs.

(03:59):
You're just jealous because I'm comfortable.
I am. You're correct. I am jealous that
you're comfortable.
Although, I feel like you're a little too
comfortable. There's no reason for you to have
a flap on the back of your pants,
especially have it open like that, John. Bro.
And suddenly, I understand why you haven't been
able to fade into the background.
Yo. I've been in outer space for two
years now. How much sunlight do you think

(04:20):
I've seen?
That's why the flap's open, sir.
I'm trying to have rosy cheeks by Christmas.
Lord Jesus, help us. Alright. Let's jump into
it. Here, Branson. Why don't you read the
back of the box for us? Okay. I
will do it in my
best
ninja voice. Oh, don't get it. Oh, lord.

(04:42):
Let's not do that. I don't wanna be
a part of the trade federation in the
beginning of the Star Wars saga shit. I
I was actually thinking more like Splinter from
Ninja Turtles. Nope. Nope. He you sounded like
a catfish alien Oh. Doing the trade federation.
Yep. Oh, okay. Episode one right there. Alright.
Alright.

(05:05):
There's smoke all over the place tonight, everybody.
Alright.
The filmmakers of the matrix and v for
vendetta bring a new blood, lots of it,
to martial arts movies and ninja assassin.
Korean pop star Rain from Speed Racer stars
as heroic deadly
Raizo,
trained for childhood in the way of the

(05:25):
Ozuna clan ninja.
He is stalked by fellow warriors for breaking
free of them and their iron willed dojo
patriarch, martial arts legend Shou Kasugi,
and is on the run with a Europol
agent, Naomi Harris,
who has proof of the clan sell who
has proof the clan sells assassination services to
governments.
The action
is start to finish fast, fierce, filled with

(05:48):
weaponry,
chain swords, staffs, shurikens,
and awesome athleticism.
Fear not the weapon, but the hand that
wields it. I don't feel like we need
to watch the movie anymore. My guy. Bam
just destroyed my mind. Oh, yeah? I did.
Oh, yeah. I'm a great character real quick.
I didn't realize that was Shokasugi.
Yes. Yes. It is. I am

(06:11):
awestruck, and everything makes sense now. Really? Oh,
Shou Kasugi.
Am I seriously the only person who knows
who Shou Kasugi is amongst the three of
us? Maybe. I don't know. Hold on. Potentially.
Who is Shou Kasugi? I'm peeking over Dallas's
shoulder here. Let's see. Okay. Let's put a
let's put a pin in this thought. Let's
put a pin in this thought. We'll come
back to it after you two have seen

(06:33):
after we have watched this. Okay. Because I
have conversations that need to be had
about Shokasugi
in the spoiler free section.
Alright.
Sounds good. Hold on. I'm having a moment
because I just saw something. Nope. That's what
I'm looking for. Sorry. I'm now on a
tangent because of what he said. And, I'm
like, what's going on here? I'm Googling this

(06:53):
guy. No. Are you kidding me? Shh. Shh.
Save it till we watch. Oh.
Remember, we put a pin in this. Pin.
It's in my eye now. Alright. So I
think we should have used a nail.
I am sorry, but you can't drop that
name on me out of nowhere and make
me realize okay. Anyway, alright. So let's What,
Intro to the movie. Yes. Let's do that,

(07:15):
please. Alright. Pull it out. Intro to the
movie for information.
In the early two thousands, Matthew Sand had
a dream. A bloody one full of leather,
martial arts, and action. After watching The Matrix
and V from Vendetta
back to back, he reached out to James
McTeague
to help him bring his dream alive with
Ninja Assassin.
Sadly, halfway through production, he realized the script

(07:37):
wasn't so great, so he called in Babylon
five writer, J. Michael Storzczynski,
can't mispronounce that, I apologize, to help fix
the script. After fixing the script, they needed
someone with some athleticism and fierceness to play
the mythological ninja that would bring fear to
everyone. Someone who was brave and could face
danger. So after watching Speed Racer, they hired

(07:58):
a k pop star named Rain
to be their fierce pretty boy warrior.
After breaking after barely breaking even the box
office, this high action bloody blood filled film
drifted off into memory movie of the shadows.
Alright. So with all that being said, you
got any kind of trivia for us there,
buddy? I do

(08:19):
Oh. On this movie. The weapon Raizo favors
throughout the movie is called a,
oh, lord, I stumble on this in Ghost
of Yotei two, Arigama,
which is notoriously
difficult weapon to master,
which is awesome if you've ever played Ghost
of Yotei, and I'm excited to see it
in action. I'm gonna play it after we

(08:39):
record this podcast. Right. After Raizo is captured
by Interpol and chained to the wall, one
of the agents looks at him and says,
he looks like he should be in a
boy band. Rain started his career
in the boy band fan club, so he
is actually a boy band member.
Yes. Korean pop star Rain had no martial

(09:02):
arts experience prior to filming. He trained extensively
for six months in martial arts and weapons
handling
with stunt action choreographers
Chad Stalas, Peng Zhang,
and John Valera and Jonathan
Sabio,
as well as weights and cardiovascular
workouts with personal trainers. He also went on

(09:24):
a diet of chicken breasts and vegetables.
Wow. Can you imagine, like, just hanging out
with
martial arts trainers just every day and your
job is just to become, like, some martial
arts guru? Just That'd be crazy. That would
be nice.
And to bookend
my this little list o trivia,

(09:45):
Lee Joon, who plays teenage Raizo in the
movie, was a member of South Korean boy
band, MBLAQ.
The band has the band was created and
mentored by Rain himself.
So this movie is just
nonstop boy band fanfic. Interesting. It's interesting the
number of Koreans on this movie about Japanese

(10:07):
warriors.
Just saying. Is that all your trivia?
That's all I got in front of me
at the moment. Alright. Let's pull up, please,
gentlemen, some community conversation.
We reached out to folks over on TikTok,
Instagram,
and Discord, and the Facebook's coming out from
our Discord. First off, we got Mikasi. What's
up, homie? My fellow Gundam

(10:28):
fan. He says, I enjoyed the movie. I
went expecting just an action flick, and I
got something deeper, but much would be willing
to rewatch.
Alright. Then we got C. K.
U. Crews.
Caesar.
Three four five. All I'm gonna say is
that
for a person

(10:49):
who is not Naruto,
I absolutely love this movie. One of the
best I've seen, definitely worth the watch and
rewatch.
Nice. Awesome. I don't get this I don't
get that response, my guy, because it's it
literally pops up as a 35 on the
Metacritic score. It's a what? This movie comes
up as a metric as a 35 on
the Metacritic.

