Shinobi

I FINALLY got my hands on the DVD, and watched it a few days ago. I must say that I hyped this movie to myself for quite a while as I waited and waited for the film to arrive on subtitled DVD. Seeing the movie posters at the cinemas just made me salivate, and as such my view of the film was slightly slanted, and also of slight disappointment.

The film follows the story of the two tribes of Ninja - Iga and Koga, who have obeyed a non-aggression law for many generations. In a period of peace after Japan's own warring states' period, two ninjas from opposite sides meet and fall in love. In true Star-crossed Lover tradition, they have to keep their romance a secret. However, inevitably fate steps in to pull them apart, in the form of a shady tournament, designed by the Shogan's advisors.

The romance of the film takes center stage, and it fits well with the sub title "Heart Under Blade". The two main characters, leaders of their clans have to balance their love, and their responsibilities, as the Shogun's plot unfolds.

The Characters are very interestingly designed, and colourful. They all possess unique skills, and have very anime'esquire costumes and fighting styles. Much of the fighting is a combination of CGI and wire-work, and some of it is incredibly cool. The low budget effects will no doubt be critised by many who are used to ILM level of graphics, but while companies like ILM strive to make the fantastic, "real", Shinobi's effects are beautifully stylised. Regardless of how they look, their fresh and innovative look more than makes up for any lack of polish.

Character design in this film may be great, but sadly the personalities underneath have not been as fleshed-out. Except for the main characters, we are given as much as we need to know about each character to accomplish the end goals of the story, and not much more. Even the main pair felt a bit empty, and perhaps some more exploration into their feelings would have built their characters more. Seeing them hug and canoodle certainly showed that they were in love, but in the end I didn't feel it like I had hoped I would.

That said, the acting in the film is quite good. Taking cues from its comic and anime origins, the characters are even larger than life when in motion, and villains and heros are very archetypal, lending them comic-book credentials that probably would have been insufficient in a more serious film.

Perhaps it is the comic book acting, but at times the film, like many lower budget Jidaigeki, looked a little "television". I can only assume that this was due more to filming technology than quality. However, many people that love Asian film will tell you that to fully appreciate it, you have to look past the budget and see its heart. While Hollywood film tries to use the glare from all of its gloss to hide plot and character inadequacies, Asian film doesn't usually have that luxury. What it does often have though are ideas.

Shinobi does things that I have never seen a Hollywood film even try (except for a strange Spiderman like sequence which may have been in the source material anyway), and as such is something to see. It owes an awful lot to anime, and it is indeed based on one. From the character designs of the Androgenous razor whip wielder, and the silent hulking doppelganger, to the Ninja Gaiden like battle sequences, this film is an anime and ninja fans guilty dream. Plus with all of Yukie Nakama's conflicted and fragile expressions, you can't help but wish you could just give her a big cuddle! 7/10

"Shinobi" presents us with an epic tale of love, hate, political manipulation and the plight of the underdog against an overwhelming foe, be it a tangible foe or fate itself. The coolest part about this movie is the background and super power of each character, each one being original, fascinating and deeply layered as we learn in bits and pieces. The worst part about this movie is that it falls back on a few clichés that may annoy you in this otherwise unusual spin on the classic "love in the time of hate" story.

First the cool stuff. The plot centers around a fight to the death between 2 teams with 5 warriors on each team. Here's the thing: each warrior has a unique power which isn't spelled out for us. We need to piece it together what their power is and how they got it. These aren't just a bunch of sword swingers running through the forest; they each have a very specialized skill that they stick to (often not even involving weaponry).

For example, one character is a woman who was raised on poison, and so she has literally the kiss of death. But it goes deeper than that. Having the kiss of death means that she can never know true love because all her lovers would die, and so she leads a tragic life, existing only for the sake of killing though she years to know what love is. How cool is that!

Other characters possess similarly complex powers which lead to deep conflicts in life, and you realize that even the most ruthless ones have an unspoken human side.

