Les Tueurs noirs de l'empereur fou

... well, if it weren't for Sonny Chiba himself! Good, nobody ever put Chiba amongst the great Shakespearian actors (unlike his protégé and star Hiroyuki Sanada). Let's just say he employed less acting skill than Gregory Peck in 'The Omen' (were ol' Peck at least raised an eyebrow now and again) and Monica Belluci (who may be anything - a fine looking young lady - but not an actor). Fact is, Chiba doesn't act at all! He's simply there in the picture! Not so much as a facial twitch throughout the entire movie! Granted, Japanese heroes are to be cool. See 'The Last Samurai' ... hell, cooler than 'Shack' and Ryan O'Neal put into a bag. But for his role as 'Shogun', Chiba may well have been lobotomized! Second 'Minus' of the film: the horrid dance-sequence of Hiroyuki Sanada, which may well haunt this fine actor to the end of his career. God, if only I had fallen asleep during this sequence and never perceived it at all! But no, there it is, burned right into my memory and causing me to break out into insane giggles during the final battle of 'Last Samurai' ...

Then there is the terrible, terrible pseudo-Jazz score, that would have made many-a Porn flick look earnest --- if only the producers would have take a hint from 'Shoguns Assassin', but no ...

... apart from all that, the film would have actually been worth viewing ...

... WOULD have, I say!

After watching Shogun's Ninja, I must conclude that this is the strangest movie I've ever seen, and I say this after watching numerous Ching Siu Tung movies. This movie is just straight-up weird.

The plot takes place during the reign of Emperor Hideyoshi and there are historical references throughout (Ieyasu, the attempt to invade Korea, etc.) The conflict exists between the last survivors of the Momochi clan led by Henry Sanada (that Japanese guy from Royal Warriors with Michelle Yeoh) and Shogun (Sonny Chiba from the infamous Streetfighter series) and his ninja army. Sanada learns Chinese kung fu and comes back to avenge his clan, does some fighting, learns Japanese ninjitsu, and does some more fighting. The movie ends with a large battle between Chiba and his warriors (which are many) and Sanada and his pals (which are few).

The fighting in this movie is pretty good sometimes, and unexciting other times. Sanada is fairly impressive, he is one of the few characters that actually does any hand-to-combat (everyone else uses swords, guns, or other weapons). His kicks are fairly fun to watch. Sometimes, the swordplay is done bad in the sense that no excitement exists in watching them swing swords clumsily at each other. Unfortunately, Sonny Chiba doesn't do anything too interesting. Neither does Sue Shiomi (she appeared in Sister Street Fighter I believe). There was a female Chinese fighter who could bust out a good boot and the nunchaku, though.

When I say this movie is strange, I don't mean the strange in the Ching Siu Tung-style of bombard the viewer with bizarre, yet beautiful visual image style of being strange. This movie is strange in the sense that its level of camp is off the charts. For one thing, with the exception of some flute playing, most of the music in the movie is of the contemporary jazz/1970's elevator music variety with the occasional Japanese pop tune thrown in. The sounds effects are silly to the point where I wonder if this movie was actually a spoof. There are underground ninja, spider-like ninja (you can see the wires), and a nice little army of ninja at the end (although the third group doesn't do anything). There is a fair amount of wire-work in this, although none of it is really imaginative. Some of the stunts in this movie is just straight-up screwy (watch Sanada block the archers). Well, whether or not one enjoys this depends on his/her tolerance to high-camp.

It seems that CHIBA was acting as a mentor to the star (just as in ROARING FIRE) and taking a back seat too much, didn't work for me. Of course some of the fight-scenes in this movie are very good, utilizing slow-mo (as in KILLING MACHINE) and some excellent wire work (the spider ninja's moved quite naturally) and the other notable thing is the off-beat jazz/sax/porn music (that despite sometimes not catching the mood of the scene, certainly puts it in a league of it's own) The bottom line is, CHIBA doesn't fight enough, the hero (at one point) dances rather camp-like (whilst training) round a fire (hilarious!) and like most movies of this ilk, the plot can confuse/drag on a little

Excellent fight scenes and score, though

6 out of 10

Sonny Chiba plays the shogun in pre-Edo period Japan. He's a bad mofo who eliminates a rival clan and then turns on his master to take over as shogun. Despite this, he fails to kill the rival clan's son who escapes to China and comes back to avenge his family. The kid learns martial arts and carries with him swords that contain a map to the clan's secret gold mine (hence everyone wants to kill him to get them). There was some good karate action in this flick. It's kind of cool to see Sonny play the bad guy and even fight a ninja named Hattori Hanzo (fans of Kill Bill should love this one).

My problems with the movie are that it was the same damn plot all over again and the music. I expect bad music in some of these things, but it sounds like 70s porn music. The action sequences were kind of cool, but they have this crappy slap-bass, fake jazz sh*t in the background, so the tension isn't a high as it should be. I dunno, maybe the actual Japanese release had a better soundtrack. The other thing that threw me off was watching the hero dance around a fire. What the hell? It seemed like he was trying to do tai chi, but it looked more like Tommy Tune warming up for some big Broadway production. You don't look like a hard ass when you're spinning and leaping about.

Despite all of this, Chiba fans should enjoy his performance. As per usual, Sonny is the glue holding this thing together.

After almost 9000 of them, it's hard to come up with new ones. Anyway, the movie:

The evil warlord has destroyed the Momochi clan. His minions are running down the last few survivors. He particularly wants the Momochi's legendary gold mine. A map leading to it is on two swords. Will he get them? Or will Sonny Chiba, who has just returned from China to lead the Momochi, win?

It's non-stop action, with many backflips and ninjas swinging on ropes from trees. There are some subplots, like Yuki Ninagawa, who is a member of the Momichi clan, but has been raised by the chief villain, Hiroyuki Sanada, as his sister. However, none of that interferes with Chiba fighting bare-chested against dozens of ninjas at one time.