Spider-Man gets a HAND

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…

DEMON OF MOUNT OE single disc, and other under-the-radar discs

In the ninjutsu black magic-adjacent folk horror film adaptation department, the superb 1960 kaiju-jidai-geki previously available only as part of an expensive box set from Radiance is now available as a single disc.

Starring Raizo Ichikawa and Shintaro Katsu, it’s loaded with floating demon heads (with somewhat of an Evil Dead feel) and samurai fighting giant spiders. We did a photo review here way back, now it’s in HD and subtitled! I got mine from DiabolikDVD.com

Also now available, with little to no fanfare, is the non-deluxe version of the first Shinobi no Mono boxed set, for all those who missed out the first time. I’m still praying we get a third set out of Radiance with the last two Raizo flicks and Mission: Iron Castle.

I’ve been surprisingly entertained by the double feature disc from Visual Vengeance of the shot-on-video shinobi-schlock Born A Ninja / Commando the Ninja. I’m not the biggest fan of the Godfrey Ho/Tommy Tang/Joseph Lai/IFD etc-and-so-forth vein of the genre, but these two flicks went way above and beyond the rest of that ilk and are truly fun nin-sploitation. Plus the folks behind this disc put so much love, effort and dedication to the release I’d recommend it just to show them some appreciation. If only all ninja movies got this much love…

SANADA-RAMA

I’m optimistic that Arrow’s release of Shogun’s Ninja will expose the film to an entirely new audience that will appreciate it as more of a psychotronic gem, what with it’s hybrid soft-porn/jazz/disco/muzak score and insane stunt work that somehow didn’t kill a young Hiroyuki (then Henry) Sanada. With this, Roaring Fire, and two releases of Ninja Wars coming, fans of the latter career Sanada work like Shogun can now discover the big-hair/shirtless phase of his legendary career.

Speaking of Ninja Wars — and this a bit confusing — we are getting two rather deluxe releases from labels in different countries. Toy Robot is a Los Angeles-based sub label of Britain’s superb Arrow Video, and their release is likely going to be the go-to for domestic North America. Seems like it’s going to include both the Japanese original in gloriously restored fashion, and a Standard Def ‘VHS Version’ of the American 1980s release with its endearingly bad dubbing. Australian label Umbrella’s boutique slip-cased release also has all sorts of commentary and new documentary features, so yeah, I’m probably going to double-dip on this and score both.

NINJA MIRAGE is totally worth $3/month!

While the 1960s was the biggest of the 20th Century ninja booms in Japan, the 70s might have been the idiom’s lowest point by contrast. Even the iconic hit properties of the decade — Lion Maru and Ninja Arashi — were one or two scant seasons. There we a few standouts, though, the best of which I’ve found is Ninpo Kagero Giri, aka “Ninja Mirage” as coined by the Samurai-vs-Ninja channel on YouTube. So far, they’ve licensed and subtitled 14 episodes of this 1972 Toei series, which sees lone wolf/loose cannon ninja free agent Taka (played by Tetsuya Watari of Tokyo Drifter renown) take on missions—of-justice-of-the-week. His partners are two kunoichi cuties in quasi-gogo outfits who evidently imprinted on multiple generations of Japanese males. There’s first-rate cinematic ninja action throughout, and the music is absolutely fantastic. This series is part of the channel’s members-only tier for $2.99/month, but you get a ton of other exclusive series and movies too. Highly recommended.

Congrats to Critical Ninja Theory on Their 2-Year Anniversay

If you’re not reading Rob Tuck’s superb Critical Ninja Theory, fix that! To say the apple cart of established ‘ninjutsu history’ has been turned over in the last decade is an understatement. I really love his braided analysis of the historical evidence of shinobi, the pop culture portrayals since the early 1900s and how the martial arts communities world-wide have justified and reconciled the two. Tall tales of the shinobi are as old as their actual exploits, and the fiction has a rich and storied history of its own. Conversely, the efforts of current historians and educators to really pinpoint just how new — like 1950s new — the notions and very definitions of ninja actually are really raise one’s eyebrows. It’s a fascinating time to be into it all.

Coming this Fall…

I anticipate the next issue of this newsletter to have a significant disc release announcement that involves yours truly, and then a major reveal of some trees I’m planning to kill. Keep checking that inbox, and thanks for subscribing everyone!

Keith J. Rainville — August 2026