(11:10):
Yeah. I just don't understand why it's rewatch.
It it it's not jiving with, like, why
are we watching this if it is so
great. So far, we have two peoples that
said yes. We need to rewatch this. That's
what I'm saying. Alright. Read the next one,
bud.
Some fella
says, I just remember that at a certain
point of the movie, the main character suddenly
had Wolverine style healing,

(11:30):
and his deep wounds were all closed up.
Alright. Charles Bell For alert. Charles Bell, who
is one of our good friends, Finn, friend
of the show. He runs game warriors, gaming
for a cause, which does fundraisers for nonprofits.
He says, I enjoyed it enough to add
it to my collection.
Oh, I'm next.
Nathan j norm I'm also astounded by the

(11:53):
feedback we got by the community. I think
this has only been out for, what,
two hours?
Yeah. Yep. By the way, Nathan j Norman
is commander Cody from our intro. Yeah. Nathan
j Norman says, I watched it because J
Michael
oh, you're gonna make me say it now.
J Michael
Straczynski

(12:13):
was brought in to fix the script.
Oh, there's a vote of confidence.
Aaron's Huey says, I own it. Not the
best ninja movie, but I'll watch it once
in a while. Now I wanna DC's League
of Shadows. Oh. Oh. Which would actually be
really good. I'd be I would watch that.
Yeah. Like, even as a TV can you

(12:33):
imagine that as a TV show, like, on
on one of the streaming stations? Just League
of Shadows. That would be lit. That would
be nice. Pretty cool. There's a t there's
a Netflix that was called House of Ninjas
that was really good. I'm into it. Alright.
Chris Forte, the movie is the movie assassin
was severely underrated.
When I when it first dropped, that was

(12:53):
one of my favorite movies I watched. One
of my favorite movies I watched. Can't
believe I forgot about it till just now.
Thank you. I will be getting me a
copy soon because I want to watch it
again.
Wow. I'm just blown away by this community
feedback. Like I know. Right? Are we sure
you read the score correctly? I double checked

(13:14):
it. 35.
Wow. Okay.
Alright. Let's keep on moving. Richard Bone
has the best name that I've oh, wait.
That's not what we're here for. Richard Bone,
how many ninja stars did they go through?
Seems one guy had millions just had one
guy had millions just throwing them. That's fair.

(13:34):
Rev Baum says, I saw it in theaters
and bought it on DVD when it came
out. So much CGI blood. Alright.
That's our community outreach.
Let's almost give our expectations,
mister Harju,
stealth assassin.
Alright. So
this was one of those other movies that
kind of inspired the creation of this podcast

(13:55):
for me. And the reason why is because
I watched it when it first came out
on DVD. I didn't see it in the
theater. Rev Bomb did. However,
I I did check it out on the
DVD from Blockbuster. No. Hastings.
Rip Hastings.
Moment of silence.
Okay. But I did check it out from
Hastings, and I I watched it, and I
enjoyed it quite a bit. Now I this

(14:17):
is before I'd got really gotten involved with
really trying to break down movies. I just
sat down and watched it and said, hey,
I really liked that.
And I was talking with my buddy who
is really into the movie snob community, which
is what I refer to people who super
deep dive into movies and pick them apart
and really go into
the nuance of filmmaking,

(14:38):
greater so than I even do now. And
he was just teasing me one side and
the other because, apparently, it was common knowledge
amongst the the movie critic community
community that this movie was trash.
I never saw the movie again after seeing
it that first time, albeit
I do remember I enjoyed it quite a
bit, and I couldn't understand why everybody thought
it was trash. So I'm excited to read

(14:58):
this. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
B? I actually did see it in theaters
when this came out. Wow. Yeah. My my
wife was working at the time at a
hospital, and she would always have the the
late night shift. And I saw it, and
it looked like one of those kinda like
The Expendables movies. It doesn't pretend to be
anything other than what it is, and you
know what you're going to see. And so

(15:19):
I was like, I can stand for just
some mindless violence and gore for a while.
Sure. Why not? So I went I got
a buddy of mine to go with me,
and I actually enjoyed it. I thought it
was a lot of fun. Yeah. It's like
John. I never went back and saw it
again.
I didn't have any friends that hated on
it, but the only friend I spoke about
it with was the guy that went and
saw it with me, and he enjoyed it
enough. But, I don't remember it being terrible.

(15:40):
So I guess the assumption is it just
didn't do well in the box office, and
that's why it has the rating it has.
But I don't remember hating it. Now critical
critically speaking, the critics did dump on this
movie, so it was not critically well received.
Really? Yep. I genuinely enjoyed watching it when
I saw it. It. It's been fifteen years,
but Can I before you jump before you
do yours, Dallas, can I put a little

(16:01):
addendum on my expectations here? Please do. I
am genuinely terrified. I'm about to have a
guy virtue moment going into this movie.
I've not been back for one episode.
If you aren't gonna bring that, pour salt
back into that wound. He's having a good
time to do that. Here's the deal, Bam.

(16:21):
I'm not even trying to pour salt into
that wound. Right now
now I'm just, like, legitimately concerned. Like, I'm
remembering a movie that I enjoyed when I
was younger, and I'm afraid this is gonna
end up being dog water when we walk
into it. And then I completely like this.
Sympathize with you. I'm there with you. If
it comes to that, I'm here for you.
I'll help you I'll help you through it.

(16:43):
I'm here for you, man. There you go.
My expectations are I like ninjas and,
a lot.
I saw this movie years ago when it
first came out in DVD. I'm trying to
remember my timelines.
And
I don't think I was working for Hollywood
Video at the time when it came out,
but I remember renting it. And I think,

(17:05):
dude, when I got this, I got it
on Netflix
on DVD.
Hey. The mail in Netflix. I've old say
what you want about old school Netflix. I
preferred old school Netflix.
Having everything immediately available took the The magic
away.
Yeah. I felt like I actually watched more
movies getting the DVD Yeah. Than having them

(17:27):
because I guess it was the idea of
I've invested time waiting for this to show
up Right. Before I send it back. I
need to actually watch it. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.
I think I've watched more movies when we
had the physical disc than when we had
it streaming. I can vibe with that. But
I remember watching it late at night and,
going, this is cool. Now it was like
two o'clock in the morning,
but this would be an amazing 02:00 in
the morning. I'm sorry. I'm ahead of my

(17:48):
throat. Go ahead. 02:00 in the morning, bowl
ramen, just vibing.
I remember having fun with this movie, legitimately
having fun.
Now, to be fair, I'm a fan of
those cheesy
Japanese movies with exaggerated blood. I see the
blind swordsman and all those other ones. Those
were great movies.
And so I was like, yeah, let's go.
And so my expectations is that just have

(18:09):
fun
and here in our community outreach, it sounds
like everyone
is just vibing with this movie. I'm excited.
Yeah. Yeah. Alrighty then. Everything is has been
said.
We're gonna go and watch the movie. If
you are listening
to the podcast,
pause it and go watch this movie. At
the viewing of this, I don't know where
you can find it.

