Two labels — Umbrella and Toy Robot — give us great options on BluRay of one of the weirdest ninja movies ever...
Long before Ringu, The Last Samurai or the Shogun remake, Hiroyuki Sanada (then ‘Henry’ or 'Duke' Sanada) became an 80s icon to millions in the West with cable/video store staples like Legend of the Eight Samurai, Shogun’s Ninja, and the surreal epic NINJA WARS. Originally Iga Ninpocho, this staple of video rental stores and cable movie channels was retitled to nibble off Star Wars, apropos as there are lasers... karate lasers.
In a tale as demented as it is convoluted, an evil sorcerer manipulates a warlord with a magic teapot, aphrodisiacs and decapitated women with their heads re-attached to each others’ bodies. Then there’s a gang of devil monks, each with a surreal super-power, and Sonny Chiba pimped-out in black kabuki finery. Real historical events flow seamlessly into acid trips to stormy other-realms and Japanese Hell, pop-star heroines get burned at the cross, possessed warrior clerics kill everybody, giant Buddhas go up in flames (a record-breaking piece of practical filmmaking that was a big deal in Japan at the time), our hero doesn't know which head-swapped identical twin sister he's in love with, and... yeah I’ve seen this movie dozens of times over and I still don't know what’s going on.
Hey everybody! Writing this from the 106-degree Southern California heat, so pardon any sort of fever-dream / sun-stroked quality to my prose…
Several physical media releases to talk about, but alas I can’t quite yet reveal one that I myself am integral to quite yet. When that news is finally cleared for public consumption, there will be a dedicated issue focused entirely on that news.
In the meantime, lets ZIP right into some other must-have discs.
As Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day approaches $57-million-billion in ticket sales, the movie industry needs to take an honest look at WHY it’s so successful — clearly it’s the presence of THE HAND! Introduced by Frank Miller in the pages of Daredevil in 1981, The Hand was the first big ninja cult in American comics and remains influential to this day. The new film has them in their classic red hues, complete with the lazy pan-Asian costume flourish, mail-order weapon props and digital-heavy wirework martial arts one expects from an American corporate film outing.
Regardless, the record-breaking massive box office of this Spider-Whoever movie can be entirely attributed to a public starved to see ninja on the big screen again. Take note Hollywood…
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