Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Manthast Absolutely amazing

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

sinful-2 First I will say i have no clue if any of this is historical correct. I have watched it as pure fiction. From that point of view I have to say I was well entertained. It seemed like natural lives of ninjas depicted in the movie. So no flying ninjas here or anything really wild :-)Acting was fine but not amazing. I think the action scenes was good and realistic for being a ninja movie. Characters are not very deep but fine to make the movie flow and not seem like cardboard characters.At times I guess the movie slows down without getting boring while following the main characters personal life. So I guess I would recommend it to fans of Japanese cinema that likes samurai/ninja movies and do not require non stop action. I look forward to see the next movie in the series.

MartinHafer Raizô Ichikawa plays Ishikawa Goemon, a legendary bandit hero in this Japanese trilogy set during the reign of Oda Nobunaga--the man who nearly conquered all of Japan during the 16th century (before this, the country was split into many disunited kingdoms). The problem with this is that after I researched about the real life Goemon, I found that very little is known about the man and so over the years Japanese plays and movies have taken great liberties with who the man MIGHT have been. In this movie, Goemon is a ninja--though other sources I read didn't make mention of this nor did I read about him trying to assassinate Nobunaga, but another man (Hideyoshi)--but this isn't even certain.In this film, the ninjas are not just lone agents of death or spies but are an organized group led by an inscrutable man whose real goals and machinations are a bit hard to follow, as he plays so many different angles. The one fairly constant thing about the boss is his desire to see Nobunaga die, as he apparently represents a threat to their way of life. Initially, Goemon is give great responsibility and power within ninjadom (Is that a word? Well, it should be if it isn't.). However, Goemon is too proud and not especially careful (even though his father warned him) and he falls into a trap--a trap that obligates him to personally murder the seemingly indestructible Nobunaga.I'll be honest here--the plot was so convoluted and hard to follow at times that I had to struggle to keep watching. This is NOT the easiest Japanese series for a Westerner to follow--not nearly as easy as Ichikawa's "Sleepy Eyes of Death" series or Kitano's "Zatoichi" series. Now this isn't to say it's bad--just a bit tougher to follow--and I already DID know quite a bit about Nobunaga and his dream of forcibly unifying Japan.Overall, while you'd think this is a big action movie, it isn't. Sure, there's some fighting but the emphasis is much more on the behind the scenes stuff and the conniving--not the battles or even many of the assassination attempts. I liked the movie but was far from in love with it. I will have to see the final two films to see what I think of the overall product, though I do love the idea of a story so big it takes several films to complete (such as the epic "Samurai" series from the 1950s).

DICK STEEL I suppose many of us would have loved the romanticism associated with ninjas, with their famed skills of invisibility, swordsmanship, cunning and a whole host of weaponry and gadgets that add to their element of surprise. If you'd think you know a lot of their modus operandi, then perhaps The Ninjas, aka Shinobi No Mono, would contribute to that wealth of knowledge, and at the same time dispel some of the myths and stories that add to the stature of these masked assassins.If you'd wonder what a ninja does when out of his mask, then the film would have painted a rather mundane picture of the practicing ninjas, who hone their skills in enclaves, and frankly look no more like your usual Samurais, except sans status, and honing their skills ala rebels in hiding at their fortified base, and being skilled assassins for hire to Samurais who need someone to do their dirty work for them (yes, even back then you can outsource your dirty laundry), as they themselves are bounded by the honor code of bushido.The movie doesn't waste time in building up a proper background, but throws you thick into the action. With characters loosely adapted from history, you have Oda Nobunaga, a ruthless warlord on rampaging victories across Japan in an effort to unify the country. Needless to say such aggression doesn't sit well with the able bodied, and 2 clans of ninjas are pitted against each other to see who can carry out a successful mission to stop the warlord. The story centers upon Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), an up and coming, though ambitious and impatient ninja, who is recognized and granted a promotion (to the back office, away from the battlefield, as an accountant!) but in a moment of lustful folly, becomes the pawn of his master Sandayu (Yunosuke Ito), pledging his life to his master's bidding.So begins Goemon's mission, which includes a ruining of his reputation, and committing acts which defy even the ninja's code of conduct (yes there is one!). In fact, we learn and observe many rules and regulations of ninja-dom, what with the need to disfigure oneself prior to death, and how torture must be endured and death always an option. All these get interpreted through Goemon's ultimate shame in living with his guilt, up until he meets a prostitute called Maki (Shiho Fujimura), who gives him new cause to live, setting the stage for the truth of his double-headed master to be revealed.Shinobi No Mono was credited as the first film to popularize the ninja series of films, and had relatively low key special effects, decided to root itself in more realistic elements, rather than have things like tunnelling through sand dunes, and blink and you miss puffing of smoke. Secret passages, booby traps, poison and darts still remain staple, but don't expect any fancy swordplay as targets get dispatched rather quickly. If you're looking for a climatic ending, then you'll likely be sorely disappointed, as everything goes into a big shebang, lacking in any mano-a-mano opportunities.That said, this film is still rather enjoyable for its shedding of light on these mysterious group who operate in the shadows, and it's not always they have to dress up in black for their operations. It'll look rather dated, but somewhat a refreshing change from current films in its presentation sans the easy way out using tons of computer aided imagery.

johnlewis The confusion level is very high for the story, but so is the entertainment quotient. This is good fun, in a fast-paced, light drama; but without any of the goofball humour that mars later 1970s Japan samurai pulp films. The elderly leaders of two Ninja clans are actually the same person in disguise. The old man frequently changes disguises and travels to the other hideout during the night to give commands and play his role as the clan leader in each place. In one clan, he enlists and inspires one young ninja aspirant to fight for him in trying to overcome a powerful warlord who is trying to kill off all the ninjas in Japan. The young man ends up being seduced by the old man's young wife. The old man catches him and blackmails the young ninja into asassinating the warlord. One of the most interesting things about this film is watching all the now well-worn cliches of ninja behaviour and methods being introduced in this story: The old man climbs up his walls and in his attic almost like a monkey; the old string and poison assasination trick is used in one place, and some mild humour is added when one adept young ninja keeps accidentally killing small birds when trying to hit various assasination targets with his little star wheels. By the end, most of the confusion is cleared up, and I even found myself wanting to watch it again to understand more of the details. Both the evil old nina leader and the young, ambitious ninja warrior are very convincing in their roles, and are just really fun to watch. On the downside, this movie is too well-made to rate as a good B-movie, but is not really good enough quality to rate it as an "A" movie, either. So the overall feeling is that of a slightly better than mediocre grade A movie. Also, the action is spread a little thin and far between longish drama scenes. Since the drama is on the light side, there is no mesmirising effect as with a good Kurosawa yarn. Overall, however, it is still an entertaining and satisfying movie to watch from an early 1960s ninja filmmaking master.