The main story focuses on two lovers who, you guessed it, end up on opposite teams. Here is where the Shakespearean question of fate plays heavily. One of them believes that they can somehow beat their tragic fate while the other is resigned to a hopeless ending. What I loved about this movie (at first) is that it doesn't waste time with waffling sensibility: right off the bat, the lovers refuse to fight and they make their peaceful intentions known. But slowly they start getting dragged into the inevitable violence.

But unfortunately the film later falls back on a few clichés which we've seen dozens of times before in other tales of love and war, and that's where I dock Shinobi a few points. With its original setup, I was hoping it was going to stay in that vein and avoid what so many other films have done. It does stay unique, but one or two critical plot elements were pure cookie cutter. Making matters worse, these plot elements were not in line with the characters' personalities. It's like the clichés were thrown in just because the film had to have them.

It's not a fatal flaw, and you may not even notice unless like me you've watched dozens of epic love/war stories like this. Who knows, maybe the whole thing will be fresh and new for you. But I just wanted to temper your expectations a bit. Although Shinobi is a good movie, it's not quite awesome. Still worth your time, though.

Movies in this genre which I *do* consider awesome are the Yimou Zhang films "Hero" (2002) and "House of Flying Daggers" (2004). While "Shinobi" is a great effort, I think you should check out those others first to get a taste of cinematic perfection.

After more than four hundred years of war between the Shinobi warriors of the Manjidani Koga and Tsubagakure Iga clans, the Lord Hattori Hanzou decrees that they must live in peace. Both clans live hidden in the woods and mountain without confrontation and without training ninjas in the shadow art of Shinobi. In 1614, the Lord of the Lords is convinced that the clans are dangerous threats for keeping peace in his lands, and his adviser plots a Machiavellian plan to destroy their best warriors in a contest. Meanwhile, the young Iga Oboro (Yukie Nakama) and Koga Gennesuke (Joe Odagiri) fall in love for each other. When Oboro's grandmother and leader of Iga clan Ogen (Riri) and Gennesuke's father and leader of the Koga clan Danjo (Minoru Terada) kill each other, Oboro and Gannesuke must lead their warriors in the ultimate battle of the Shinobi clans.

"Shonobi" is a wonderful and tragic romance, with drama, action and fantasy. The story slightly recalls Romeo and Juliet, with the impossible love of Oboro and Gennesuke that belong to enemy clans, and X-men, with the dark powers of the Shinobi warriors. The cinematography, the choreography of the fights and the state-of-art special effects are awesome, and the story is engaging and shows an adequate pace. The beauties of Yukie Nakama, Tomoka Kurotani and Erika Sawajiri are amazing, but the romance of Oboro and Gannesuke should have been better explored to increase the intensity of their final act. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Shinobi – A Batalha" ("Shinobi – The Battle")

If we are looking for elaborated Japanese story, this movie is not as elaborated as (for example) Kurosawa's Samurai trilogy. If we are looking for the actions, the movie does not offer much too. This movie is a bit of everything: romance, action, etc.

However, what I really like in this movie is the eastern philosophy. Something like "love is not everything, above love there is honor (of the clan) and the obligation (towards the government)". And also about submitting to fate; like the immortal one who choose to die by inhaling the poison, simply because he accepts that "Our time has passed".

Furthermore, this movie help me to empathically see how difficult it is to be a leader; to change the vision of the members, when the members are not ready to leave the old vision. Gennosuke fails to convince his 4 warriors about the importance of avoiding the fight; I can only imagine how hard it is for a leader to convince millions of citizens to do something different.

I think this movie has enough romance and fighting to please most people.. but those wanting to see nothing but action will be disappointed! The ninja techniques are not neglected in this story, these are special techniques and not just those used by the average assassin dressed in black. I don't like fantasy special effects most of the time and I thought these were fine. Some people have said that the main part of the story is the romance, I agree but I think it depends on how much you like that compared to the fighting.

The mix of genres is quite evenly balanced though. In the end you should be quite pleased if you like one particular genre and maybe very pleased if you love them all.

If I had a problem with this movie it would be that I wanted to know one or two characters better, maybe through hearing them talk about something else or seeing a bit of their daily life. They all wanted to show off their ninja techniques instead :) It's nice, I hope you enjoy it.