Rating: 4.0

‘New Blood’ is a smart, efficient and alarmingly effective genre piece that sits effortlessly alongside some of the finer horror entries of the period as an unremittingly morbid and blood-curdling exercise in unadulterated terror.

This is a modern day martial arts actioner in the style of the 80’s best, and should therefore be sought out by fans of similar fare. It will not disappoint.

The performances from all parties are excellent, and Jackie has reinstalled a little faith in me that he is still capable of making a good action movie.

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.

Overcoming a small budget and using a single location to its advantage, ‘Nightshooters’ is slick, laugh-out-loud funny and when it cuts loose, a full tilt action flick.

‘Ninja In The Dragon’s Den’ stands out as a fully-accomplished kung-fu comedy with superb fight action.

No doubt those who need oodles of story/plot/narrative to justify enjoying a film will grumble (yawn!) but on the whole this is a superior sequel and a super-charged martial arts film.

‘No Blood No Tears’ may not be a film for all tastes, not least due its violent nature towards women and the slightly laid-back pace but it is a challenging and rewarding film as well as an entertaining one.

There may not be much here that we haven’t seen before, but it’s certainly been a while since we’ve seen most of it done so well.

Chen Wen Pin and his on-screen daughter are excellent in the films two most important roles, bringing a humanity to characters who represent a sad underclass in Taiwanese society.

It’s far better than other American style martial arts movies such as ‘China O’Brien’, ‘American Shaolin’ and the like, showing what can be done if a little extra time is taken over the choreography.

‘Nobody Knows’ is worthy film-making, memorable well beyond its two hour duration and recommended to anyone seeking challenging, not necessarily uplifting cinema.