(18:30):
Yeah. I had I have the Blu ray
myself. So Oh.
I watched it on Google. Ranson saw it
on Tubi, just barely. It was on Tubi,
and now it's not. It may come back.
Alright, guys. We're gonna go watch the movie.
Dear listeners,
this is your opportunity to escape.

(18:51):
Our crew has just entered into the media
projection chamber.
What horrors and madness that they consume are
unknown.
Their mental state upon their return is
unknown.
You have been warned.
You ever walk out of a movie feeling
like you're covered with marinara and ground beef?

(19:12):
I am sorry. Okay? I was trying to
balance everything, and my shoelace was untied.
And it just it happened. Okay?
I just don't know why you had that
on your popcorn.
Look. All I can say is don't knock
it till you tried it. This is why
we don't talk to you, Branson.
Oh my gosh. Alright. This is our spoiler

(19:34):
free discussion time frame.
Alright. Shokosuga.
Yes. Let's see. I'm sorry. I have been
holding this like a pee on a road
trip, sir. This is gonna happen right now.
You tell me your brain explosion, I'll tell
you mine. Okay. Shokasuga
is
one of the key proponents
of the nineteen
eighties
ninja movie

(19:54):
explosion that had happened during that time period.
He is most notably known for the what's
called the Ninja trilogy,
which was Enter the Ninja,
Revenge of the Ninja, and then Ninja three,
The Domination,
as well as being in
one of the most famous VHS

(20:14):
cover
movies of all VHS rental
rental companies of all time, which was the
ninja movie called Pray for Death. Wow. Wow.
That actually
clarifies a lot of what I had to
say about this movie now. That's pretty lit.
Knowing that that makes a lot of sense.
There's some ninja heritage here. Yeah. So if

(20:35):
you take that into consideration
of what we just watched and you think
about all the
hackney nineteen eighties ninja movies that Shou Kasuga
was in, and then you think about the
movie we just watched, everything should fall in
line free. Yes, it does. This makes me
so my
astounding thing, Joe

(20:55):
Shou played Ricky Maru
in this game or in this in the
games, Tenshu stuff assassin. You play the Japanese
voice. And for those who know me, I
have been advocating
for years. We need a return of Tenshu
stealth assassin games for ages. I had a
revelation the other day, John, and the reason
that I play

(21:16):
Ghost of Yosei, Ghost of Tsushima
the way I do and the why I
love it is because it is the closest
to Tenchu that I can get right now
in modern gaming. Yeah. It was it is
my opinion, one of the best
game ninja games out there. And hear me,
video game people, get me Tenchu because it's
so great. And, but he was the voice

(21:36):
of Ricky Mario the entire time. I was
like, holy crap. So side note, he was
also the voice of a power ranger apparently,
or
a character in power Rangers.
Oh, really? Ninja. Sentai core ranger.
He played some character named He was really
repulsive.
This dude was liking it up. I mean,
nothing but ninja movies. Oh, for sure. No.

(21:57):
He he this like, Shokasuga
is ninja movie royalty.
Like, the moment that Bam said that he
was in this, my head blew up. Because
I don't know him.
I don't know his work well enough to
be able to identify him on a movie
screen,
which is the reason why I didn't know
that going into this. I didn't check I
don't I never checked the credits of the

(22:18):
movies going into these things. So
it to not know his work well enough
to be able to identify him by seeing
him on screen, but mostly knowing his legacy,
that just makes me even more excited to
have seen this movie now because I'm like,
okay. Now I'm a part of something.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. It actually
oh, go ahead. No. Go ahead. I was
just saying the fact that you said that

(22:40):
makes a lot of sense because one of
the things I wrote down
is the overall feel of this movie.
It leans into what we all expected ninjas
to be in the nineties. Oh, totally. Like,
they had actually made the ninja this scary
force of the night.
And
and and I wrote down in my notes.
I was like, whoever wrote this movie grew

(23:00):
up watching ninja movies in the nineties because
they're like, this is what we expect in
ninjas to be. When we heard there was
gonna be a ninja in a movie. Nineties
and eighties. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
Go ahead. Phil filmology wise, like, you could
tell this is a European film. There's a
there is a specific vibe
in ingrained to European films,
and you can almost taste the pal, the

(23:23):
way that the pals the formatting in Europe.
It you can feel it, but it wasn't
distracting.
Sometimes European films, they come off distracting me.
I don't know if that's the same way
for you guys watching European films. I don't
know if it's the way they do. I
didn't realize that until you pointed it out,
so I didn't even it didn't it wasn't
even something that Yeah. Was obvious to me.
Okay. Okay. I'm just dumb. Alright. No, dude.

(23:43):
You're not dumb. It's just I just it's
so I see. But it's one of those
things that but to me, it was good,
though. Like, it was really well done. The
estimated budget was only $40,000,000.
Only.
Only. That's in 2000 that's in 2009. And
gross wise, it only made
$61,000,000.
So it barely made its money back. But
that being said, like, you could tell the

(24:04):
budget wasn't the greatest, but what they did
with it was amazing.
Mhmm. Like, graphics were really well done.
And what it is, they lean to My
money says my money says that budget went
to training. More than likely.
But the what it is though, what makes
it for me is
they leaned into
the eighties, nineties, stylized

(24:26):
martial arts. Yeah. They lean into that heavily
for the graphics from like the chain
spins and the way they did all the
fight scenes.
And I'm gonna get into specifics about some
of those fight scenes later, because that's where
I put my all my notes at.
But I think it was just really well
done with what they had and the way
things were done back then.

(24:46):
Yeah. Choreography
in this and the training that Rain had
to have for this, taking it back to
the point I was saying. And I
that's where the money had to have gone
with this because
Oh, man. And maybe it's just because I
don't think digital effects are quite there yet
when this movie came out because the digital
effects do stick out a little bit in
the same way that the digital effects suck

(25:08):
out in the second blade movie where people's
bodies get a little bit rubber band or
at Gumby as we used to refer to
it back in the day. Yeah.
There's stuff like that. There's moments where the
chain on this weapon
is very obviously
CG because it becomes
practically

(25:33):
certain level
of suspension of disbelief you have to come
into the movie with in order to watch
it appropriately.
Right. So I think if you're willing to
do that, I don't think any of those
the lack in the visual effects or the
aging of the visual effects is necessarily going
to be prohibitive to enjoying the movie. Definitely.

(25:53):
Yeah. Like, reference to I forget who said
it about so much CGI blood.
Mhmm. The way they did the movie, though,
at that didn't feel out of place. Yeah.
And one of the things I said was
a lot of the scenes looks like, okay.
They inserted the scene so that they could
show off that this guy could do this
move. Yeah. That was the point of it.
There was one where he does, like, a

(26:14):
push up on a bed of nails. I'm
like, they're just doing that to say, hey.
Look. This guy can do a push up
on a bed of nails or whatever. But
because the whole premise of the movie is
ninjas fighting all the time, it didn't feel
out of place. It didn't feel hokey. It
felt like it was part of the DNA
of the movie, which actually made it enjoyable.
I didn't mind the
obvious fake

(26:34):
blood or when the weapons looked like, okay.
That weapon's not actually there. They'd stitch that
in after the fact, but it fit the
vibe of the movie, and it was actually
enjoyable. Yeah.
I'm I'm looking at the top the 2,009
movies, action movies that came out in the
era. And it's interesting seeing what's taking place
here. Obviously you have Ninja Assassin. You had
a movie called Robo Geisha.

