Fukurô no shiro

Remake of the classic 1963 movie with almost same title, owls castle is a strong ninja story with great acting and choreography and excellent colors but with misplaced soundtrack.

A ruthless warlord, order to kill and wipeout all ninja clans, the way its done is very barbaric even children and wives are killed. But when his daughter dies of flew the warlord get weaker and dying. But that doesn't stop the remaining ninja Hanzo who seek revenge for his clan and mistress. He also meet Gohei a former ninja of the same Clan as Hanzo but despite their friendship he has left his beliefs and now serve as the warlords bodyguard.

Even though I don't like the soundtrack, it's a little too creepy sometimes and there is a shouting man soundtrack that takes you off the movie but despite that the movie is great, a perfect ninja movie a ninja lover should have in their collection. 10/10

I bought this expecting a cheesy excuse to see acrobats in black pajamas fight one another, it's a guilty pleasure, but its one I've had since youth - and I'm entitled to nostalgia as much as any other grown man who still says the original Star Wars trilogy are the best films of all time. Upon watching this film, i became increasingly delighted to find that this is a drama that involves characters that are ninja in feudal Japan, and what a great job they did in producing this. First off, the Director really made this film... every shot is perfect, placed together perfectly and really lets you seep into a believable ancient Japanese atmosphere. The script and story is also top notch with highly involved character development that takes it time to entangle all the players in the same drama and at the same time offer a multiplicity of perspective. All the characters are human, they all have their outlooks and goals concerned in the story, and they all add a little bit of a philosophy to the mix. That being said, there is a lot of dialog, but it always keeps it's focus instead of trailing off and losing context. The acting too, is top notch. Everyone brings something fresh and diverse, and colors their performance with so many emotions and situations. This film focuses on its realism, on putting you there, on letting you know and travel with the characters and the acting is one of the sturdy legs that this formula stands on. I can't help but be reminded of Kurosawa throughout this epic, and for anyone familiar with him... it is a high compliment.

All in all, this is a great film. But it is not a martial arts film, it is a drama thats focus is on story and realism. If you are into good film, and not just 'Revenge of the Ninja' style cheese, then i highly recommend this film. It might be hard to get your hands on here in the states, but if you can find it on e-bay or whatever - got for it.

This movie was highly enjoyable for me. Most people i know didn't care for it because there wasn't as much action as they expected, and the action wasn't really high flying super ninja like. But to me it seemed realistic and the action was really good. The movie included ninja weapons, ninpo (ninja magic), stealth, underwater fight scenes, and from what i hear from another review was choreographed by someone who knew how to actually kill peopl. All in all I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes Japanese ninja movies with some history in it without expecting crouching tiger-like action. After all, these are ninjas not string work kung fu martial artist.

Shiba Rytoaro is a historic novelist. The reason why ninjas in this movie don't make use of James Bond gadgets to make their way through booby-trap castles and end the story in a big explosion is because this movie isn't the 2001 ninja-flop Aka Kage, and those things never happened. Don't give me the They-totally-messed-up-history-in-the-Gladiator-but-still-made-a-Russel-Cro we-movie-out-of-it look, Shiba Ryotaro's work is interesting because it is historically plausible. That said, the amount of action they did manage to put in the movie is realistically good. Realistic is the key word, because ninjas really did exist, so why don't you give them a break for once and try to look at them for what they were. This isn't about turtles living in the gutters, nor kids left home alone. I know it's hard to imagine, but these people were real, and that's why this movie deserves to be watched. The color palette of the movie is really beautiful, and the action is shot seriously--they actually had a mercenary choreograph the hand to hand combat scenes, he wasn't a fancy martial arts expert, but he did know how to kill people. Nakai Kiitsu is adequately stoic as the survivor of a clan, determined to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Mako's cunning eyes and sneer recreate the crafty strategist who unified Japan.

I was always interested by Owl's Castle, but never mustered up quite enough enthusiasm to watch it. I've liked but not loved much of Masahiro Shinoda's work, and I guess the fact this came late in his career and was labelled as an action movie always made it sound interesting. But then on the other hand, it seemed like most claimed it was decent at best, and with a runtime of nearly 2.5 hours, I guess it never really felt like it would be worth it.

I felt ready to eat my words for a while, at least during the first act, because Owl's Castle does begin in a promising way. I was on board and interested to see where it would go, but it ended up meandering and not really going anywhere. I wouldn't call much of it abysmal (besides some janky CGI which I don't think would've looked good in 1999 even); just a bit boring and by the numbers after a promising first few scenes.

I guess I come away a little disappointed, but also not too surprised. At least I've finally crossed it off the watchlist after years.