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Release: May 14, 2021 - Author: Muck47 - Translator: Mike Lowrey
- external link: IMDB
Comparison between the cut US VHS by Good Times and the uncut German DVD by Cargo Records.
A few additional master errors with a duration of less than 0.5 sec each were not listed in the report.
The Challenge of the Lady Ninja or Chinese Super Ninja 2 is a nice example of 80's action cinema from Taiwan. Cheaply produced, but nicely colorful and charmingly trashy, for example, music from Star Wars is stolen right at the beginning. The fight scenes are on a high level and there are plenty of them. For years, the Japanese VHS in the original 2.35:1 format was the most useful uncut alternative. In December 2020, the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute and Taiwan Cinema Toolkit organized an online film festival on Taiwan Black Movies, where The Challenge of the Lady Ninja was also released in better quality for the first time. As a separate comparison showed, the film there was almost identical to the frame to the Japanese VHS. As of 14/05/2021, the German DVD premiere is now also available, and it was possible to fall back on this new image source. The film is thus available uncut in Germany for the first time, and we took another closer look at the international cut releases from back then. The US VHS was missing about a minute, mainly sexualized violence. It's possible that the same version was also released in the UK. The BBFC review entry confirms cuts of around a minute and names Ocean Shores as the label. Their infamous insert can also be found at the beginning of the US VHS. Runtimes are ordered as follows: US VHS in PAL speed / Uncut master in 24fps A note only about the Japan VHS, which we additionally compared to the new master from Taiwan: The film is almost frame-exactly identical here. The VHS merely has another title insert and logo at the beginning.
17.5 sec
39:00 / 39:02-39:03 Master error: a few more frames on a shot transition. 0.9 sec
41:31 / 43:18-43:24 The intro with Shen visiting the prostitute is longer. He rips her top off and squeezes her arms behind her back. 6.2 sec
42:09 / 44:04-44:13 The shot of the brothel side alley starts much earlier. 8.2 sec
45:36 / 47:49-47:50 Master error: a shot starts insignificantly earlier. 0.8 sec
47:50 / 50:09-50:49 Again, a girl fights off tormentor Shen for a longer time, but he grabs her and squeezes her for a while until she falls onto the bed with him, half unconscious. There he then pulls down her pants and continues to grope her. 38.6 sec
48:00 / 51:00-51:01 A close-up of the two starts a little earlier. 1.1 sec
Alternative. 71:01-71:10 / 75:00-75:09 While the original version stays in the same shot throughout here, the US VHS inserts several re-cuts to the others. No time difference.
Finally, the obligatory full frame/2.35:1 comparison.
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