(26:55):
You had the infamous Dragon Ball Evolution, which
we need to talk about on the show
one day. We had Street Fighter. We had
a movie called Ninja. We had Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles Forever.
You had District nine, you had GI Joe
come out. You had Blood the Last Vampire,
which is by the way, one of my
favorite anime adaptations.
You had the terrible Street Fighter movie that

(27:15):
came out about Chun Li, and then you
had Underworld,
Rise of the Lycans. So this is the
era that these things were coming out. Oh,
also, for those of you who are into
it, Tekken came out. Oh.
Shout out to my man, TJ. He was
a extra in Tekken. And, but it seems
like the, like this was the era
for, this was a year for fighting martial
arts style

(27:36):
stuff at the time. Like it was just,
I don't know if it was just a
matter of the people who grew up in
the eighties, nineties were just now let's make
martial arts movies or if there was something
else going on, but it was definitely a
thing taking place. I have a thought about
that, but it gets kind of spoilery for
me to say that. So I'm gonna come
back to this, but I'm glad you pointed
that out. Based off the movies that you
just said out loud there, I will and

(27:58):
to make a I'm gonna make so many
people met with this, and I don't care.
I will say given the time period that
all those movies came out and
the time period
of all the
predecessor movies that it's trying to embody,
it's what was happening in hip hop at
the time where
hip hop was trying to create its new

(28:20):
create its own identity. The new generation that
hip hop was trying to create its own
identity, and it ended up creating mumble rap.
And though it came from a very earnest
place, the action movie genre at the same
time was a lesser form of its previous
self. So I think this was more like
the future.
When I say future, not like
time the forward time, but future as in

(28:42):
the rapper
of the mumble rap genre of that time
period. Whereas,
yes, on a whole, those movies weren't super
great, but I think this is the exemplary
version. I'm tipping my hand. This is the
exemplary version of of that particular
time period, if that makes sense.
We're all kinda tipping our hands. So let's

(29:03):
go ahead and go into our spoiler
section of the conversation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the spoiler section.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. It's time for us
to spoil this movie. Going to my stuff.

(29:24):
The opening fight scene where we have everything
going going off where
you have some yakuza looking guys in a
bar, and they're
tattooing one guy. And all of a sudden,
there's a envelope with the black sands delivered,
and all of a sudden, the ninja just
literally steps out of the shadows. How cool
was that moment?
That was
that was lit. But Can can we talk

(29:45):
about Can we talk about can we talk
about the old man doing the old school
tattooing technique, just jamming those needles in?
And throwing shade at the Yakuza
gangster while he's doing it. Oh my gosh.
Did did anybody else's knees go a little
bit numb while they were watching those needles
just being jammed?
And he wasn't even being kind either. He's

(30:06):
just ramming those needles and just The needle
is doing its job.
But that whole opening fight scene where he
just annihilates everybody,
literally, I wrote down, this is how I
play Ghost of Yote.
Like, the entire time, this is that's how
I play Ghost of Yote the entire time,
and I loved it.
Dallas and I play that game very differently.
Dallas likes to go in like

(30:28):
a stealth assassin. I like to just face
tank everybody, and
I wanna watch them scream as I'm coming
at them with a sword. I don't play
Ghost of Yote, but when I played Marvel's
Spider Man on the PS four Right. This
was my preferred way of dealing with a
room full of thugs was I would crawl
on the ceiling Yeah. And then do perch
takedowns with webbing. I'm the same way in

(30:49):
Spider Man for sure. Yeah. But there's just
something about there's just something about using these
weapons or it's just, no. I want the
full effect. Give me the violence.
Oh, man. There's a stylistic difference between us.
But for me, that's just like in this
movie
exemplifies
how I play Ghost of Yotei and everything
else. Just, this is going to be in
John and I's follow-up episode of Ghost of

(31:10):
Yotei where we actually talk about the, when
we finished the game. But John and I
were joking about the styles that we play
and he uses a specific armor called the,
the bounty hunter armor. And, the bounty hunter
armor, it's allows you to parry like crazy.
I'm using one called the scarlet kimono,
which means that makes it so they almost
just can't see you. Oh nice. And John's

(31:30):
yeah but like it houses those perfect parries.
Who needs to parry when they're already dead
by the time you get there? That's that's
what these ninjas did man. That opening scene
throughout the entirety of the film. This is
one of my notes I loved I wrote
down. I loved how they had these ninjas
fading in and out of the shadows Yes.
So mysteriously,
so mythologically.
And, like, the fight scene in homegirl's apartment

(31:53):
where she has the flashlight and all of
a sudden they just disappear in the shadows.
The way they choreographed that where it's just
a flashlight going in their spot, I thought
that was genius.
I will say I did enjoy that, especially
the in and out of the shadows.
However, I want to append that by saying
the vampire movements they had them doing where
they were just swishing through the light with

(32:15):
just a blur. I hated that. I hated
that so much. In fact, I will go
as far as to say that this would
have been a I think that this movie
probably would have have rated better
with the critics if they would have taken
the whole and I'm I for those who
can't actually see me, I'm doing air quotes,
ninja
magic

(32:36):
out of this movie. And if they would
have done it a lot more straight face
and kinda leaned into the realism a little
bit more
Mhmm. I think that this would have been
a lot more well received, and we'd be
talking about a classic rather than something that
was a little bit more panned as a
CGI fantasy. I I see that. But at

(32:56):
the same time, like I said earlier, this
movie seems to take the concept of a
ninja that we had as kids growing up
and make that a reality. We all thought
as
kids, we always wanted to play as ninjas
because we thought ninjas could do stuff like
that. They could just Yeah. Vanish into the
shadows and you never see anything. And so
whoever wrote this movie was like, okay. As

(33:17):
a kid, this is what I thought a
ninja could do. So let me write a
story where
they can actually do that and then not
take the time to explain
how they do it. The whole of the
movie, for the most part, is from the
point of view of the people
experiencing the ninjas. Mhmm. Not just themselves.
And so it makes it it just seem
like a monster Yeah. Yeah. That's hiding in

(33:39):
the dark. I can dig it. Like, I
I get where you're coming from, and that's
how I watch the movie. It's just I
think I personally
would have enjoyed it better if they would
have leaned into the realism more than
the fantasy of it or the I wonder
if because as we know, Nathan James, Norman,
he brought it back that they brought it
home, dude, to do some rewrites so the
script wasn't right. I'm wondering if they had

