Enter the Ninja (1981)
1981 film directed by Menahem Golan
- Released
- 16 July 1981
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Martial arts film, Ninja film
- Director
- Menahem Golan
- Screenplay
- Richard Desmond
- Producer
- Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
- Music
- Michael Lewis
- Cinematography
- David Gurfinkel
- Starring
- Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi, Christopher George, Derek Webster, Alex Courtney, Will Hare
- Running time
- 95 minutes
- Production company
- The Cannon Group, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists
- Distributor
- Fandango
- Set in
- Philippines
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.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q1753761 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.