A scene from the movie 'Ninja Assassin'

Rain is the first Korean actor-pop star to make it in Hollywood. After doing a supporting role in “Speed Racer,” he now plays the title role in “Ninja Assassin.” The film is violent and bloody and this is quickly established in the opening sequence where someone is getting tattooed and a close-up of his bloodied skin where the tattoo is being applied is shown. A stealthy team of ninjas then descend on him and his yakuza companions to deliver merciless justice swiftly.

Prepare yourself for gory slaughter sequences where bodies are cut in half, limbs are chopped off, and with so much blood spattering on screen. It’s like those Japanese action flicks you can see on DVD like “Machine Gun Girl” where the violence is just overtop. It makes you wince but it actually borders on the ludicrous.

It appears that Director James McTeigue (“V for Vendetta”) and his producers (the Wachowski brother of “Matrix” fame) are paying tribute to past martial art films. The plot is often hard to follow but it’s clear that the lead actor is Raizo (Rain). We learn from flashbacks that he is raised as a child by a secret underworld of ninjas and trained to be an expert killing machine by the Ozunu Clan. Headed by a merciless and mysterious Lord Ozunu (legendary ninja film star Sho Kosugi), the training is a tough survival of the fittest kind of test, just like in “300” and “Hitman.” At some point in his training, Raizo is faced with a moral dilemma when a female ninja, Kiriko (Anna Sawai), on whom he has a romantic interest is killed. Kiriko made the mistake of giving in to her emotions and therefore must be liquidated. This persuades Raizo that he doesn’t really want to be a killing machine and he escapes to go on the run and work privately.

In Berlin, two Europol agents (Naomie Harris and Ben Miles) investigate a series of murders linked to an underground network of assassins. Soon, they become targets themselves. Raizo somehow ends up helping and protecting these agents. But these plot strands don’t really matter. What’s important are the action sequences that come in quick succession and they’re all staged in a spectacular manner, borrowing techniques from Chinese, Japanese and Thai martial arts techniques. The director and his team of fight instructors do not fail in giving us well choreographed action scenes, with the deadly ninjas portrayed as shadows that move silently and can even cling on ceilings. With them around, no one can be safe.

It’s obvious that aside from paying homage to this fraternity of hooded killers, McTeigue also wants to update the ninja movie genre for today’s generation of action lovers. He gives them a smorgasbord feast martial arts movie fans and for lovers of blood and gore will certainly enjoy. Scriptwriters Matthew Sand and Michael Stracyzynski do show the rigorous ninja discipline in the film, a form of reverence for the legacy and mystique left by ninja flicks of the past that have become part of pop cinematic culture.

Rain makes for a believable action hero, but he lacks the charisma of a Jackie Chan or a Jet Li. Displaying his lean muscled physique to the hilt, he is portrayed not just as docile follower but a questioning hero, although you’d notice that his eyes are lifeless most of the time.

This blood-soaked film is no doubt successful in coming up with decapitations and with gaping wounds in furious scenes of carnage, but if you want something more substantial, then you’ll have to go watch another movie. The trick is don’t ask too many questions and just take the movie for what it is, a brainless actioner filled with graphic violence, for the sadist in you to be able to enjoy it. After all, you don’t go see a movie titled “Ninja Assassin” for intellectually stimulating entertainment, do you?