Cast Member: Cynthia Rothrock

The narrative is fairly crisp, but cannot make the action any less ‘American’ in its pace and imagination (or lack of!).

While it’ll never scale the heights of its Hong Kong counterparts of the day, this fast and fun sequel still delivers the Rothock, Norton and Cooke action goods.

All in all, this film has little to recommend it unless you are a big Cynthia Rothrock fan.

It’s nice to see Wilson and Rothrock back in action and there are some flashes of talent in amongst the fight scenes, but none of it is ever quite enough to overcome the film’s obvious faults.

Wong Jing manages to restrain his usual vulgarity and blend together some genuinely amusing comic scenes with an enviable amount of superior fight choreography.

Newcomers will enjoy the fight action, the slightly more experienced will also appreciate the comedy and the veteran viewer will be entertained by the great cast.

The glory days of the 80s ninja flick may be long gone but ‘New York Ninja’ is a welcome reminder of how much crazy earnest fun they were.

Surprisingly, for an American film, there are some well executed and imaginative fight sequences predominantly showcasing the excellent kicking skills of Avedon.

If the rest of the film had been as good as the last half hour then ‘Prince of the Sun’ would be more fondly remembered.

A definite improvement over part 1, and other similar fare such as ‘China O’Brien’ – it makes for an adequate 90 minutes viewing – but ultimately reminds us why we love HK fighting so much more.

This is the definitive Hong Kong action flick of the 80’s, easily on a par with ‘Police Story’ and should take pride of place in any fan’s collection.

I would not recommend this to anyone but die-hard Rothrock fans, and those curious enough to see Kurt McKinney in action after so many years. Otherwise, steer clear.