Headscratchers / Ninja Assassin

• Who was supporting Raizo? It can be presumed he simply kept the ninja equipment he had when he left (i.e., the ninja stars that were lodged in his chest), but who gave him Mika's name? He just gets a phone call, then the picture, with no explanation as to who gave him the info. A traitor in the clan, perhaps?
  • If you think about it, Raizo's story wasn't really told from the time he left the the clan (falling off the building) until the present. He probably had some sort of informant close/around the clan.

• One problem I had: Maslow made a big deal about how investigations into the ninja were being blocked. This suggests to me that world governments are trying to cover it up. But at the end of the movie Europol ships a full-blown strike force complete with choppers and humvees into (I assume) Japan. How did they get clearance for that?
  • Well, it could be argued that Maslow went over his superior's heads, to their superiors, or that he just pointed out that either they gave him authorization, or he would go to the press.
  • You could also argue that the Ozunu overplayed their hand to get to Raizo, and the other clans decided to give them up to Europol.
  • Europol probably had jurisdiction over the incident given they have a global mandate. I also doubt that they were willing to allow the massive slaughter that ensued when they captured Raizo to slide. There's a limit to how much shit a particular organization is willing to take.

• I never understood the significance of the location for this film; why Germany? And I couldn't help but notice that despite taking place in Germany, not a single word of German is spoken anywhere in the film. For all the diverse accents in the world, everyone pretty much speaks English only. And then the whole bit about Ozunu having a secret location where he trains members of both sexes to become killing machines... and all of this is happening in the mountains... of Germany(?)
  • There was at least one word in German, but presumably the film takes place in Germany because it was filmed there. Also, do they ever state where the ninja clan's camp was? Mika's boss did state he could follow the tracker anywhere. The medics at the climax appeared to be Japanese for what it is worth.
  • In slight relation to this, I do not understand the purpose of why Naomie Harris (a British actress) speaks with an American accent throughout the movie. Although her forced accent was 100% convincing, whether Mika's character was British or American would've made absolutely no difference to the storyline whatsoever; so why didn't they just let Naomie Harris speak in her natural voice?