Five Element Ninjas (Hong Kong) is an iconic martial-arts film from the East which has inspired much fanfare and a cult-following, and this retirement-piece is meant to investigate if such storytelling is conducive for 'cinema-adapted comics.' We've seen lots of comics which have inspired films, but what about vice-versa? Hope you like it,






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Tian wandered all the way from Nepal to Canada to establish his ninja-ballet academy in Vancouver (British Columbia). His academy or 'school' would focus on the geometry-play and symbols evaluations of the ninja aesthetic as they coordinated the great finesse behind ninja balance and ballet artistry. His students were little boy and girls of Vancouver who'd been intrigued by the notion of blending East-West philosophy for creative activity in this new era of globalism-centric imagination(s). Tian grew in fame in Vancouver and had come to be known as a masterful manager of both philosophy and lifestyle in creative education/arts! However, he'd not disclosed his secret past, a past which had involved his partnership with the 'Five Element Ninjas' from China.

Tian, along with his ninja-comrades, comprised the Five Element Ninjas 'team' and were trained by a master martial-arts teacher and became a congenial and efficient unit for defense and offense. They'd hired themselves out as mercenaries and helped a small village with a ninja-academy threatened by a ruthless Japanese warlord who'd established a death-game maze in the forest nearby where helpless villagers who'd defied his reign would be required to run through and simply survive! This death-game in the forest was hiding groups of murder-warriors who exhibited special guerrilla tactics designed to completely disorient any passerby. The murder-warriors were arrayed in the different parts of this cruel forest death-game, which each mini-group creating their own brand of combat impossibility.

Tian and the Five Element Ninjas effectively marched through this forest death-game established by the cruel/oppressive Japanese warlord and defeated each mini-group of murder-warriors, those with gold lances, those hiding in the stream with throwing-darts, those hiding/camouflaged as trees, and those digging out of the ground with knives and led by a spear-wielding 'boss' of Hell. Tian and the Five Element Ninjas then decapitated the Japanese warlord himself. This brought them great fame and honor(s), and though the Five Element Ninjas disbanded, Tian would never forget what he'd learned from their association(s) and what he'd learned to honor/appreciate as the core of combat excellence and dreams. However, now the 'great' Tian lives 'humbly' in British Columbia (North America) as a ninja-academy teacher himself. He wants his past of combat-consciousness behind him.

This changed again for the valiant Tian when a Vancouver family approached him, the parents of one of his academy pupils, a young girl named Shelley Levine. The Levines explained they'd got into a bit of a 'gambling' debt with a local blood-diamond pirate baron named Goldfinger. Tian had to find a way to get them out of this nasty doomed debt to the crimelord of conflict-zone gem smuggling while continuing to manage his British Columbia ninja-ballet academy with distinction(s) and legality! Tian came up with a brilliant plan, though at first, he'd been extremely reluctant in taking up a new mission for others as a 'mercenary' of fighting ninja, now that his days with the glorious Five Element Ninjas were 'officially' behind him. However, he'd not been able to get past that sad face of his Vancouver pupil, the young Shelley Levine.

GOLDFINGER: I've heard of your fame/valor, noble Tian.
TIAN: I'm merely a 'teacher' now, evil Baron.
GOLDFINGER: Call me Goldfinger, please, Tian.
TIAN: I'm no friend to you, Baron.
GOLDFINGER: You wish to get your friends, the Levines, out of their debt?
TIAN: Precisely.
GOLDFINGER: That's not a simple equation!
TIAN: The father of the family has waged a foolish gamble with you...and lost sadly!
GOLDFINGER: So?
TIAN: I'll perform a kill-task for you for your crime-organization if you free the Levines.
GOLDFINGER: Sounds interesting; I do want this police-chief assassinated in Canada.
TIAN: What's his business?
GOLDFINGER: He poses as a 'clean' cop but is actually a corrupt drug-dealer in North America!
TIAN: I suppose you believe you're some kind of saint, then?
GOLDFINGER: He's not much better than me, Tian.
TIAN: Alright, I'll do it...but leave the Levines in peace and allow them to live out their lives.
GOLDFINGER: The Levines will be 'untouchable' and you may return to your academy, Tian.
TIAN: Me thinks some missions are worth the sweat in gold...and tears.
GOLDFINGER: Welcome to the real world, innocent ninja.
TIAN: Wishes can come true for some, by the hand of those help the helpless, bad Baron.
GOLDFINGER: Perhaps that's true for some, and some may not find the likes of you, valiant Tian, haha.
TIAN: You've won this round...but I've won the hearts of the Levines.
GOLDFINGER: Fine; now depart for your task and I bid you farewell (and dance!).
TIAN: Farewell (evil Baron).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)

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