good back-story, and good acting

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Blistering performances.

Cool-ass action abounds in this Japanese epic of a movie, made with all the verve and skill we come to expect from our Asian brothers. Forget mundane, routine, poorly-done Chinese kung fu movies – and we all know they exist in their droves – and instead feast your eyes on this lavish, exquisitely produced, and extremely stylish adventure yarn. Sure, the plot is little more than "you killed my father and I will get revenge" with frills on it, but this matters not when your film offers up tons of action all the time without any slow spots whatsoever. Not only do you get a Bruce Lee-like invincible hero who kicks backside with his hands, feet, and whatever weapons he has to hand, but you also get a film with samurai warriors and secret ninja-type fighters. Weirdness and wackiness prevail in this senses-pounding assault full of bloodshed, honour, and cheesy dubbing.The film begins with a bloody massacre, followed by a bloody suicide (or hara-kiri) and then a bloody ambush. It follows through with some bloody fight scenes, some bloody training scenes, and then finishes off with a bloody climax. All in all, it's a pretty bloody movie, as anyone who has seen the likes of THE STREET FIGHTER or SHOGUN ASSASSIN will expect. That means guys turning into human pin cushions with arrow attacks, geysers of blood spurting from knife wounds, bloody squib hits, and limb-lopping frenzy. Violence fans certainly get their money's worth with this movie, which contains more deaths-a-minute than COMMANDO and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II put together.The sets and costumes are pretty darned nice and there's a rural feel to the film, with lots of the action taking place in densely-wooded areas full of traps and Spider Ninjas. What are Spider Ninjas you ask? Well, they're guys in camouflage costumes who shinny up trees with weird sound effects and swing from branch to branch like a spider, apparently, and the special effects are darned cool. Unfortunately they all seem to get killed pretty easily by the harder blue ninja types, but not before they burrow under the pebbles and launch numerous heroic attacks on the bad guys.Other movie highlights include the boiling tar set-piece, the forest slaughter, the kick-ass training sequence (including a master who dies to prove a point to his pupil), and the infamous arrow-defence sequence. The whole climax is excellent to, with a dual of the titans that has to be seen to be believed and a pair of evil dwarf types thrown in for good measure. The soundtrack is just bizarre, packed with '70s soul music that doesn't really relate to what we're watching on screen. Acting is a plus, with a great performance from Hiroyuki Sanada as the ass-kicking hero and the ultimate bad-ass, Sonny Chiba as his imposing nemesis. Even SISTER STREET FIGHTER's Etsuko Shiomi turns up to kick a little ass. So action-lovers take note: check out SHOGUN'S NINJA if you wanna watch death, fights, and violence. It's brim-full of pain.

How can you go wrong with Sonny Chiba and Hiroyuki Sanada in one movie. Both are great martial artists with quite good acting abilities. In "Shogun's ninja" however they forgot to act. They are just there. It could be that there are different versions available. The version I saw was dubbed in English and had a very seventies musical score. I know that for a seventies production some of the stunts are incredible. Now it just looks horrible. Most of the martial arts scenes are poorly executed or badly edited. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the martial arts was good! To be honest the fights were below average and not that interesting. The ninja's in this movie do have some special abilities. But in comparison with other ninja movies made in the seventies these ninja's don't cut it. These ninja's don't seem to be very powerful and mysterious. For me that is an important factor. I considered that this movie could be meant as a parody. But for that to work the action scenes had to be more exciting. I wanted to like this movie but just couldn't.

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 littleExcellent fight scenes and score, though6 out of 10

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.