I saw this film as Ninja Warlord so who knows what the true motives of the Japanese were in this film. Could have been taxes and such, but then again maybe not. The people who dub this films can sometimes make these films into something else entirely. Though it is, I believe, definitely Chinese versus Japanese with the Japanese being the bad guys, so definitely a Chinese film.
The story, the version I saw, has a small village under siege from the Japanese who are raising taxes on fish and imposing their will upon the villagers. However, things will soon change as a man who was from the village and was a boxer in the states has returned home and he killed a man in the ring! Honestly, don't ask me to place when this film takes place as I have no idea. Well the leader of the Japanese is friendly enough at first to the boxer, but he is bad and soon the hero will have to use his fists, something he swore he would never do again, to bring a little justice to the village!
Not sure why they decided to title this film, Ninja Warlord, here in the United States as the leader of the Japanese looks nothing like a ninja and acts nothing like a ninja. Just walks around in a white suit and wearing a black and red cape while his cronies wear Hawaiian shirts. All is cool though as we get several fights and that is what you want to see in a film such as this!
So, it was not great, but it was entertaining as I prefer to watch something as insane as this film to something boring. The fights are not the best, but they are funny as the folly guys in these films always make the most insanely loud noises from a simple punch! If they were swinging hard enough to make those sounds, the opponents skulls would like explode! That is the fun of watching these movies as well as the bad dubbing, combine the two and you may not have an award winning picture, but at least you have a fun one!
