Tongan Ninja

Like Peter Jackson’s feature debut Bad Taste, Tongan Ninja was a privately funded, labour of love that took 18 months of weekends to shoot.

– Writer James Croot on the film's low budget origins, Stuff, 11 March 2023

But despite making a splash at Cannes in 2002, especially with audiences, and selling to more than 25 territories, Tongan Ninja hasn’t received much love from the country of its birth . . . It’s a travesty that this cult hit (it was a hugely popular DVD-rental in the mid-noughties), minor Kiwi masterpiece and time capsule that features so many great Kiwi comedians has been so shabbily treated.

– Reviewer James Croot plays tribute to Tongan Ninja, Stuff, 11 March 2023

...possibly one of the dumbest, funniest New Zealand films ever since...well, possibly just ever.

– Reviewer Graham Reid in The NZ Herald (Time Out section), 2 October 2004

Shot in stunning yet convenient locations, Tongan Ninja features exciting new sound and special effects techniques designed to fool the extremely gullible into thinking it was done for real.

– Publicity material for Tongan Ninja

What elevates this above other cult classics is how knowing it is: the script sparkles with with asides to other movies ... reaches heights of absurdity (the Patio of Death), and has cleverly stupid overdubbing. It is worth turning the volume up just to hear the oddball asides in sequences when the army of ninjas jump Tongan Ninja.

– Reviewer Graham Reid in The NZ Herald (Time Out section), 2 October 2004

If you see one ninja film this year with a Tongan in it....

– Narration from the trailer

This was a labour of love . . . There was a very fun and silly atmosphere throughout the shoot, which is clearly evident in the end result. You can’t take things too seriously when you’ve got a night club full of dancing ninjas.

– Director and co-writer Jason Stutter, in the press kit for Tongan Ninja

Oh no! Geoffrey's dead.

– Voice of one of the ninjas, during the electric fence attack