(34:01):
either just hard leaned into the mythological
idea more. Because there were some aspects that
were very practical, like the whole training sequence
where he's walking across the room with the
boards that squeak. That's a legitimate training that
they had to do or we suspect because
let's let's be real. We don't know much
about the shinobi. We just have legends.
But the the whole aspect of doing that,
there was this one part practical that they

(34:22):
kept showing us and the one part mythological.
And I wonder that's the result of the
script writers because there were two of them.
And I'm wondering if they had leaned one
way or the other, it would have made
it better. Maybe. Mhmm. Maybe. I don't think
I would have enjoyed it more
if they would have leaned harder into the
whole fantastical
I think that probably would have turned me
off. Interesting. Interesting. Oh, okay, cool. Alexa, I'd

(34:45):
liked, I liked all the fight scenes. Like
the fight scenes were great the entire time
through
the scene where in the last, in the
end when they're in the warehouse and he's
like running from 5,000,000,000
shurgens and ninja starts are just flying out
of nonstop.
And it's again, this is how I could
tell this European, because they did a whole
parkour thing, which was super popular in two
thousands

(35:05):
of him running through that whole space. That
fight was pretty cool looking to me. Yeah.
The only thing that that I saw that
really to to your point about
the well choreographed fight scenes, that actually leads
into the one of the few things about
the movie that I wrote the other. I
was like, this is kinda weird. The, the
Europol agent that I forget the character's name
now. The gorilla guy. The girl. Okay.

(35:27):
She had plot armor
so thick. Oh, man. There was one scene
where she is in a room, and all
of these heavily armed
armored soldiers
are getting their heads literally cut off just
sliced and diced all over the place. She's
in there in a leather jacket in a
Pew Pew gun, and somehow she's dodging shurikens
kits Yeah. Left and right. It's like she's

(35:50):
he always happens to be at just the
right spot where these highly trained assassins that
are taking out soldiers galore just always miss
her. Yeah. She definitely has plot armor for
days. Yeah. This is the arm she has
the plot armor that John uses to tank
people in Ghost of Yote. Yeah. She
just goes hard. Yeah. And, again, it was

(36:10):
one of those things where she I think
she was supposed to be who we experienced
the story through for the most part is
her as a character as a whole, which
now
being very practical, I thought that was the
plot line of it, of her and the
guy
almost fell flat. And I say that so
one of the running conversations in the Godzilla
franchises
is the debate over

(36:31):
the monster storyline and the human storyline. In
between the movies, there's always this struggle.
In this, the ninjas work the monster storyline.
Yeah. And the human storyline was her figuring
out some stuff, and it felt very just
convenient and just very forced some of the
moments where, oh, the FBI is after you
all of a sudden.
And just certain aspects of it just were

(36:52):
like, okay. Yeah. There were there were moments
where it's we want to move the plot
along, so this is now going to work
because we said so. Yeah. That is one
thing that I did see when I was
trying to watch it with a bit more
of a critical eye is there was a
lot of, okay. We're just gonna accept what's
being presented because we need to in order
to get to the next point. Right. And
I could understand why someone with a critical

(37:13):
eye would have issue with that. However, I
have a tendency to watch movies from the
perspective
as intended.
I watch from the intended perspective
of the writer.
Meaning,
as long as it's not jumping the shark,
I can take those leaps of logic and
be like, okay. We're just going here for
the sake of the movie because

(37:35):
I'm not coming into a movie like Ninja
Assassin
looking for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. You know
what I mean? Right. Yeah. I I'm just
looking I just want I want arterial spray
and violence
Right.
And semi coherent plot that causes the previous
two
either articles to happen, basically.

(37:57):
Yeah. To that
point, one of the only other critiques I
had about the movie was
the girl
that was the semi love interest in the
ninja camp. Yeah. I don't understand how someone
that sweet and that tenderhearted is raised in
the same school
that everyone else is. She remains that sweet
and tenderhearted.

(38:18):
I think we would have benefited a little
bit from seeing
her suffer and struggle and yet retain
that heart because she's
she looks immaculate every scene. She her hair
is always done. She never has any blood
splatter on her at all. The worst she
ever looked was when she didn't escape and
they bound her up in that box and
wouldn't give her any water. They did scrap

(38:39):
they they cut her face first. But that
was in a fight, wasn't it? No. No.
Because she refused to mark her opponent.
He, the sensei guy Yeah. He cut her
face. Okay. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. But
that was the first time we saw her
struggle in any real way. She was literally
being the heart and soul of this of
the main character. See that. It seemed late

(39:00):
for that to take place. Yeah. And I
could see that because, like, you see the
kid, like, the boys, and they are scarred
up everywhere. Yeah. And you would expect that
she was so tenderhearted, and you would assume
they were pushed to do more things that
she would have some markings elsewhere. However, let's
be real. If you're doing a
an assassin school I'm trying not to be
crude here, but, you know, mark up the

(39:21):
assassin. Up the women. Yeah. You you want
them to look pretty for when they do
their job. I guess the the to that,
I would have appreciated seeing her trait her
training being different. Different. Yeah. Show a scene
where you've got all the guys knocking each
other I could see that. Yeah. And she's
preparing
tea or putting on makeup or doing to
show that her training is different, and that's
why she

(39:41):
has a different outlook. And she's so much
different than all of her brothers and sisters
in school. Where I can appreciate what you're
asking for for here, Bam, I will say
that
they already had three different story lines that
they were they had three different stories they
were telling throughout this movie already.
I think if they were to have expanded
on that character anymore

(40:03):
to the point adding a fourth storyline to
this movie,
I think it would have started
muddying
the point
more than it probably already was in this.
I there, pun not intended, there are so
many hooks in this movie
where
I feel like this movie could have been
turned into a manga or an anime Oh,

(40:26):
yeah. And been fleshed out 500 times more
and been that much more enjoyable because there
is the concept of having
nine still existing
ninja clans from
thousands of years ago
Mhmm.
Hidden in plain sight is such a fantastic
idea to drive

(40:46):
such a high such a amazing it's such
an amazing idea for an anime that I
really feel like this could have been something
so much bigger. And I think they were
intending on making this a franchise.
It just didn't really take off from the
first move. Yeah. I would have liked to
see more about the little brother
storyline too. His rival in the school, like,

(41:08):
the only thing we got really was that
he was the one that killed the girl.
And then he keeps calling him little brother
throughout the movie, and then they had this
big fight at the end, and that was
it. I would have liked to have seen
that more. So I think you're right. Instead
of doing, like, a short two hour or
ninety minute movie, we could have made this
one made this an anime because that would
have been amazing. And then make it like

(41:29):
a full 13 episode
OVA
where we could actually explore
maybe even this a whole series where we
could explore all of these plot
hooks. Yeah, definitely. Now I will say one
thing that kind of fell for me plot
wise
was at the end when they are attacking
the dojo area. First off, how do they
get the trucks up the mountain? That was

(41:51):
weird.
Second off, where were the extra children?
If this was a ongoing thing,
why weren't there more children
why weren't there any children at the final
fight? It's like they all Because they didn't
wanna have violence against children in the final
scene of the movie.
I get that, but it just felt like
all of a sudden, it's like there was
no mention of children anywhere. That could have

(42:13):
been a whole plot a an easy plot
line of
getting the children out of the situation.
I could see it, but then again, it's
just like
you start
blurring the lines of where do you draw
the line for plot bloat. That's true. I
made a an observation towards the end of
the movie talking about the last scene, and
I wrote something down, and I wanna float

(42:33):
it by you guys and see what you
think. Let's take this story, change it up
a little bit, change some of the names,
change it to where
the
brother
lives
but is scarred,
and change the name
of the clan
to the foot.
Japers.

