Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Comeuppance Reviews Set starting in 1581 and going on, Shogun's Ninja is the tale of Takamaru (Sanada), a member of the Momochi clan. He returns to his native Japan after a period of time in China, where it seems he spent the majority of his time studying Martial Arts. Once home, Takamaru reunites with his old buddies. But far from the peaceful return he had envisioned, he runs up against Hideyoshi (Koike), an evil warlord who wants to wipe out what remains of the Momochi clan so he can arrogantly assume even more power and land. His enforcer Shiranui (Chiba) is going to help make sure that happens. Of course, Hideyoshi also wants a cache of gold belonging to the Momochi clan (gold always comes in cache form, don't'cha know) and the key to finding where it is lies on cleverly etched daggers. Meanwhile, Takamaru tries to rekindle a romantic relationship with Ai-Lian (Shihomi) - all the while utilizing his pals to fight through all the betrayals and get revenge and restore the Momochi clan. Will he do it? Find out today! Shogun's Ninja is an artifact well worth seeking out. It has an impeccable pedigree: produced by Toei, it stars Japanese cinema legends that even we ignorant Americans know and love: Henry Sanada, Sonny Chiba and Tetsuro Tanba. It's directed by the legendary Noribumi Suzuki, a man with an amazing career in the Japanese film industry, and well-known to exploitation fans stateside for releases like Sex and Fury (1973), Convent of the Sacred Beast (1974) and the disturbing Beautiful Girl Hunter (1979). Fascinatingly, Shogun's Ninja was his next movie after Beautiful Girl Hunter. Not only does that show the diversity and talent of Suzuki, but you can imagine that he would bring his own unique sensibility to whatever project he's working on. Hence, Shogun's Ninja is about as far from a dry historical slog or standard ninja slog as you can possibly get. It's filled with stylish and interesting moments, and not just the violent bits.And while this is a very well-directed period piece, with top-notch costumes and sets, it doesn't skimp on the ninja action. It even has one of our favorite ninja things, the underground ninja. Suzuki brings his quirky vision to all aspects of the movie, including the action, so not only is there plenty of spinning, flipping, swordplay, nunchuks, and the like, but there's some dancing and twirling in there as well. There is an interesting credit to watch out for: "Actions directed by Sonny Chiba" - not action. ACTIONS. So maybe he's responsible for the dance moves. But there is some trapeze-like tightrope walking as well, and even Chiba couldn't have been responsible for putting it in slow motion with a smooth jazz soundtrack over it. Probably one of the coolest aspects of Shogun's Ninja is the soundtrack. Now we know that people, starting in the 16th Century, loved jazz funk. It may seem out of sorts, but it's just so awesome. It's innovations like this that set this movie apart, and keep Suzuki at the forefront of Japanese directors at this point in time.Even a movie like this isn't adverse to having genre mainstays like the Prerequisite Torture sequence and the training sequence. If you liked The Ninja Wars (1982) - a similar movie that also stars Sanada and Chiba - you're going to want to check this out. There's even a man named "Go Awazu" credited on the movie. He must be a lonely guy. In the U.S., Shogun's Ninja was released by Media on VHS back in the day. In the DVD era, however, it has shamefully fallen into the clutches of the makers of those one-dollar gas station DVD's. The movie deserves much, much better. A cleaned-up, widescreen, subtitled, high quality DVD would do wonders for this movie's reputation. It truly deserves a better treatment than it has gotten. But that being said, if you happen to see it somewhere, pick it up. It's definitely worth it.

