Ninja 2 Exclusive: The Florentine Flourish...

One of Impact’s favourite genre directors is Isaac Florentine; we’ve been fans of his work since we first saw what he could do with shows like Power Rangers and WMAC Masters, through Desert Hawk, The Fighter/Savate, High Voltage, Cold Harvest, Bridge of Dragons, US Seals 2, Special Forces, Undisputed 2 & 3, and more. He’s just as much of a dedicated martial artist off screen as he is a dedicated film-maker; one of the few Western action directors who really understands and respects the martial arts genre. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with Isaac in person as we did during the shooting of his latest highly anticipated project Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear. 

Impact: Isaac, the first Ninja was something of a mixed bag, it had some great ideas, some incredible action choreography, superb imagery and some strong performances including Scott as the lead, but it just didn’t seem to gel as well as some of your other projects. What are your thoughts ref what worked and didn’t work with the first one and how did the idea for the sequel come about, and what were the changes to the idea that you felt needed to be made?

 Isaac Florentine: If I may say so, looking back now I feel that the whole concept of the first Ninja was wrong, we did it like a comic-book, CGI blood, the Cult, the flying Ninja wings were a mistake, Scott Adkins' character being Mr. Nice Guy - that’s why the movie did not work properly, although the Dojo scenes were authentic (Casey’s Dojo was modeled after the Katori Shinto Ryu school that was founded in 1488).

After the movie was done, I put Ninja behind me: I really did not want to approach the subject again. I was pretty mad at myself, feeling I had failed as a director and let other people down in the process. However, the movie did well enough internationally that David Sobieraj, one of the main sales people at Nu Image did bring up the idea of making another Ninja movie. This I thought would give me the opportunity to fix things. I then sat down with Boaz Davidson and writer David White and we brainstormed to come up with a more realistic, down to earth story. I had always been fascinated by a story from WW2 about Seiko Fujita’s Japanese units who fought the British using Ninja tactics, for two main reasons.

1)  As a martial artist it excited my imagination. 2) They were fighting the Chindits (a British India 'Special Force'" that served in Burma and India in 1943 and 1944 during the Burma Campaign) that were founded by Charles Ord Wingate - t every Israeli kid he is known as the man who, in the 1930s, taught Jewish settlers how to fight 'Terror' using Biblical Military Tactics! He was the father of what in 1948 would become the Israeli Defence Army. So can you imagine Wingate fighting Ninja?? Wow…

Anyway this brought the idea of the Japanese grave yard in the middle of the Burmese Jungle with the buried cache of Ninja weapons, etc. Instead of the clean Comic style Ninja uniform we have in the first movie we have here an old tattered improvised WWII type Japanese Military Ninja outfit.

 The earlier film was shot in Europe on Nu Image's back-lot, but this one sees you in the Far East shooting in Thailand. Whose idea was it to shoot in Thailand and how did you find working there?

Boaz Davidson, whom I regard as my 'Sensei' in the movie, world came up with that idea. The beauty of it was that it gave me an opportunity to work with another friend whom I respect a lot as a film maker, producer Frank DeMartini. Frank has shot a few movies in Thailand including Elephant White with Prachya Pinkaew and Prince & Me 4). As a matter of fact, at a certain point, the movie fell through and was cancelled, I was ready to give up on it, however it was really Frank that totally believed in it and pushed it forward with Boaz's support... and then suddenly we got the green light to do it .

Arriving in Thailand was a bit of cultural shock for me. Frank picked me up at 2 AM and there were huge traffic jams even at this time of the night. I realised that unlike Sofia Bulgaria or Auckland NJ, cites where I worked before (and that are small, nice and contained) Bangkok was a Megapolis... like in Blade Runner.  We used to travel around in a super nice Van with Wi-Fi, TV etc, and at first I thought that was very luxurious but a bit flashy and unnecessary, but once we hit traffic and every ride took several hours I understood the reason why the van was so well equipped.

