Shot and abandoned in 1984, martial arts legend John Liu’s NYC-set ninja epic New York Ninja has been meticulously completed by film preservationists – and is headed to theaters, opening first in Los Angeles on January 17, 2022, followed by other cities.
John (John Liu) is just an average man working as a sound technician for a New York City news station, until one day his pregnant wife is brutally murdered after witnessing the kidnapping of a young woman in broad daylight. Turning to the police for help, John soon learns that the city is overrun with crime and the police are too busy to help. Dressing as a white ninja, John takes to the streets as a sword wielding vigilante hell bent on cleaning up the streets of the city he once loved by ridding it of muggers, pickpockets, rapists, and gang members. However, in John’s quest for justice, he soon finds himself the target of every criminal in the city, including a mysterious villain known only as the Plutonium Killer. Will John survive to become the hero that New York City so desperately needs?
Originally directed by and starring martial arts legend John Liu (The Secret Rivals, Invincible Armor) in his only American production, New York Ninja was filmed entirely on 35mm in 1984, but the project was abandoned during production resulting in all original sound materials, scripts, and treatments going missing. 35 years later, Vinegar Syndrome acquired the original unedited camera negative and painstakingly constructed and completed the film.
Enlisting the voice talents of genre favorites Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Bloodfist, Whatever it Takes), Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare Sisters), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Auntie Lee’s Meat Pies), Vince Murdocco (Night Hunter, LA Wars), Matt Mitler (The Mutilator, Battle for the Lost Planet), Leon Isaac Kennedy (Lone Wolf McQuade, Penitentiary), Ginger Lynn Allen (The Devil’s Rejects, Vice Academy), and Cynthia Rothrock (China O’Brien, Martial Law), Vinegar Syndrome is extremely proud to present this truly one-of-a-kind film experience.
Restored from the original camera elements, New York Ninja is finally available in all of its ridiculous over-the-top glory for the first time ever… after spending nearly four decades in film obscurity.
Watch the official trailer for New York Ninja.
NEW YORK NINJA opens in cinemas at the following locations:
Los Angeles, California (01/17)
Boulder, Colorado (01/21)
Chicago, Illinois (01/27)
Santa Ana, California (02/04)
New York, New York (02/10)
Seattle, Washington (02/18)
Iowa City, Iowa (02/23)
Tempe, Arizona (02/26)
Seattle, Washington (03/06)