Enter the Ninja

1981 film directed by Menahem Golan

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| runtime = 99 minutes

Enter the Ninja is a 1981 American martial arts film directed by Menahem Golan and starring Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi and Christopher George. The film is about a martial artist named Cole (Nero) who is visiting his friend Frank in the Philippines. On arrival, Cole learns that his friend is being harassed by the wealthy businessman Charles Venarius who wants Frank's land for the oil underneath. Frank and his wife are continuously thwarted by Cole who defends them with his martial arts skills. Learning of Cole's presence, Venarius hires his own ninja (Kosugi). 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 2nd 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, who became involved in the production in late fall 1980, with the intent of creating an American film about ninjutsu. under the direction of Emmett Alston. The film also played in Arizona in October the same year. The film opened in Los Angeles on April 30, 1982. Before the film's release, Golan was going to direct a sequel titled Revenge of the Ninja. The final film in the series was Ninja III: The Domination, which was released in 1984.

The film was released on VHS in the 1980s. Kosugi had become popular by the time of its release, which led to Kosugi replacing Nero on the VHS cover. The film was also released on Betamax during the 1980s, but an official US DVD release had long eluded the masses until MGM issued it as part of its Limited Edition Collection (a series of manufactured on demand DVD Rs) in October 2011. The film was released on Blu ray by Kino Lorber on May 26, 2015, and in a box set from Eureka Video as The Ninja Trilogy with Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination on January 18, 2016.

In a contemporary review, Robert Brown of the Monthly Film Bulletin gave the film a negative review, stating that it "seems singularly lacking in even the commercial ingredients that made Enter the Dragon such a successful showcase for the Kung Fu genre". Brown commented that Golan "never seems to have decided which genre he was exploiting, and ended up mistakenly crossing romantic drama with martial arts". From a retrospective review, Donald Guarisco of AllMovie stated that film was a "pretty lackluster affair". Guarisco also commented on Franco Nero that it "looks uncomfortable as the ninja expert and fails to perform convincingly during the fight scenes" and that Susan George was wasted as the damsel in distress. Although noting a large amount of fighting scenes in the film, he felt that they did not have skillful choreography and sharp editing to make them visceral for the film.