t_atzmueller I must confess that I was a sucker for all things Japanese since an early age, especially Samurai, Ninjas, Cartoons and Sushi. There could be no bigger delight but to watch the duo Hiroyuki "Henry" Sanada and Sonny Chiba, be it in "Ninja Wars" or "Legend of the Seven Samurai". That chemistry just couldn't go wrong – until I saw "Shoguns Ninja" for the first time; a little part of my soul died that day.Primarily responsible for this was the soundtrack: what we get here is a pseudo-Jazz soundtrack that the composer MUST have stolen from an illegally imported Porn flick (I suspect a New Yorker production, around the years 1975-76). But that wasn't the worst part yet: They made Hiroyuki Sanada dance to this music! A free-style, 'innovative' dance, like you might expect it in an audition for "A Chorus Line". They made him dance, for a whole stretch of three minutes! Seeing the embarrassment on my heroes face, my heart sunk and I wished that I could likewise sink into the ground and disappear in shame.Did I just write that nothing could go wrong between the chemistry of Chiba and Sanada? There is one exception: "Shoguns Ninja". Well, there is no chemistry and almost no interaction between the actors, at times making you believe that the actors were actually not together on the same shooting.I often would like to view Sanada as "the Japanese Christopher Lee": having come from very humble beginnings, he has added quality to very cheap pictures through his sheer presence; originally with his splendid looks, at an advanced age with splendid acting skills. "Shoguns Ninjas" in a way is to Sanada, what "To The Devil A Daughter" must be to Sir Christopher: In "To The Devil A Daughter" Lee had to drop his pants; in "Shoguns Ninjas" Sanada had to dance! Sony Chiba has often been called "Japans answer to Bruce Lee"; not because he was such a great martial artist but because Chiba had charisma that would keep your eyes glued to the screen. In films like "The Street Fighter" Chiba was grunting, snarling and grimacing like an angry simian while tearing off the testicles of his opponents. In "Shoguns Ninjas", playing the villainous Shogun, Chiba plays it cool – way too cool. In fact, he doesn't do more than move about apathetically like a block of wood with arthritis. Never does a single facial muscle move, not even in his dying scene (Spoiler ahead: the hero kills the villain), when a Sanada thrusts a dagger into his throat. Not a single emotion is displayed. Nothing! But at least it's a Ninja film, the title assures us. That means, at least Sanada – after he's done dancing – will be doing some mystic Ninja-stuff, use freaky hidden weapons and generally decapitate fiends with his sharp katana, right? Not. You see, Sanadas character Momochi grew up China, returning home to Japan having mastered what every righteous Chinese has mastered: Kung Fu. And, presumably also because he grew up in China, Sanada gets to act like a village bumpkin from an early Jackie Chan movie.Yes, the movie has its moments: there are some decent battle scenes and the hand-to-hand fights, although relatively few, are well-done – but again, if I want to see Ninjas, I watch a Ninja-movie; if I want to watch Kung Fu, watch a Shaw Brothers picture and if you want Kung Fu slapstick, go for said Jackie Chan flicks like "The Drunken Master".Alternatively, you might want to watch a dance-film – go for "A Chorus Line", but steer clear of "Shoguns Ninjas". Three points from 10: one for old time sake, one for Sanada (despite dancing) and one for Sonny Chiba (despite doing NOTHING).

chrichtonsworld 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.

aggie80 Hiroyuki Sanada is once again playing a part with his mentor Sonny Chiba, this time as opposing forces. Basic plot thread is easy to follow and hangs together fairly well. Very typical lot of self sacrificing colleagues to insure that the hero wins in the end, but at what cost!There are a number of rather impressive fight scenes, and while they were Pretty typical, there was a bit more variety in the weapons that I liked. The pretty chinese girl with her red lacquer nunchuck and the hero with his short sword(s). A few great scenes. The original destruction of the hero's castle while he was a child sticks with me. I liked the battle in the ruler's castle, with the ladies in waiting using their naginta to defend their lord. A number of mysterious strangers that show up at the right time to help.The use of muskets in many of the battles adds both a thread of historical accuracy, and the challenges of working them into a martial arts based flick. I found the ninja in the correct color of blue rather refreshing over the typical mis-used black. But the camoflage ninja where rather strange, since the pattern looked identical to the recent military designs. The one thing absent from this compared to many of the genre is the use of magic.