Behind the Scenes on Ninja Assassin

The Wachowski Brothers are back on the scene with a new martial arts film called Ninja Assassin. The film is directed by James McTeigue who also directed V for Vendetta. Recently, "behind the scenes" footage has surfaced showing fight scenes shot for Ninja Assassin during filming in Berlin.

The film stars Korean actor-singer Rain as Raizo, a man brought up in an orphanage that functions as a ninja factory. Rain also appeared in the Wachowskis' Speed Racer.

Raizo is now is one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. When Raizo's friend is mercilessly executed by the clan, Raizo breaks free and vanishes. He later reemerges, seeking revenge but in the process gets entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe with a secret service agent, Mika Coretti, who is also trying to expose the clan.

Naomie Harris (“Tia Dalma” in Pirates of the Carribbean) plays Europol agent Mika Coretti and Rick Yune (the diamond-face henchman “Zao” in Die another Day) plays Takeshi, the leader of a team sent by the Ozunu Clan to kill both Raizo and Mika.

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Producer Joel Silver has said, "I've wanted the brothers to do a full-on martial arts film for a while now, but nothing ever came up. Then we were watching the first dailies of the fight scenes in Speed Racer and they looked at Rain in a whole new way. He's unbelievable as a fighter."

Even so, Rain, went through a tough martial arts school for Ninja Assassin.

"It's so different, it's new style Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi, so different, just Ninja action, Ninja movement, Ninja expressions" said Rain. "So I learned from last December a lot of martial arts. Kung Fu with swords, double swords, chains, you know. You are going to like it, it's going to be huge."

Rain, whose real name is Ji Hoon Jung, is one of Asia's biggest stars, he fills stadiums world wide on a regular basis.

Actor Collin Chou was originally attached to a lead role in the film after Jet Li turned down an offer, but Chou later turned down the role as well. Chou felt the character was not the kind of role he wanted to portray.

Ninja Assassin is due to be released January 16, 2009.