Red Shadow

I saw this for the first time in a theater in Tokyo and was amused by the update styles of fighting and the comedy relief that the movie offered (not to mention the cute ninja chick making mouse noises; Get your minds out of the gutter). Upon second viewing, after it's release to video (with a poor subtitling job) I've come to the conclusion that there a few problems with it. However, I don't like to ruin movies for people so, I'll just say that it's an enjoyable, and campy ninja flick even though there are some things that need to be explained a little better. In the subtitled version at least.

Don't watch this movie if you're looking for a serious, Kurosawa type period piece. It's meant to be silly and go into it knowing that.

Yes, granted that historical accuracy is not a priority for this movie, but that's sort of missing the point: this film is a ninja movie that makes fun of many of the ninja movie conventions, to great comic effect, such as when the 3 ninjas giving each other a 1-10 rank on how stylishly they leapt over the wall of the castle they're infiltrating. Nevertheless this film is also a thrilling and quite moving story, with the elegant simplicity of a fairy-tale reinforced by its timeless setting. It also has the obligatory impressive fight scenes, which are not the best I've seen in any film but they are still very well done. This is a great film, not as violent and bloody as other critics suggest, and extremely funny at times!

From the great Hiroyuki Nakano who proved himself with "Samurai Fiction" comes an entertaining, if not wholly fulfilling, Ninja movie!

If you enjoyed Samurai Fiction, then you should have a blast watching Red Shadow. It's one of the most entertaining films to come out of Asia in the past few years, with some really breathtaking stunts, great costumes and sets, and some charismatic characters. Still, at the end of the film I felt a bit that a little something was missing. I still can't quite put my finger on it.

Stylistically, Red Shadow is at least on par with Nakano's earlier masterpiece. The cinematography is beautiful (and in glorious color this time), and Nakano gives us some extremely cool crane shots. The humor is there, as is the respectively tongue-in-cheek tone, but Red Shadow takes a slight turn for the melodramatic in the middle, and I think that might be where it's biggest stumble was.

I won't go into details, as it would kind of spoil an important bit of the film, but the fun, light-hearted film that makes you feel as if you could jump, flip, and spin through the air suddenly stops and takes a more dramatic tone. It's a brief break, though, and a necessary one to set up the characters for the second half. It's problematic, though, because it divides the film into two very distinct segments, so much so that they could almost be different films!

Still, it's not that big of a flaw. Just a little irritating in hindsight. There are others, though: a slightly anti-climactic ending, a couple of plot holes, but nothing that really takes that much away from the film.

The characters aren't quite as interesting or charismatic as those in Samurai Fiction; that stops the film from being much more than entertainment.

This review has been pretty negative in tone, but it's really just from the high standard Nakano had set for himself. From another director, Red Shadow would be a great achievement. It's extremely stylish; the techno-rock soundtrack is very cool and somehow works well in context; the costumes look incredible; the special effects are subtle and convincing; the stunts and acrobatic feats a really awe-inspiring; the comedy succeeds almost without fail. It's certainly worth a look, and if you're prepared for the quirky comedy/romance/action tone, you should really enjoy Red Shadow.

Pick up the Media Blasters DVD. It's a really great 2-disc set.

I was looking forward to this flick since the main character was played by Ando Masanobu, who made an impressive job and performance as "Kiriyama Kazuo" in Fukasaku Kinji's now to be considered cult film "Battle Royale" which was just shot the year before "Red Shadow".

The movie itself is not the typical ninja flick, so anyone running to the box office with this piece in mind looking for raw violence and beautiful fighting scenes and such probably will get disappointed. Instead, the flick is spiced up with a humorous approach to things and there is more weight put upon comedy and love than on ninja stunts (and those stunts that are, are quite silly to be honest - but that's how they were meant as well, I'd say!). I thought the story development at times was a little bit weird but I hopefully ended up with figuring it all out. Ando makes a neat performance, although not near as good as in "BR" but this role is quite different, too, and perhaps that has an take on things, too.

6/10 for this Toei production, an OK piece of entertainment a Sunday evening.

After Samurai Fiction this is another attempt at pushing a classical Japanese movie genre in the new century. Even the bad guy from the before mentioned movie has a cameo with what seemed to be the same character. Without getting in the story too deep, it's quite complex and with my limited understanding of Japanese I couldn't catch every twist of it. But it was great fun all the same. It delivers fast editing, new style martial arts and a sound track of electronic and guitars that fits very well the fast paced action-sequences. I hope to see a subtitled version someday so I'd understand a little more of what's going on and why, but I strongly recommend it, if only for the looks of it.