Fails the Bechdel test
Ninja Assassin
2009. Directed by James McTeigue, written by Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Trained since childhood to be a lethal killer, Raizo has since turned his back on the Ozunu clan that raised him and now seeks revenge for their heartless murders. Teaming up with Europol investigator Mika, Raizo steadily butchers his enemies while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with his former master.
- Released
- 25 Nov 2009
- Genres
- Action, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 34 / 100
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Mika 214 lines, woman
- Maslow 132 lines, man
- Raizo 109 lines, man
- Ozunu 61 lines, man
- Kiriko 24 lines, woman
- Hollywood 20 lines, man
- Mrs. Sabatin 17 lines, woman
- Zabranski 10 lines, man
- Takeshi 6 lines, man
- Tattoo Artist 6 lines, man
Full cast, 35 people
- Rain as Raizo
- Naomie Harris as Mika
- Ben Miles as Maslow
- Rick Yune as Takeshi
- Sho Kosugi as Ozunu
- Randall Duk Kim as Tattoo Master
- Sung Kang as Hollywood
- Lee Joon as Teenage Raizo
- Anna Sawai as Teenage Kiriko
- Kai Fung Rieck as Teenage Takeshi
- Sungwoong Yoon as Young Raizo
- Kylie Liya Page as Young Kiriko
- Eleonore Weisgerber as Mrs. Sabatin
- Wladimir Tarasjanz as Aleksei Sabatin
- Thorston Manderlay as Zabranski
- Richard van Weyden as Battuta
- Linh-Dan Pham as Pretty Ninja
- Jonathan Chan-Pensley as Yakuza Henchman
- Ill-Young Kim as Yakuza Mohawk
- Fang Yu as Laundromat Manager
- Adriana Altaras as Landlady
- Mina Ghousi as Kid with Envelope
- Hans Hohlbein as Mika's Neighbor
- Nhi Ngoc Nguyen-Hermann as Girl on Roof
- Guido Föhrweißer as Lead Europol Agent
- Tim Williams as Europol Cell Guard
- David Leitch as Europol Door Guard
- Wolfgang Stegemann as Europol Pointman
- Steffen Groth as Europol Guard
- Jens Neuhaus as Europol Guard
- Patrick Pinheiro as Maslow's Aide
- Matthias Schendel as Task Force Agent
- Johannes Ahn as Medic
- Yuki Iwamoto as Yakuza Couch
- Stephen Marcus as Kingpin
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 111
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 0 | 37 |
| 4 to 6 | 5 | 14 |
| 7 to 9 | 4 | 7 |
| 10 to 12 | 11 | 10 |
| 13 to 15 | 3 | 4 |
| 16 to 18 | 10 | 25 |
| 19 to 21 | 10 | 7 |
| 22 to 24 | 7 | 7 |
| 25 to 27 | 13 | 18 |
| 28 to 30 | 25 | 0 |
| 31 to 33 | 13 | 15 |
| 34 to 36 | 8 | 11 |
| 37 to 39 | 10 | 13 |
| 40 to 42 | 17 | 21 |
| 43 to 45 | 1 | 2 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 2 |
| 49 to 51 | 7 | 10 |
| 52 to 54 | 0 | 12 |
| 55 to 57 | 10 | 8 |
| 58 to 60 | 1 | 2 |
| 61 to 63 | 10 | 10 |
| 64 to 66 | 17 | 24 |
| 67 to 69 | 8 | 13 |
| 70 to 72 | 18 | 18 |
| 73 to 75 | 3 | 12 |
| 76 to 78 | 4 | 8 |
| 79 to 81 | 7 | 7 |
| 82 to 84 | 6 | 3 |
| 85 to 87 | 3 | 3 |
| 88 to 90 | 2 | 5 |
| 91 to 93 | 6 | 9 |
| 94 to 96 | 4 | 3 |
| 97 to 99 | 1 | 1 |
| 100 to 102 | 8 | 23 |
| 103 to 105 | 0 | 6 |
| 106 to 108 | 10 | 16 |
| 109 to 111 | 1 | 0 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 41 are women's.
263 lines from women, 386 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 27 men in the cast. 5 women and 20 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 51 of 670.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 50 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 40% of the words (2,341), men 60% (3,538). Women have 41% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
2
Two men
11
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 9% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- James McTeigue (man)
- Written by
- Matthew Sand (man), J. Michael Straczynski (man)
- Produced by
- Grant Hill (man), Joel Silver (man), Lilly Wachowski (woman), Lana Wachowski (woman)
- Shot by
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub (man)
- Edited by
- Gian Ganziano (man), Joseph Jett Sally (gender not listed)
- Production design by
- Graham "Grace" Walker (man)
- Costumes by
- Carlo Poggioli (man)
- Cast by
- Lucinda Syson (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
4 women, 12 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 8 men
-
Art
0 women, 5 men
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 3 men
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 3 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Anna Sawai 17, Naomie Harris 33
Men
Lee Joon 21, Rain 27, Sung Kang 37, Rick Yune 38, Ben Miles 43, Sho Kosugi 61, Randall Duk Kim 66
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $40 million
- Box office
- $61.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 111 scenes and 670 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