(42:53):
And not
We have an origin
story
for a Motoyoshi
and Oroku Saki.
Seriously.
Oh. This could be like, like, as much
as people love the last rodent and taking
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and giving it a
serious spin, you could make this the origin

(43:13):
story of why Splinter and Shredder
hate each other. You're not wrong. I hate
that you're not wrong. Introducing the mutagen
before introducing turtles.
Just make it about them being raised in
the foot clan. I'm gonna do you one
further, Branson. I'm gonna make you mad that
this doesn't exist.
Your idea could literally be the
Gotham to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and easily

(43:36):
be made into a weekly TV show. Oh,
yeah.
Yes.
Exactly.
And you wouldn't even need the CGI to
make the mutated
animals. It would just it's just it would
be the cheapest thing to make, and it'll
never happen because it's what people want. Let
the whole series end
with
Raizu, who would be named Amalia, moving to

(43:57):
New York City. Have him walking through Ellis
Island
into New York City with a bag on
his back
and just have him, like, casually stop by
a turtle,
look at a group of turtles in a
pet shop,
fade to black,
end of series.
Oh my god. Even make the brother, like,
his specialty weapon, make it claws.

(44:19):
Don't ever call him shredder. Just make his
specialty weapon claw.
It would be amazing. It would be absolutely
amazing. I didn't go that far, but I
did put in here that this would have
been an amazing
modern day plot line for the Assassin's Creed
shadows game. I would agree with that. And
I will take I also wanna say that
I have a I don't know if I

(44:39):
can call it a fan theory because they'll
never make another movie, but I have a
fan theory about the ending of this movie
Mhmm. In that how he was talking about
that one lady who took the sword to
the chest, and they're like, no. Her heart's
over here. And he was like, she has
a special heart.
I was thinking about it. I'm like, what
if that was an illusion
at the end of the movie that dude's

(44:59):
girlfriend wasn't actually dead, but she played dead
because her heart was in a different spot
too? And that was the whole
point of him saying that she was all
hiding. And so once the clan was all
dead at the end, he goes and jumps
the wall to go look for her.
That I would have. Been awesome. That would
have been great.

(45:19):
I think that was what they were trying
to hint at, but they did a terrible
job in the execution to it. So it
that's my fan theory in my head on
how that movie actually ended. That makes me
like the ending that much more. I like
the ending already. I love the symbolism of
him climbing the wall that she couldn't get
past. Right. But adding that note to to
because they made such a big deal about

(45:40):
the heart throughout the do what? They brought
it up for two different people in the
movie. Yep. Even in the the trading where
they talked about what does your heart tell
you? Listen to your heart. You know? If
they can't touch my heart. That that would
have been brilliant. I wonder if they intended
to do that and just drop the ball
like you said. Or they or it was
they were gonna lean into it in movie
number two, like the Leah's your Leah's your

(46:02):
sister. Oh my I stuck my tongue in
my sister's mouth moment.
Yeah. That got weird. Yeah.
Gentlemen, do we wanna give a final rating
on this movie? I'm ready. Let's do it.
My body's ready. I'm here for it.
John, can you explain our rating system?
What is the
gentlemen,
Here on the bottom shelf, we have a

(46:23):
four level rating system. That is four levels
for your viewing pleasure. The top shelf is
that movie that you have to own. The
critics are wrong. This movie is fantastic.
Nobody knows what they're talking about except for
Yoon. The Middle Shelf is this movie was
pretty decent. I'd watch it if it was
on streaming, but I probably wouldn't own it.
Wouldn't hate to watch it with some friends,

(46:43):
but probably not alone.
The bottom shelf is, nope. This movie was
just as bad as they said it was.
Probably won't watch it again, but I wouldn't
have an issue if somebody else was curious.
And then there's the dumpster fire, which we
purged the movie from humanity,
and we will actively go out of our
way to make sure that nobody ever watches
that heap of garbage

(47:04):
again. Actively waiting to put War of the
Worlds in there, but somebody won't let us.
I'm just saying, my guy, we're waiting until
January when we can do a group watch
on that. This is
science,
sir. This is science. Science.
Oh my gosh.
John?
Yes, sir. Miss mister Redman? Yes. How you

(47:25):
rating this? Alright. I don't think I've really
hit how I feel about this movie.
This movie is tacky in all the good
ways. Is this a life changing movie? Is
this Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
where it's going to
redefine what a kung fu movie could be?
This is not a kung fu

(47:46):
Where it can or is this going to
be like Shogun where it's gonna show us
what a samurai movie
can
impact us dramatically? This is not a samurai
movie. Or is there going to be no.
This is
this Batman
89 is what the this is Batman 89
with blood is what this is. This is

(48:06):
popcorn
and oops, I sat in the splash zone.
Now I got blood on my jujubes.
This movie is not gonna change your life,
and it wasn't intended to. This movie was
supposed to be big, dumb fun.
This movie was the movie that Dick Tracy
wanted to be, in my opinion.
I enjoyed it. He was fantastic. And the
fact that show crew I can't the fact

(48:27):
that he was in it just makes us
even top shelf. Mandatory watch mandatory watching if
you're into ninja movies.
That's fair. That's fair. B? I I I
did not
expect to like this movie as much as
I did
the second time around. Yeah. One of the
things I wrote down
and I wanted to all alluded to this

(48:48):
earlier. I wrote down, I don't know if
movies in 2009
were that good
or movies now are that bad,
but I thoroughly enjoyed it the second time
around much more than the first time. The
first time I was like, yeah. It's okay.
It's what I expected it to be. Watching
it the second time, I kept writing down
why am I enjoying this so much. I

(49:10):
don't understand. This is genuinely a good movie.
So hearing that it came out about the
same time as underworld and some of these
other movies, maybe the market was just saturated
for over the top action.
And maybe I was just numb to it
all at the time. But
going back and watching it alone
for what it is,
it was genuinely
enjoyable.
I can't say that I would necessarily

