Chris Farley was an interesting, and flawed, individual.  He grew up in an Irish Catholic family, unsurprising given his last name.  A surname alone is not an indication of a person’s faithfulness, unfortunately.  There are plenty of people out there whose appellation would point to an Emerald Isle extraction who do not practice the Faith.  Having said that, people who worked with him have indicated that he was a regular Mass attendee.  Here, again, we have contradictions.  You might expect such a person to stay away from substance abuse, and yet Farley died of a drug overdose.  If you are familiar with his work, and Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) is no exception, you might suspect the kinds of demons with which he contended.  Most of his comedy was of the physical variety, but specifically utilizing his excessive weight to make jokes. Self-deprecation is good, but it has its limits, and it seems that Farley became a caricature of himself that he had to perform.  That is not healthy over time, and neither is watching this movie.

Somewhere near Japan, there is an island on which the Beverly Hills Ninja washes up on after the ship he is on founders in a storm.  He is not an adult, but rather a white baby boy that is taken in by the clan of ninjas that live and train in this remote location.  Their Sensei (Soon-Tek Oh) decides to take the child in and raise him, naming him Haru (Chris Farley).  They believe the little one could be the fulfillment of a prophecy about a white ninja that would go on to be the greatest among these shadowy assassins.  Haru’s training proves that they are laughingly incorrect.  Despite doing nothing by practicing martial arts all the way up to adulthood, Haru masters little of what he is taught.  Instead, he bungles nearly everything, but seems to have a good heart about it.  Such is his progress that when it comes time to graduate into full ninja status, he is passed over.  Again, he takes it well, even when he is given the menial task of guarding the dojo while the rest go off on some important task.  While he is waiting, he is visited by a woman calling herself Sally Jones (Nicollette Sheridan).  She has come seeking the assistance of a ninja in order to look into her boyfriend, Martin Tanley (Nathaniel Parker).  She does not know what Martin is up to, but she fears it is something major and she is afraid for her life.  Haru thinks she is attractive, but honorably swears to look into Martin’s doings for her.  The gravity of the situation is kicked up a notch when Haru witnesses Martin murder a man over plates used for counterfeiting money, and is then ineptly blamed for it.  After some convincing, Sensei allows Haru to travel to Beverly Hill in Los Angeles in order to find Sally.  The problem is that Sally is a false name, and the only clue he has is a box of matches she had given him with Martin’s name.  With some supposedly comedic bits thrown in during his journey, he makes it to the swanky hotel.  There, he befriends a bellhop named Joey Washington (Chris Rock), who Haru manages to convince of his prowess as a ninja.  The fact that Joey is impressed earns Haru an ally in finding Sally, though one not much brighter.  Thankfully, Sensei had sent the much more competent Gobei (Robin Shou), Haru’s older brother ninja, to shadow the so-called White Ninja.  While taking several accidental beatings from Haru, Gobei manages to get his younger sibling and Sally together.  She is shocked to see Haru in Los Angeles, and initially is not keen for his help.  I cannot say that I blame her for feeling this way.  Her stated reason, though, is because of the danger Martin poses, reportedly having already killed her sister.  Her relationship with Martin is just a cover to get close to him and bring him to justice, her real name being Alison Page.  Haru pledges to continue watching her from the shadows, despite how loudly he dresses.  His attempts at doing this also result in more bystanders being accidentally killed, which means that he is becoming wanted by the local authorities.  Despite all the tiresome follies, Alison and Haru learn the identity of the person providing the ink for Martin’s counterfeiting operation, Chet Walters (William Sasso).  They go to Chet’s office, and Haru tries to give Chet a substance that will induce truth, but they all end up ingesting it.  This eventually causes Chet to die of laughter, apparently, so, yeah. . . .  Haru then poses as Chet, but is unmasked when he cannot operate the counterfeiting machine properly.  Haru is thus in need of saving, which is provided by Alison, but she is taken hostage in the process.  He also is about to be arrested when the police finally catch up with him, but Gobei takes his place.  Thus, Haru turns to Joey, with Gobei once more assisting, to find his way back to Martin’s lair.  There is some kicking and punching here, but the long and short of it is that the good guys win and the bad guys lose, so hooray.  Oh yeah, and this is all meant to be really funny.  We end with Haru back on ninja island, arm-in-arm with Alison, given a sendoff by Sensei and the others as he plans to return to the title locale.

There is not much to say from a Catholic perspective about Beverly Hills Ninja.  I could force something talking about how, according to the film, a ninja needs to be “one with the universe,” and how that “one” is actually God.  This is true, of course, but it seems kind of silly to have a serious discussion like that with such a movie.  Instead, let us talk about something loftier in connection to Farley as a man, and then work it back to his character.  I was struck to read that Farley attended Mass, though I do not how regularly he did so as he got on in his career and deeper into his drug addiction.  There is some suggestion that he maintained his practice throughout his life.  The fact that he was also a user should not mean that he was incapable of worshipping God.  It is God that judges the soul, not us.  Farley’s example got me thinking of St. Mark Ji Tianxiang.  He was a nineteenth century Chinese saint and a medical doctor.  He was also a habitual opium user, which is considered a grave sin by the Catholic Church.  He went to Confession frequently, regularly went to Mass, and was active in his community.  That visibility is how people knew that he took illicit substances.  Because of this, the priests at his parish did not believe his Confessions were sincere, meaning they were invalid, and he was barred from taking part in the Communion.  Despite this exclusion, which went on for thirty years, he kept returning to the altar.  It would be understandable if he had become bitter because he was not being allowed the full Communion he so fervently sought.  Yet, he along with a number of other Chinese Catholics were martyred.  He was offered the chance to apostatize and refused, having his head cut off.  Luckily, Haru does not have to face a similar outcome.  What unites them, though, is their dedication.  Haru identifies as a ninja, just as a major part of the identity for practicing Catholics is a full participation in the Sacraments.  Either way, they each knew their duty, and their limitations, and pressed forward anyway.

I hope that, instead of following Haru’s example in Beverly Hills Ninja, you learn more about St. Mark Ji Tianxiang.  The movie is best left forgotten, by St. Mark deserves to be remembered.  He wanted to do better, but found that he could not.  Jesus walked with him anyway.  You can walk with Jesus, too . . . away from this film.