The Mysterious Ninjas became very popular in the movies during the 80's, especially starting  with the movie 
 Enter the Ninja
Enter the Ninja  with 
Franco Nero and 
Shô Kosugi This started the craze for ninja with 
Shô Kosugi leading the pack with several movies and a TV series 
"The Master" with the ninja theme.
Others like 
Michael Dudikoff with the 
American Ninja series had some success. After a while the craze died out.
    
Now it seems that they are back, first with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from GI JOE : The Rise of Cobra
  
and now the aptly named 
NINJA movie which seems to be the revamped American Ninja !
 Facing off with this is 
NINJA ASSASSIN