The first shock was that in order to go location scouting, I had to travel for hours every day. This was very frustrating especially when I could not find what I needed. I was lucky to have the strong support of both our Thai producer Tom Weller and also from my Thai / American assistant Chaya Suppanarat who knew where to take me. Then there was also the language barrier as not everyone spoke English and I understood why I was given (for the first time in my life) an assistant - usually I prefer to be a one man team, not in Thailand.... Frank, who knew Thailand, was totally relaxed about it, knowing all will be solved and he was right. Thailand is hot and super-humid. I thought that summer in Florida was hot and humid, however Thailand was MUCH worse than that (and that was in the winter). Luckily these condition do not bother me. I prefer the Thai heat than the Bulgarian winter freeze) and once I got to know the crew and they got to know me, I felt better. The crew was fantastic. Some of the departments were totally on top of their game, fast, dedicated and always impressed me with their Thai generosity. I remember by the fourth day of shooting we had a company move and most of the grips, electricians and camera people did not even go to lunch in order to complete the move. I saw this and so did the AD and lunch was brought to them on the set while they were working. Great dedication!

Impact: The film reunites you and your leading man of choice Scott Adkins once again. You pretty much discovered Scott and gave him his first major roles. What initially attracted you to Scott and how would you describe the progression he's made as an actor and screen fighter since you first worked together... how would you describe his performance in this film?

The man who actually discovered Scott was my good friend Don Warrener who saw a VHS tape Scott sent in 2001 and forced me to sit and watch it. I was reluctant to watch because I used to get so many tapes of martial artists who wanted to get into showbiz , but either they couldn’t act or they had little or no knowledge of screen fihting, which we both know is a martial art in its own right!

So when I saw the tape it had some shots of Scott in martial arts poses and I said to myself 'This guy looks good, now can he move'?  Then Scott was showing some martial arts techniques and I said 'Okay, he's a good Marital artist but is he a screen fighter too?", then came an amazing display of tricking , stunt etc and I said " Wow can he act too?" then came scenes from BBC TV – and, come on, you cannot go more into the world of ‘Drama’ then the BBC. I was impressed and found myself picking up the phone and calling him, leaving a message "I do not know you, but I just saw your tape and I would like to work with you" . When I showed that tape to Boaz Davidson, he had the same reaction and he said "Let's tailor a role for him in Special Forces and test the water with him" .

I truly believe that by now, ten years after Special Forces,  Scott is on top of his game . His acting skills are now superb; he brings layers to any character he'll play. He sees the whole picture when we shoot and knows exactly where his character is in each and every scene... and that is a sign of a really good 'thinking' actor. There are subtle things he brought to his character during shooting that were so right on and yet were so subtle that I really discovered them only later during the editing stage and this brought depth to his work. Now, do I have to say something about his screen fighting skills? He was already fantastic ten years ago and now that he's so experienced he is way and above fantastic... There nothing like experience and then more experience. My good friend and veteran Karateka Don Warrener, who has known Scott for over ten years commented that Scott's martial arts ability is getting better and stronger in every movie and I agree. Needless to say that, by now, both Scott and myself know each other's strong and weak points and this helps us to push each other for better results.

 After Special Forces I knew Scott is and was star material and it was a pleasure working with him. So when Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing was greenlighted I had no doubt that Scott could bring 'Boyka' to life. When we began, a lot of people doubted my decision to let a good looking English actor who is average in height play a big scary Russian inmate who is going to believably intimidate Michael Jai-White, warning me that I was going to make one of the biggest mistakes of my career. If I had any doubts they evaporated once Scott told me he will do everything possible to become the character, I had a total trust in him that he can really do it. And the result was better than anyone could have expected. 'Boyka' has become a phenomenon thanks to Scott’s portrayal of the character. He brought so much depth into it and totally transformed from the English gentlemen that he is to this unique 'Boyka' character. From there it was just going forward and working together again and again. Trying to do the best we can always.

Casey's character in Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear is much more complex than the Casey he portrayed in the first Ninja. You can feel his pain his rage and his sense of revenge and yet you can feel sometimes his hesitations and even concern and fear. Scott kept Casey (and Boyka) as human and away from one dimensional character.­­

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