Shinobi (2002)
Production: KSS
Domestic Release: ADV Films
Director: Kenji Tanigaki
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

The world of Japanese heroes is a rather large one that encompasses everything from animated robots to colorful tokusatsu heroes that strike heroic poses before going into battle. Not all heroic figures in Japanese entertainment are limited to these fictional caricatures however, in fact there are many that play off of historic characters and figures in Japan’s past. Such figures include emperors, poets, samurai warriors and shinobi among many others with this latter one in particular being a popular character for modern writers to use in their stories, such as today’s review subject, ADV Films’ domestic release of Shinobi.

This movie is another take on these secretive warriors who roughly between the 14th and 17th history of Japan’s history served as spies and assassins for hire. Coming in with a level of stealth that any true shinobi warrior would be proud of this film caught JH Labs by surprise.

The Story

"In the world of the Ninja, skill plays only a small role in determining one’s rank. Kageru is strong, fast and extremely intelligent—the best in his class. However, his birth predestines him to the lower class of Shinobi. His friend Aoi finds herself in the same situation, and together they will be forced to question not only themselves but also some of the most sacred edicts of the Shinobi hierarchy. Because of this, a choice must be made; will they choose to follow their mission as dictated by the Law of Shinobi or break the age-old code and change their destinies?"!-- ADV Films' Shinobi Page

Review

Shinobi, which comes to us from director Kenji Tanigaki of Princess Blade and Blade 2 fame, is essentially a story about a generational clash between an older ruling class and a younger cast in society, who by their own lineage and birth are destined to a life of servitude to the higher class in their society. As such it’s a story with a universal appeal that I think most of us could relate to at some level or other.

At the core of Shinobi and this clash of generations are two Genin (lower class Shinobi), Kageru and Aoi. This duo represents the very best of the Shinobi, with skills and abilities that rival those of everyone in their village. Despite these skills and obvious superiority to even the higher ranking Shinobi they are kept in check by the rules of their society, which state in no certain terms that they most serve their masters to the death, no matter the circumstances.

Kageru and Aoi are not like the other members of their village though and they yearn for change, for things to be the way they should be and for life not to be ruled by self-contradictory rules imposed by an older class that fails to understand the potential of an open society where people earn their status by their ambition, skills, and abilities as opposed to their lineage. However, after a number of events take place this yearning is acted upon, making both of our heroes targeted foes for the other members of their group.

Once this happens and Kageru & Aoi are on the run this movie turns into one very action-packed film that mixes elements from the classic Fugitive film with more traditional martial arts cinema influences to make for one heck of a fun film.

Having loved the Princess Blade I was eager to see what director Kenji Tanigaki did with this earlier piece of work and sure enough I wasn’t disappointed. I don’t think the film per say was better than the Princess Blade, but it does have several good moments and some amazing action scenes that mix classic swordplay with simple and complicated martial arts moves and stunts.

One thing I could appreciate about the action sequences in Shinobi is that for the most part they are handled with very little support from digital FX’s, which make for much more realistic and raw melees. Don’t get me wrong, effects are used here and there, such as when people are sliced by the ninjas’ sharp blades, it just doesn’t dominate everything the way it does in most action films nowadays. In a world where movies are turning to artificial worlds and characters more and more it's refreshing to see recent work that doesn't go that route.

On the production end of things I was a little confused at first since the film used in Shinobi seems closer to video than film stock. Nevertheless this actually contributed to the raw nature of the movie and made it stand out even more from your standard run of the mill ninja movie. Still it seemed like an odd choice for this type of movie, especially when you see what the director did with some of his other projects.

The movie was recorded mostly on location in a forested area so most of the time our heroes are traversing very beautiful landscapes that add a poetic touch to their story. For the most part the color palette for Shinobi is centered around nature’s colors with a large portion of the on-screen scenery being made up of trees. There are some other shots inside buildings and in a larger village, but these are very limited in on-screen time.

DVD-wise ADV Films put together a nice little package for this release. The DVD case features some neat artwork of the main cast in action on the front cover and several pictures from the movie are used on the back cover to support the movie description. Inside the DVD case there's an insert with information on everything contained within the DVD. Extras on the DVD itself are limited to a literal English-dubbed track and previews for other ADV Films' products.

The video transfer is as good as could be hoped for with no visible issues that I could see. The audio is encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 for the Japanese track and Dolby Digital 5.1 for the English dubbed track. The audio like the video was as good as could be hoped for.

Conclusion

If you enjoy movies about ninja's you owe it to yourself to check out Shinobi. It may not be the best example of thic cinematic genre, but it is a fun watch that's deserving of being in anyone's collection.

This one comes highly recommended from the JH ninja corps!

Jeffrey Couto