Norwegian Ninja

Introduction

Norway. Land of the fjords, A-ha, dead parrots and now...a highly secret Ninja force. Really? Oh yes...

Norwegian Ninja is the debut film from author/filmmaker Thomas Cappelen Malling, and his debut film is a slight re-imagining of true events in the Norwegian 80's as witnessed as a 12 year old via TV. The true events referenced here centre around Arne Treholt and Otto Meyer. Treholt was a politician and diplomat who was convicted in the mid-80's of high treason and espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Now in exile in Cyprus, Treholt has always maintained his innocence against the charges brought.

Meanwhile Otto Meyer was a Norwegian Intelligence Service officer caught with a large cache of weapons in his property. It was believed that Meyer was the head of the Norwegian Stay Behind force. Stay Behind was thought to be a CIA-operated project within European countries to provide ready-built basis of resistance should the feared Soviet invasion of Europe ever occur. Part of the brief was to sow anti-Soviet propaganda which would inevitably lead to greater military and secret service influence within these countries. It's suspected that having a primarily sleeper role did not sit well with some of these groups (either that or orders were received from the CIA), with a number of terrorist incidents on friendly soil being attributed to Stay Behind.

Malling brings both of these protagonists together by re-imagining the handsome, hotshot Treholt (Mads Oussdal) as Commander of a secret Ninja force under the overall authority of King Olav of Norway to defend the Norwegian way of life. The highly trained Ninja force are based on a secret island with a Feng Shui shield that stops intruders with a combination of illness and bad luck. The Ninja's are primarily farmers in the ancient Japanese tradition with a love of animals but also believing that if God wanted men to be vegetarians he would have made vegetables from meat. As well as being distracted by imminent threats to National Security, Treholt also has to decide whether to trust his instincts on a seemingly incompetent member of Ninja Force who he believes has the potential to be the greatest Ninja ever.

Otto Meyer (Jon Oigarden) becomes Treholt's nemesis, using his Stay Behind organisation to discredit the Ninjas and carry out a series of terrorist attacks in order to provoke a cout d'etat that would see King Olav and parliament usurped in favour of complete US control. Treholt and Meyere wage a private and very personal war to win the hearts and minds of the Norwegian people, or the 'ignorant masses' as Meyer dismissively calls them...

Picture

This film uses a combination of fast paced editing and glaring colour contrasts making it a rather surreal experience in watching it. Ongoing context is provided by the inclusion of old snippets of Norwegian TV footage, sometimes news and sometimes discussion items. Also included is some rather Gerry Anderson-esque model work, both large and small, with rather obvious wirework at times. It is pretty clear that this film is not taking itself very seriously at all.

Extras

A nice selection of odd extras to go with an odd film, these include deleted scenes which can sometimes be as equally bizarre as those included.

Overall

I'm pretty sure that most people have watched news unfolding over a prolonged period and reimagined the circumstances behind it, not too many though attempt to put said reimaginging on film., especially one as strange as this. This is a definate spoof film, reminding me in places of Black Dynamite, but the film that Malling has delivered is much stranger and also much funnier than any spoof films I've watched recently. Full of profound but meaningless dialogue and simply random occurences, I laughed from start to finish in a film that also wears it's 80's influences on its sleeve and is simply a mad ride from start to finish.

The acting is played completely straight by all involved and is a joy to see the deadpan deliverance of such surreal and bizarre dialogue. I can't really pick anyone out in fairness as I couldn't find a duff or less than engaging performance from anyone. Still, this is a film you'll either love or hate, rather like my old favourite Mystery Men, there's not really an inbetween I'd say as its such a daft premise that you'll either get it straight away or still be shaking your head in disbelief 90 minutes later.

I don't want to give away too much in terms of the content of the film, including all the lovely small touches, as that would spoil the surprise and maybe pre-empt some of the laughs. On the other hand, I simply can't recommend this film enough. It really is superb and deserving of a wide audience who can appreciate the rather bizarre Norwegian sense of humour...