Shinobi

Japan 2005
produced by
Shochiku
directed by Ten Shimoyama
starring Yukie Nakama, Jo Odagiri, Tomoka Kurotani, Erika Sawajiri, Kippei Shiina, Takeshi Masu, Mitsuki Koga, Tak Sakaguchi, Houka Kinoshita, Shun Ito, Riri, Minoru Terada, Masaki Nishina, Toshiya Nagasawa, Yutaka Matsushige, Renji Ishibashi, Kazuo Kitamura
screenplay by Kenya Hirata, based on the novel Kouga Ninpocho by Futaro Yamada, music by Taro Iwashiro

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Oboro (Yukie Nakama) and Gennosuke (Jo Idagiri) meet each other on the bank of a river ... and immediately fall in love - which is bad news, because Oboro is a member of the Iga-clan and Gennosuke is a member of the Kouga clan, two clans which fought each other for centuries. And both Oboro and Gennosuke are the top Shinobi (some kind of Ninjas with supernatural powers emanating from their eyes) of their clans. Oboro and Gennosuke hope that the truce between their clans will eventually lead to peace, but the contrary is the case: a slight provocationleads to all-out war, and Oboro and Gennosuke are each made leader of their clan's special forces.

Soon both have to fight off ambushes and atacks from assailants from the respective other clan and have to kill more than they would have liked to ... and ultimately Oboro and Gennosuke both are the last survivors of their special forces - which leads to the inevitable, they have to fight each other. But when it comes to that, neither of them can muster up enough enthusiasm to really fight, and in the end Oboro attacks Gennosuke only because he mocked her too much, and her half-hearted attack was almost sure to fail - but Gennosuke didn't put up any defense and her sword goes right through his heart ...

Later at the King of Kings Ieyasu Tokugawa's (Kazuo Kitamura) court: While Ieyasu has already ordered the attack on both the Kouga's and the Iga's village, Oboro makes a plea to save both villages. Ieyasu refuses, since he fears the Shinobi for their Eyes of Destruction, so Oboro pokes out her own eyes, just to show him how much she wants peace. Ieyasu is impressed by that gesture and has the attacks ceased at once.

Strong visuals and cool action can't obswcure the fact that this film is incredibly cheesy, just yet another version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, this time done as a martial arts fantasy. Now nothing against Shakespeare, but Romeo and Juliet has been done much better, and without martial arts. A total lack of irony of course doesn't help either.

What remains is a film that is beautiful to look at and has some adrenaline pumping scenes, but it's not free of lengths, of unadulterated kitsch and plottwists that are announced way too soon (at least if you are vaguely familiar with Romeo and Juliet, and who isn't). Actually, the beautiful direction would have deserved a better story.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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