General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Five Element Ninjas (五遁忍术)

Five Element Ninjas (五遁忍术; also released as Five Element Ninja and, in North America, Chinese Super Ninjas) is a 1982 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh (張徹) and written by Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang (倪匡), produced by Shaw Brothers and released in Hong Kong on 21 April 1982¹^•². The film pits Japanese ninja, organized into five element-based squads of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, against the fighters of a Chinese martial arts alliance, and it became a lasting cult favorite among Western genre audiences³.

Key fact	Detail
Director / writers	Chang Cheh; screenplay by Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang¹
Studio / release	Shaw Brothers; Hong Kong premiere 21 April 1982¹
Box office	HK$1,628,717 in Hong Kong (21–27 April 1982), 119th place for the year⁴
Runtime / format	107 minutes; Mandarin and Cantonese versions; color, 2.35:1, mono sound¹
Principal cast	Cheng Tien-chi, Lung Tien-hsiang, Lo Mang, Chan Wai-man, Chen Pei-hsi, Chu Ko²
Action directors	Cheng Tien-chi and Chu Ko; producer Run Run Shaw⁵
Ratings	Douban 6.9/10 from 2,556 users; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 89% (one counted review)²^•⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The story opens with a tournament between rival Chinese schools. After the Kang school loses, its chief hires the Japanese ninja master Jianyuan (剑渊, played by Chan Wai-man), who leads a squad of Five Element Ninjas against the victorious Yen clan³. In the Chinese-language synopsis, the ninja leader seeks revenge for Japanese warriors defeated by Yuan Zeng (袁增, played by Guan Feng), head of the central martial arts alliance, and challenges the alliance with the "Five Element formation" (五遁阵)¹. The English-language account names the ninja lord Kembuchi Mudou and the defeated chief Hong, who hires him after losing the tournament⁷.

The ninjas fight by subterfuge rather than open combat. The wood-element ninjas disguise themselves as trees, others are propelled out of the earth or glide on giant paddling water spiders, and the fire element uses poison smoke and flame³^•⁸. Yuan Zeng sends eight experts to break the formation, but, unfamiliar with ninja techniques, all are killed; Jianyuan then sends the kunoichi Junko (纯子, played by Chen Pei-hsi) to infiltrate the alliance headquarters as he pursues his ambition to dominate the martial world¹.

In the English-language accounts, the lone survivor of the slaughtered school, Shao Tien-hao (played by Cheng Tien-chi), trains with a Chinese ninja master and other pupils, learns to counter each element, and takes revenge in a final series of duels against each ninja group and the leader⁷^•⁹.

Production

Chang Cheh made the film late in his Shaw Brothers career. A Hong Kong filmography notes that shooting began around September or October 1981 and that it was, in contractual terms, his last film for Shaw Brothers¹⁰. The Taiwanese producer Wu Dun, later a prominent industry figure, worked as production manager on the shoot in Taiwan¹¹.

Choreography and staging. The action was designed by Cheng Tien-chi and Chu Ko, who also appear in the cast⁵. The Kung Fu Movie Guide review notes that the choreography adheres closely to historic Japanese weaponry, with the names of individual weapons flashed on screen, a device similar to Lau Kar-leung's Legendary Weapons of China, released the same year³. Observant Shaw Brothers viewers have noted recycled production elements: some costumes from Iron Flag Gate (铁旗门), fights staged in the Sword Stained with Royal Blood (碧血剑) studio sets, and the banners used to break the fire element taken from Iron Flag Gate¹².

The film belongs to the early-1980s ninja boom. A retrospective timeline of ninja cinema records its April 1982 Hong Kong release and worldwide export under the title Chinese Super Ninjas, followed almost immediately by imitations such as Taiwan's Ninja in the Deadly Trap¹³.

Release and reception

The film earned HK$1,628,717 at the Hong Kong box office during its 21–27 April 1982 run, placing 119th for the year⁴. It was released in Japan as 少林拳対五遁忍術 (Shorin Ken tai Godon Ninjutsu)⁴.

On Douban the film holds 6.9/10 from 2,556 users, ranking better than 46% of action films and 60% of wuxia films on the site². Rotten Tomatoes lists a Tomatometer of 89% from one counted review and 100+ audience ratings⁶. Retrospective English-language criticism has been consistent in its assessment: the Kung Fu Movie Guide calls it a perennial favorite in the West with a cult following, while noting the near-nonexistent script and the artificial look of the studio sets and outlandish costumes³. The Action Elite review calls it one of the most exciting, fun, and creative martial arts films Shaw Brothers released, despite weak storytelling⁷.

In 2020 the film was approved for online distribution in mainland China under license (沪)剧审网字（2020）第0025号, at a listed length of 103 minutes, held by Shanghai Zhongyuan Network Co., Ltd.¹⁴. In 2023 it appeared on Blu-ray in Shout Factory's Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 4 collection, with Mandarin and English mono soundtracks¹⁵.

Place in Chang Cheh's late career

Chinese-language commentary treats the film as a late-career work of a director past his peak. By 1982 Chang Cheh's star actors of the 1960s and 1970s, including Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai, and Fu Sheng, had moved on, and the newer performers he cast here did not reach the same standing¹. The film is nonetheless regularly named among his late representative works², and its combination of the Five Elements (金、木、水、火、土) ninja conceit with graphic violence has kept it in circulation as a cult item, including placement in 2020 B-movie roundup lists¹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1943 to 1985

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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