NINJA WARS – Toy Robot Blu-Ray Review: Hiroyuki Sanada Kills With The Power Of Love, God And Ninjitsu On His Side!
Ninja Wars debuts on Blu-Ray from Toy Robot Video on September 29.
Director Kosei Saito made several films with producer Haruki Kadokawa, whose library currently stands to be one of my favorite rabbit holes in classic Japanese films. It’s full of surprises and wonderment, and in no uncertain terms does that include Ninja Wars, or Death Of A Ninja, according to whatever marketing you prefer to view it as. The film was rolled out in 1982 before Toei snapped it up for international markets, helping to pave the way for jidageki cinema to hit VHS shelves for niche markets overseas.
The movie, headlined by none other than Hiroyuki Sanada fresh off of his starring turns in Shogun’s Ninja, Roaring Fire and The Young Valiant, is now on par to release on Blu-Ray for the first time ever in the U.S., and the folks over at Toy Robot Video mean business. To start though, the film itself is a hell of an oddity to dive into, even if you’ve seen some crazy shit yourself. It starts off as what feels like another period sword movie, immediately setting the tone with a bloody battle and soldiers falling off of horses, men getting impaled and surrounded by death before succumbing to it.
A voice can be heard narrating on the subject matter amid the imagery, moments before segueing into the story of a ninja named Jotaro (Sanada), courting a fellow lady ninja in training named Kagaribi (Noriko Watanabe). Suddenly, Kagaribi is kidnapped by Lord Danjo (Akira Nakao) as part of a twisted scheme to concoct a love potion to both take the royal Lady Ukyo (Watanabe) from her husband and conquer the land.
I went into this movie about as blind as anyone like me who might be venturing into 80s samurai films. I’ll do my best here to hold back on certain details, but the story involves a quintet of seemingly unkillable monks serving at the behest of Danjo with the counsel of an evil sorcerer named Kashin Koji (Mikio Narita), and a crazy body-swapping plot twist that sees Jotaro setting off to look for Kagaribi, and ultimately coming to the aid of the Lady Ukyo to protect her from Danjo’s malfeasance. What follows is an epic supernatural tale of revenge and romance, sprinkled with a touch of whimsical religious, and set against a backdrop full of warring ninjas and monks as conquest hangs in the balance.
As far as expectations go with exploitation and violence, Ninja Wars holds its own in ways you might already be familiar with, or new to, depending on your timing and proximity to these films. Sanada leads with a resounding performance as the heroic Jotaro, topped off with leading lady Watanabe in a dual role that is sure to leave you doing double takes just to make sure you’re watching what you think you’re watching.
The film also features Sonny Chiba as a major dark horse in the story, and who also serves as the film’s stunt coordinator. Some of those stunts make way for some delightful visual effects for a brief period of time, including seeing Kagaribi practice a special technique that signals her latest achievement as a kunoichi, of lady ninja; The film’s intriguing visuals also some core practical effects that lend to the film’s scope and scale, whether they involve gusts of wind occur right before villains appear, ninjas appearing out of nowhere and vanishing, or when our hero gets swept away to a mysterious battleground to rescue Ukyo.
Others action scenes find Sanada in a number of brutal and exciting sequences, notably against the evil monks, one of whom chooses to hide their face whenever they appear on the screen. Some of these moments, including the demise of at least one character the film compels you to grow onto, happen when you least expect them. This is all to say that Ninja Wars is quick to surprise you in blink-or-you’ll-miss-it ways that keep you guessing.
This also entails the film’s climactic finale, encapsulating all of the film’s intended themes, including faith and sacrifice. Pay attention to the specific keepsake that recurs in the film from time to time, and you’ll have a firm grip on the otherwise sobering destination where the movie is headed.
The Toy Robot Video release of Ninja Wars comes with a load of new features including an audio commentary by author Jonathan Clements, about forty five minutes total from seperate segments by author Matt Alt, and author and academic Daisuke Miyao about the film and the subject of ninjas in cinema. The disc also comes with a slideshow comprised of an essay full of trivia and history about the film by Zack Davisson, and a trailer reel.
The film’s 4K remaster contains a Japanese-only track along with the aforementioned commentary. That’s where Toy Robot comes in, aiming to please with a total scan of Ninja Wars off of its English-dubbed 1984 VHS release, barring a few other edits and changes in its duration and tone, including the removal of the film’s beginning narration (for clarity, you can also find the film on Tubi as Death Of A Ninja whose cut is about the same).
This release of Ninja Wars is the whole package, and from a label that’s affirming itself bigly this year with fans of old-school Asian films. Pre-order your copy on Blu-Ray today from MVDShop.com, and if you’re a fan of the Sanada/Chiba double team, tap for reads on Shogun’s Ninja and Roaring Fire.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
