Iga ninpôchô

When I found a copy of this movie at my local thrift store, I plunked down my dollar to buy it, figuring at the very least I would be getting some good ninja action. But the movie is anything but. If you are looking for a classic ninja portrayal, look elsewhere - there are only a few (very) short appearances of the men in black. They don't get to do much action, and for that matter, neither do the rest of the cast. The action, the few times that it comes, is very short and not the least bit spectacular. That's bad enough, but what's worse is that the drama portion of the movie is next to incomprehensible, and isn't able to win the sympathy of the audience for any of the characters. There are a few unintended laughs, and I will admit some of the production values are not bad, but otherwise this is one sorry "ninja" movie. You'd get a lot more enjoyment from a typical Godfrey Ho ninja movie than from this movie.

This movie is totally ridiculous. Also, the hero has horrible teeth. Looks like they jammed a bunch of marshmallows in there. However, the crazy Devil Monks are pretty entertaining. Why they put an afro on the vomiting monk I'll never know, but I'm glad they did. This is a fairly entertaining movie if you like campy, goofy poorly dubbed ninja movies. The fight scenes are only mediocre, but they clearly spent a decent amount of money on this thing, so the sets and costumes are pretty good. Enjoy. Beware the completely retarded ending though.

Okay, it's not really a classic. In fact, few people have probably even heard of this movie. And that's probably a good thing. This movie is odd. Really odd and bad. It has so many weird plot twists (two girls, one a virgin ninja, the other a concubine, are beheaded, and their heads are reattached but switched to different bodies) and visual effects (ninjas that vomit great streams of acid, the big fat naked concubine getting it on with the blind, scarred devil monk) that a mere plot summary cannot do the movie justice. That and I'm lazy. So, go rooting around in your local mom'n pop video store's bargain bin (I got my copy from a friend who bought it at Phar-Mor when they were having a big everything must go sale), look for Ninja Wars, watch it, and be amazed.

The sorcerer Mikio Narita speaks a prophecy: whoso marries the Princess Noriko Watanabe will rule the world. This makes her very popular with the warlords. Narita and his five disciples hire out to Lord Jun Miho, with the plan to make a love potion to make her fall in love with the lord. Fortunately, she has an identical twin whom people don't know about, who has been raised by ninjas. She and fellow ninja Hiroyuki Sanada. A love potion can be made from her tears, so the disciples kidnap her, rape her, torture her and eventually swaps heads with the female disciple. Now the creature with the disciple's head and Narita's heart tells Sanada this, and dies. So he goes to protect the Princess.

Would it be wrong to write "Same old same old"? Magical ninjas, magical pots, gallant, acrobatic ninjas, evil warlords, a bit of death pornography, and evil wizards who spew deadly projectile vomit onto their victims: the amount of baggage that ninjas carry around sounds rather oppressive. Even so, this one chugs right along, thanks to some beautiful camerawork by Fujio Morita, actors who sound like they mean it, and some great set design by Norimichi Igawa and Kazuyoshi Sonoda. I could have done without the vomit, though.

Ok, this movie rules. The dubbing is great and the story is hilarious. The gratuitous use of blood and decapitated bodies is so funny the gore is lost. Besides, what's better than a good vs. evil story involving a spider tea kettle filled with a magic aphrodesiac, and insane emperor and an evil ninja spirit with one of the best laughs I've ever heard. If you can someway find this movie, check it out.