A Japanese gangster is getting his skin pierced and dyed for a ritual tattoo. Around him are members of his gang flirting with several loose women, while he winces in pain as the needle pierces skin. He turns in anger to the artist, threatens him with decapitation, then surrenders his back again to the procedure. Following the arrival of a mysterious letter for the Yakuza, the tattoo artist recounts his first encounter with ninjas when he was stabbed in the heart and yet managed to survive.”Ninjas,” scoffs the gang leader.The lights go out. The ladies scream as they watch limbs cleanly sliced from their bodies. Tempered steel weapons glide through air before connecting with flesh. Torsos drop to the wood-decked floors with a thud. There is no shortage of blood — furiously flourishing fountains of red spewing from leaking human faucets.One wouldn’t expect less from a film with “ninja” in the title. After all, if one doesn’t visit a convent to get a lap dance, why expect this nasty film to go against its nature.The film is about an intrepid Europol agent (Naomie Harris) investigating a money-transfer pattern connected with a string of high-profile political assassinations. Once she tells her boss (Ben Miles) about her suspicions these deaths were the work of Ninja clans, they both discover the revelation might be too hot to handle. Meanwhile, the ninja clan has dispatched its crack henchmen to take care of the agent permanently. It’s up to her and the boss to stay alive and bring down these clan of killers.”Ninja Assassin” is directed by James McTeigue (“V for Vendetta”), produced by the Wachowski brothers (“The Matrix” Series),  features South Korean pop singer Rain and ninja film veteran Sho Kosugi (“Revenge of the Ninja”). “V for Vendetta,” was an ably made, beautifully shot film, severely maligned because it deviated substantially from the source material by Alan Moore. McTeigue addressed the power of ideas, the purpose of revolutions, as well as the fuel derived from simmering revenge.We also had a film panned by critics in “Speed Racer,” for which McTeigue was a second unit director. Based on the popular manga about a car racing family, the film focused on corruption in sports, familial support and the drive involved in competition. “Speed Racer” was a bouquet of splashy colors zipping across the screen as sports cars zoomed along the race track.If there is a trend from these films mentioned above, it’s McTeigue being the recipient of an audience that praises his films for their visuals, but forget there’s a perceptive mind behind them. Actually, the Wachowski brothers and McTeigue work within genres, infusing their work with a cross of populist appeal and arcane literary genres. A part of the story in “Ninja Assassin” deals with one ninja’s betrayal of his clan’s ideals — it has echoes of Confucian filial piety and Plato’s “Republic.” In the “Republic,” Socrates devised a noble lie in which children are indoctrinated into believing they all came from the same Mother Earth. The lie created a community by emphasizing the sense of family. By going rogue, the ninja had betrayed them and deserved to die.The fight scenes were computer-generated fakery, but so was “300.” McTeigue proves inventive with several of them. We don’t get to see any ninjas fighting during the first attempt on the Europol agent’s life — it’s illuminated with flashlight, and they’re too fast. Another time, the bunch of ninjas swarm the streets searching for the renegade. The image of blackmasked men with swords impeding traffic on the interstate was outrageously ingenious.”Ninja Assassin” won’t be winning any awards. Still it’s a movie that can be enjoyed, if you block your ears from supercilious critics and the film’s inert dialogue. Freke Ette is a political theory graduate student from Uyo, Nigeria. Follow him on Twitter@TDR_fette.—-Contact Freke Ette at [email protected]