Film

Cyber Ninja

A 1988 Japanese action film that crashes feudal warfare into sci-fi spectacle. Cyborg ninjas, mechanical armies, and sword-swinging heroes collide in a gleefully trashy fusion that doesn't pretend to make sense. Pure genre playground for anyone who thinks "what if samurai had lasers?" deserves a feature film.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy cheap, earnest 1980s genre oddities where a sword-and-cyborg premise is played completely straight, with a clanking low-budget charm that feels like a found relic.

Skip it if you need polished effects, tight modern pacing, or a story that holds together; this is short, rough-edged and happy to be strange rather than coherent.

What it asks of you: It runs barely over an hour, so it asks for a short, loose evening and a willingness to let odd choices wash past without needing them explained.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Shogun Assassin1980

Hyper-stylized sword violence set in a corrupted feudal Japan. The cutting, sound design, and relentless momentum create something operatic and propulsive. A masterclass in B-movie energy channelled into real craft.

But Extremely graphic and brutal. The revenge plot is thin and the pacing assumes you're here for the spectacle, not character depth.

Shogun Assassin poster

Krull1983

Medieval fantasy weaponry meets alien invasion in a fever dream that knows exactly what it is. Practical effects, unapologetic genre mashups, and the confidence to be weird without winking at the camera.

But Wildly uneven. The tone lurches between earnest and silly, and some sequences drag. It's a cult film for a reason—not everyone's going to click with it.

Krull poster

The Hidden Fortress1958

Kurosawa's samurai adventure balances action, humour, and genuine stakes. The influence on Star Wars is obvious in retrospect; this is where the DNA comes from. Thrilling and surprisingly funny.

But It's a 139-minute black-and-white film from 1958. If that sentence made you wince, keep scrolling.

The Hidden Fortress poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cyber Ninja

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mad Max 21981

Both retrofit warrior codes and melee combat into technological futures. Both celebrate craft over logic—how the thing looks and moves matters more than whether it makes sense. Both are B-movie ambition matched with genuine execution.

Muscle-car dystopia that redefined how action cinema could move. Ninety minutes of propulsion, practical stunts, and a visual language so clear it needs almost no dialogue. The language of action cinema as we know it starts here.

But Sparse plot and minimal character development. If you need narrative weight or emotional arcs, this prioritises pure kinetic momentum over everything else.

Mad Max 2 poster
More like this (7)

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance1972

Brutal, visual, operatic. A ronin pushes a baby in a cart through blood-soaked feudal Japan. The style is extreme and the commitment to weirdness is absolute. Profoundly influential on everything that came after.

But Extremely violent and bleak. Very slow in places. The domestic drama can feel as heavy as the gore.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance poster

Tetsuo: The Iron Man1989

Stop-motion, body horror, industrial noise, and total disregard for narrative logic. A man turns to metal in a fever dream of sexuality and machinery. Watching it feels like your brain is being rewired in real time.

But Aggressively experimental and nearly incomprehensible. Eighty minutes of visual assault with almost no dialogue or plot. This is not entertainment in a traditional sense.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man poster

Ultraman1966

The template for all tokusatsu action that followed. A giant hero fights rubber monsters with practical effects that somehow work. It's earnest, inventive, and giddy with its own possibilities.

But Heavily episodic and the effects are obviously low-budget. If you need narrative momentum or realistic spectacle, you'll bounce off it.

Ultraman poster

Ninja Scroll1993

A ninja wanderer navigates a landscape of supernatural assassins and political corruption. Hand-drawn action that prioritises fluidity and style. The character work is sharper than expected from what could have been pure spectacle.

But Anime of this era has a distinctly late-90s look that doesn't age as well as Akira. The plot gets muddy in the middle.

Ninja Scroll poster

Samurai Reincarnation1981

A burned-alive warlord returns as a ghost to exact revenge with sorcery and spectacle. Gleefully theatrical, utterly bonkers, and committed to its own absurdity. Practical effects and real stunt work elevate the fever dream.

But Extremely stilted dubbing and uneven pacing. The plot spirals and some sequences go nowhere. Very much a product of its low budget.

Samurai Reincarnation poster

Mechanical Violator Hakaider1995

A cyborg assassin fights androids and dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's incoherent in the best way—stuff just keeps happening. An ancestor to everything that conflates genres for fun rather than sense.

But Genuinely difficult to follow. The script is thin, the editing is disorienting, and it requires you to surrender all expectation of logic.

Mechanical Violator Hakaider poster

Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise1987

Released the year before Cyber Ninja, it's another Japanese film that blends retro-futurism with handmade spectacle. Both are '80s science fiction made with practical materials and genuine craft rather than computers. Both are confident enough to prioritise their own logic over the world's.

Hand-drawn anime that treats a space program with complete seriousness and stunning detail. The animation is astonishing. It builds a world through patient observation rather than exposition, and the final act is transcendent.

But Slow-paced and meditative. Almost no action for the first hour. If you watch this expecting Gundam, you'll be frustrated and bored.

Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Recommended by

Ninja Captor, Kamen Rider Kuuga Super Secret Video: Kuuga vs. the Strong Monster Go-Jiino-Da