(49:32):
own it, but most of that's because I
have children in my house. And
the the gore might be a little bit
much for them. But that is the only
reason, not because I didn't enjoy it.
So while I technically wouldn't necessarily own it
right now at this stage of life, I
still would 100%
watch it again.
If I'm actually surprised I didn't already own

(49:53):
it given how much I liked it. So
I gotta go top shelf for this one.
Don't watch it with your kids,
but
definitely top shelf. Alright.
Alright.
For me coming back into it, I will,
again, I was expecting to have fun with
it, but with the rating of it, I'm
going, okay.
It must not be that great. I was

(50:14):
expecting maybe middle shelf, but I had a
lot of fun. Celeste is watching it with
me, and she's laughing at it. We're enjoying
it.
We the over the top stuff. Again,
you have to have you have to be
a fan of the genre of the over
the top slider stuff. And there's a difference
between what they did and when it's just,
like, the hack and slash gory movie things

(50:34):
in my opinion. Guys, I'm gonna give this
a top shelf. There you have it, everybody.
It's rare, but these happen. We have an
undisputed
top shelf. The critics are wrong.
This movie is gold.
Go watch it. I'm gonna go to work.
I gotta go buy it now.
Bro. And the best part is and I
learned this when I learned this when I

(50:54):
got when I went and bought Battlefield Earth.
And the Battlefield Earth when I bought it
was, like, a new version, like, a new
deluxe version of the movie that they made
for Blu ray, and it still was, like,
stupid cheap because nobody wants to buy it
because it's known as a bad movie. Right.
So I have a feeling you're gonna see
the exact same thing with Ninja Assassin.
I'm trying to see if there's, like, a

(51:15):
ninja a box of a bunch of ninja
movies.
Oh, like, I don't I can't really help
you there, but I have a feeling you
can probably find a Blu ray of Ninja
Assassin for $5 on some place.
Oh, I'm sure. I remember going to Hastings
and seeing that in
the buyback bin for 99¢
or a buck 99
each one. Mhmm. And, like I feel like

(51:35):
there were I've seen at Walmart even. Yeah.
Like, there would be stacks of them, and
that's what dissuaded me from seeing it until
I did. And I'm like, yo, this is
dope. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, aside from shopping
online for our listeners' enjoyment,
you guys wanna head on over to the
weak connection section?
Let's do it. Let's go.

(51:56):
This is a weak connection.
Welcome, everybody, to the weak connection
portion of our podcast, where we
try to find something spiritually uplifting, something
edifying or morally valuable that we can pull
from this movie
and possibly use to edify yourself or proselytize

(52:19):
your friends and or family.
So won't you join us now as
pastor Dallas Mora can tell us how to
use this to manipulate your friends into going
to church with you? Wow. We're not I
don't really agree with the way you you
describe that. I play I play okay. Everybody
out there, that's just that's just me being
goofy. I I'm not actually
that way.

(52:40):
Oh, man. First off, a real quick poll.
B, do you have anything? Yes. I do.
Okay. John, do you have anything? Yes. I
do. Sweet. Alright. I'll make my quick throughout
the movie, you have this structure being set
up, the whole thing about you are my
children and all this other stuff. And it
was a very toxic
and controlling thing taking place.
But, maybe reflect on, like,

(53:00):
real life church life, real life raising disciples.
What does it mean to look at it?
Because we use that vocabulary of being a
church family, and that is a that's biblical
language.
And I'm taken to John chapter 13,
verse thirty four and thirty five, reading out
of the, the English Standard Version. It says
a new commandment I give to you. This
is Jesus talking that you love one another

(53:23):
just as I have loved you. You also
are to love one another. By this, you
will know that you are my disciple, that
I'm sorry. By this, all people will know
that you are my disciples if you have
love for one another. And we hear that
last phrase that you'll know by loving each
other. But back up again to verse 34,
that you love
each other as I have loved you. That

(53:45):
whole aspect of loving each other the way
Jesus does, which is a selfless love where
I genuinely care about John and Branson and
making sure that they are living the life
they need to do. I encourage them. I
challenge them where it needs to be challenged.
I can help call them up to a
better life, and they do the same thing
for me as brothers in Christ
and but there's genuine care for us. It's

(54:05):
not a matter of me trying to get
something out of Branson.
Within the structure of the movie, The Clan,
it was really a for me type of
mindset, But for us as men of God
and for ladies who are listening, women of
God, we need to be caring about each
other genuinely and be able to look at
each like, oh, hey. Look. I love you.
I care about you. You know, I'm championing
the things you're going through. And when needed

(54:26):
to be also, hey. There's some road bumps
or some things here that need to be
handled. You need to take care of this
in love and grace, obviously. But when we
do these things, that's how the world knows
that we are genuinely Christian. And I feel
like there's a lack of that in some
degree from one pendulum swing to the other.
And so that's my devotion for you guys.
Amen. Alright. I'm gonna go next before Branson

(54:48):
steps on mine because Dell's got close.
Sweet.
My weak connection is based off of the
portion of the movie. It's towards the beginning
where he's having a flashback towards his earlier
training,
where Shokosuga
is telling him as a teenager,
you must learn to despise weakness in others,

(55:08):
But most of all, you must but you
must most of all despise the c the
weakness in yourself.
And he tells him that when he's doing
this little tiptoe shimmy across this wood floor
that's got creak points in it, and you're
trying to learn how
to sneak across the creaky floor. And Shokosuga
smacks him on the feet real hard with

(55:30):
this bamboo that cuts grooves into hit the
bottomless of his feet. And so it shows
him later on in the evening, he's all
like whimpering and crying because his feet are
all cut up and bleeding. And
the girl that we were talking about comes
and starts applying a solve to his feet.
And I'm sitting there think I was ruminating
on that despise the weakness
comment,

(55:51):
And I was waiting
for the stereotype of reject the help that
this girl is giving you
in order to reject the weakness that's in
yourself, but he doesn't do that. And I
really started thinking about the messaging being sent
there, and it occurred to me kinda like
what they're telling you there is to accept
help offered by others is not weakness,

(56:12):
but to allow others to provide
strength in your weakness.
So if anything, it's
allowing the strength of others to be your
strength. And for a biblical reference, I wanna
take you to Ecclesiastes
four nine through 12.
And I'm reading out of the extra sanctified

(56:32):
version,
and it says two are better than one
because they have a good reward for their
toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up
his fellow, but woe to him who is
alone when he falls and has not another
to lift him up. Again, if two lie
together, they can keep warm, but how can
one keep warm alone?
And although a man might prevail against one

(56:54):
who is alone, two will withstand him, and
the threefold cord is not quickly
broken. Mhmm. So to accept
to accept help from others is to
enrich and strengthen yourself
and to
it is not to
be weak, but
to accept strength
for your benefit.

