Perhaps it seems incongruous that “Ninja Assassin,” a gorgeously shot and impeccably designed limb-chopping martial-arts fight-fest, is opening Thanksgiving week. After all, this is generally a time for heartwarming, mind-fogging fare like Jim Carrey’s creepy “A Christmas Carol,” or harder-edged Oscar bait like the “8z”-inspired musical “Nine” and the Oprah-approved “Precious.”

But there’s a significant segment of the population who believe “Precious” is a Gollum-centered Tolkien spin-off, and believe they saw “Nine” months ago as an animated post-apocalypse fantasy.

For these viewers, “Ninja Assassin” is a suitably rowdy holiday gift, directed with style by “V for Vendetta” helmsman James McTeigue. Even the absurdly simple title fits. (It’s like calling the “Twilight” series “Virginal Moody Teenage Vampire Romantics,” and I’m fine with that.)

For “Ninja” is a bloody, wildly violent bit of escapism that works on its own terms. While hardly elevating the action genre, and occasionally veering way too far into the extremely unpleasant, I expect most moviegoers to come away satisfied. That is, moviegoers who are intrigued by a film called “Ninja Assassin.”

The plot is thin, but it’s not a bother, really. Kidnapped by a clan of martial artists as a young boy, Raizo (played as an adult by Rain), is a trained killer, schooled in fighting by the calm yet sadistic Ozuno (menacingly embodied by Sho Kosugi).

Helplessly, young Raizo watches as his only friend is brutally murdered by the clan as punishment, an event which turns him against the thugs who brought him up. By the time we join the all-grown-up Raizo, he is attempting to bring down Ozuno and his “brothers.”

Meanwhile, in Berlin, an impassioned Europol agent (Naomie Harris) and her partner (Ben Miles) have discovered the existence of these warriors, and join with Raizo to try to bring their reign of chaos to an end.

I give McTeigue and his mentors/producers Andy and Larry Wachowski — still licking their wounds from the mighty belly-flop of “Speed Racer” — credit for devoting the project wholly to style. Its target audience — namely, teenage boys who have snuck into this R-rated gore-monster — surely receives what it desires from an action film.

Its star, a one-named South Korean actor, model and pop singer named Rain, is certainly no household name Stateside. But he was a highlight of “Speed Racer,” and an appropriately cool-as-ice lead here. While the performance requires more physicality than acting prowess, he does a fine job. What a treat to see his graceful presence, rather than, say, a WWE cast-off.

And the other stars? Well — outside of the always welcome Harris (“28 Days Later,” the “Pirates of Caribbean” sequels) as the Europol agent, don’t expect to see any recognizable mainstream faces. That’s OK, as they’re not necessary. The style is the star, and as McTeigue demonstrated in the sharp, underrated “Vendetta,” he learned well at the hands of the “Matrix” masters. Perhaps next time he’ll have a stronger story to match his talents.

Like “The Matrix,” the fight sequences are gravity and logic-defying orgies of destruction, and one wonders just how strong the Wachowski hand was here. That’s no knock on McTeigue; as assistant director for the Neo saga, I imagine his work was vital there. Several sequences — specifically a sudden ninja attack on a giant warehouse, and a stunningly frenetic climax at the clan’s home base — are gorgeous. If you can handle decapitation and occasional disembowelment, that is.

Thanks to McTeigue’s steady hand, I enjoyed “Ninja” more than Tony Jaa’s recent films and pretty much the entire Jet Li oeuvre, because it embraces, and gets drunk on, its own design. If it does lead to a resurgence in martial arts films, let us hope they have an ounce of this film’s style and casting chutzpah. Less Chuck Norris, Van Damme and Steven Seagal, and more Rain, please.

NINJA ASSASSIN

Two and a half stars

STARRING: Rain, Naomie Harris, Sho Kosugi, Ben Miles

DIRECTOR: James McTeigue

RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes

RATING: R for bloody, stylized violence and language

THE LOWDOWN: A deadly martial-arts assassin seeks revenge on the clan who raised him.