Enter the Ninja

Enter the Ninja is a 1981 American martial arts film directed by Menahem Golan and starring Franco Nero, Sho Kosugi, Susan George and Christopher George. Nero plays a martial artist, Cole, who faces a ninja (Kosugi) employed by a wealthy businessman. The film was originally intended to be directed by Emmett Alston and to star Mike Stone. Early in the production, Alston was replaced by Golan but stayed on as second-unit director, and Stone was replaced with Nero, but stayed on as fight double and fight/stunt coordinator. The film began a craze of ninja-themed Hollywood films during the early 1980s and was the first film in Cannon Films' Ninja Trilogy, an anthology series which includes Revenge of the Ninja (1983) and Ninja III: The Domination (1984). The film launched the career of Sho Kosugi, who appeared in a number of further ninja films and television shows in the 1980s.