(57:15):
So a strong person accepts help because they
can accept the strength added to their own
strength. I dig it. K. Let me find
some new shoes because Joe just walked over
my throat. I knew I knew I knew
you were gonna go for that. That's why
I had to jump in there. I'm like,
oh, if I don't step in, Branson's gonna
eat mine. I could tell it already. No.
My weak connection's completely different. I'm saying I

(57:37):
was, like, super extra convicted by what you
Oh, shoot, bro. I'm sorry.
That's good. That's good.
No. I appreciate that. I really do. So
my weak connection,
I was I found myself watching
the the movie. I was very fixated on
the relationship
between the ninja father

(57:57):
and Raizo. And
especially when he keeps saying, you're my favorite
son, and I'm proud of
you. And he would say these loving things
and then beat the snot out of him
to get him to do what he wanted.
And even so far as to sit him
to fight that gangster in the bathroom and
comes out holding the gold watch. And he's
keep it so that every moment is a

(58:19):
gift. And it's this weird, strange dichotomy of
this guy saying fatherly
things, but they're bringing out the worst of
him. And it made me seriously hate that
character,
do a little dance when he finally
died.
But that whole concept of father and and
son, and when Raizo looks at him and
says,

(58:40):
I am not your son. You're not my
father. And after I kill you, when I
breathe, it will be the first breath of
my life.
One of the things that the movie didn't
camp out on is that what made
how do you say his name? Shou Kasuga?
What made his character so sinister
is that he is filling a need that
all those children
have. Yeah. Those children are orphans. They need

(59:03):
a
father. And he has stepped into that emptiness
and is twisting it and making it something
perverted that it was never meant to be.
And one of the things the movie does
not touch on at all is that even
though it was great that Riza was able
to rise above his need for that guy's
approval,
he still needs a father.
He can't he's not this load razer guy.

(59:23):
He can't do it over his own. He
still needs a father.
And thankfully,
for people who believe in the Lord, who
follow the Lord, we have a father. We
have a father in the Lord. Yeah. Romans
chapter eight starting in verse 12. It says,
so the brothers, we are debtors to the
not to the flesh, to live according to
the flesh. For if you live according to
the flesh, you will die. But if by
the spirit, you put to death the deeds

(59:44):
of the body, you will live. For all
who are led by the spirit of God
are sons of God. For you did not
receive the spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear that you have received the spirit
of adoption as sons
by whom we cry, Abba father.
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God. And if
children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs

(01:00:05):
with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that
we may also be glorified with him. The
thing the thing that stood out of me
was that thing about falling back into fear.
How did this father trade his children?
Do well,
or I will be displeased with you. Do
well, or I will look on you with
score. Do well or I will punish you.

(01:00:25):
It is so easy for us to see
God
in that light. God sitting in his
dojo with a reed ready to whack the
bottom of our feet if we make a
creaking noise. Or if we fail to kill
our target
to look at us with disdain, if we
dare run away from him to tie us
up to a stake and run a sword
through our heart. But what do we see
when we look at scripture? We don't see

(01:00:46):
them. We see God as a father
sitting on the front porch eagerly waiting for
his prodigal son to return.
We see a shepherd who leaves 99 righteous
to go find the one wayward sheep. We
see someone who are the holy spirit inside
of us cries
out, Abba,
father. And the beautiful thing about the Lord

(01:01:08):
is that unlike this ninja master, we don't
earn his favor.
His favor is freely given. Now because of
that favor,
we're expected to make decisions based on that.
We operate out of his grace, not out
of our sin. We're not slaves to sin.
We're slaves to righteousness,
and we're expected to live that out, but

(01:01:28):
we don't earn it. God's not sitting there
saying, I'm gonna give you my love
if you do the right thing. He's saying,
I have given you my love freely.
Now go and do the right thing. Yeah.
And so one of the things I wanna
encourage people is that even if you are
in a situation where, much like Riso, you're
in a situation where the father figure in

(01:01:48):
your life
was not a good person, was not a
good person at all. You have a good
father
in the Lord. It isn't enough to reject
that bad father in your life. Or need
to replace it with a good father who
is the Lord. He's a father.
To
me.

(01:02:08):
To me.
Yep. Oh, that song.
Fucked. I like it.
No. It's it's the repetition.
I gotcha. Cool. What did you guys think
about this movie out there in listener land?
Did you love it as much as we
did? Did you hate it as much as
the critics did? Let us know. Check us
out on the Discords where we have our

(01:02:30):
own Discord community.
Look us up on the face space in
our devoted geeks community as well as the
Geek Devotions
Facebook page as well. We interact on all
those as well as the other socials that
we have out there. And check out geekdevotions.com
to check out possibly some other
Geek Devotions

(01:02:51):
podcast
network podcasts that we have out there such
as possibly We Read Allegedly, where we allegedly
read books
and talk about them on the podcast.
And potentially?
Spider fans coming back. I just have to
record the episode, but it's coming back.
I got wrapped up in Inktober for a
while.

(01:03:11):
That ate up a lot of my free
time. But, yeah, I'm gonna be doing that,
bringing it back, gonna try some new stuff.
And I'm actually very excited because it this
is a good this is a good season
to be a Spider Man fan because there's
a lot of cool stuff coming out. So
Spider Fade will have a new episode very
soon. And speaking of things coming back, Dallas,
I've heard a rumor that there might be

(01:03:32):
a certain
Gundam
podcast that might be
Yeah. So the gun watch may be making
a return with a a special guest
for a quick one off. We never actually
finished the conversation on Witch for Mercury. I
thought we're doing a two off.
Yes. So it's a it's a well, we're
not doing like what we did beforehand. So
we're gonna do a review of season one

(01:03:52):
and a review of season two
with special guest, John Harju. Legasp.
Let's let's be looking on that for that
next month. There's a lot of Gundam stuff
happening. Dude, there's a Gundam pop up store
happening here in The States. Seriously? Yeah. Gundam
base. Oh, trip.
Road trip. Anyways, I'm not sure when this
is gonna air, but
if it airs

(01:04:13):
before November
8,
which is a Saturday, next Saturday of the
recording of this, Celeste and I will be
at the Louisiana Delta Comic Con in West
Monroe. I wanna encourage you guys to come
out to our booth and say hello
and get one of the snazzy
business cards that talk about the bombshell
and also pick up a little comic strip
that Branson wrote that it makes up talks

(01:04:34):
about all the things we do here at
Geeked Divisions. Another moment of silence for Hastings.
Alright. With that being said, and Branson raising
his hand to ask nobody a question apparently.
Uh-huh.
Look. I got you don't go invisible just
by doing nothing. Okay? You gotta stay loose.
You gotta stay limber. Yes. Because I remember
when I was watching this ninja movie, how
they went invisible by flailing their arms about.

(01:04:57):
Don't mock it till you try it. That's
all I'll say.
That being said, everybody,
stay devoted.
Peace and love.