Monday, January 31, 2011
Shinobi - Heart Under Blade (2005)
Ninjas (otherwise known as shinobi) are very well-known as the Japanese historical (and sometimes legendary) stealth assassin. They have made their mark in history since (I guess) around 15th century as warriors and spies of great prowess in the field of tactical espionage, stealth and assassination. During the Sengoku Era/Period in ancient Japan, ninjas are specially trained assassins-for-hire, rented by warring clans to go past legions of armed samurai and lay defeat on the enemy by taking down the enemy's daimyo (general/governor) like a sitting duck behind enemy lines. To do this perilous yet tremendous feat, ninjas are trained from their childhood with the different specializations of ninjutsu and the art of assassination. Having such dangerous skills, ninjas live well hidden in secret villages deep in jungles or mountainous regions. But like the samurai, they have lost their cause since the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, a time of peace where feudal Japan ended.
Christopher Walken? Nope. It's Yutaka Matsushige who plays the role of Hattori Hanzo, Tokugawa Ieyasu's second-in-command who issued the order of a survival battle between the two militant ninja clans.
In this story, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, gathered the two warring Kouga Manjidani and Iga Tsubagakure ninja clans in his castle to showcase their dangerous expertise in killing. Seeing how they easily handled the castle guards, the government then decided since its a time for peace, skills like theirs are no longer needed and would only bring further danger to the upcoming peace. Tokugawa, issued an order to the warring Iga and Kouga ninja clans, to choose five of their best warriors to engage in a fight to the death for the sake of survival of the stronger of the two clans in order to bring about an era of peace and ending the clans' 400-year feud. In the midst of this conflict, two star-crossed lovers are caught and one must kill the other in order for their clan to come through.
Our story's "Romeo and Juliet", the ill-fated star-crossed lovers Gennosuke (played by Joe Odagiri) from the Kouga clan and Oboro (played by Yukie Nakama) from the Iga clan. Fate chose them to lead the five ninja representatives of their clans chosen to fight to the death. Meaning one inevitably has to kill the other in order to ultimately end their 400-year feud with each other's clans.
One of the things I've enjoyed in this movie are the scenic locations especially the hidden villages of each of the ninja clans. Iga Tsubagakure clan's village lies deep within a jungle forest along a river.
Kouga Manjidani's hideaway lies hidden in a mountaintop where their ninjas train in perilous heights.
And of course, the best part for me: the unique kick-ass chosen five of each clan! Introducing first, Kouga Manjidani's elite five:
Muroga Hyoma, the seemingly blind monk, who has extreme ESP abilities that can sense enemies from afar. In the movie, he is also a man of wisdom and seemed like a mentor to Gennosuke and advisor to his father, the late, Kouga Danjou, head of the Kouga clan who died in a battle against Oboro head of the Iga clan shortly after the battle between the clans was issued.
Chikuma Koshiro, one of the most awesome warriors in this movie. Despite his lack of supernatural powers, he makes up for it with his agility and weapon specialty in using a kusari-gama (chain sickle) and throwing multiple darts at the same time. And like a real samurai, he finds no more reason to live once the feudal era ends. You just can't take the fight from the kid.
Of course, an action movie wouldn't be all that great if it weren't for awesome fight scenes like this. Koshiro and Yashamaru from the Iga clan met and crossed swords, er.. wires against steel? and finally got to settle their unfinished business from Edo Castle.
The temptress femme fatale ninja of the Kouga clan, Kagero. Don't be dazzled by this woman's charms. she may look harmless and a lot less of a ninja but she is a lot more capable than it looks. She feeds and breathes poison, and her ultimate weapon?
A kiss of death. Gennosuke almost fell victim to it. Kagero found out her illicit love affair with Oboro from the rival clan and tried to kill him herself. But deep inside Kagero is also in love with Gennosuke and cannot bring herself to do it despite her jealousy. Sadly though for Kagero, she cannot be with anyone since she is a woman fed poison all her life.
The enigmatic character of the group, Kisaragi Saemon. Looks really awesome with that costume with skills of, what seems to me is teleportation
Oops, spoiler. Looks like someone got owned. Another awesome skill of Saemon is his capability to copy other people's faces by literally molding his flexible face. In this scenario, he takes on the face of a defeated Yashamaru, planning to walk with the enemy and strike them behind the back.
Iga clan's elite five:
Yakushiji Tenzen, another one of the coolest in the movie. He reminds me of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII with that long silver hairdo and a long katana blade for a weapon. (though most of the time he used his dual chakram or bladed hoops), Apart from that, his special ability is his immortality. Whatever ravages of battle or time he takes, the parasitic worms in his body takes care of the issue which is also the reason he has lived for more than 200 years yet remaining 30-ish in his looks.
Yashamaru, who we've seen defeated in the earlier screen sleeping with the fishes, ain't half bad. He uses wires like they were extensions of his body, to tie up, strangle and even cut off limbs of his opponents, and was chosen to demonstrate Iga clan's fighting prowess in Edo castle.
Mino Nenki, the ferocious beastman of the Iga clan. I had high hopes for this wolverine guy but due to his lack of intelligence was taken advantage of and was easily charmed and defeated by Kagero.
Ahh, my favorite. The lovely Erika Sawajiri plays the role of Hotarubi, one of Iga's elite five and a close friend to Oboro. Man, her cuteness is just all over the place. Her skill? She summons butterflies that distract the enemy with gold dust. In the anime adaptation, they're supposed to be pink and glowing. Aww.. So kawaii~. LOL
Hotarubi, being the good loyal friend and comrade, saves Oboro with her life as their group was ambushed by Koshiro and Saemon. But that's not the point. She's just so cute even in dying. LOL
Of course, the most unique and strongest of all abilities belong to our doomed couple.
Oboro is born with a special ability called "Piercing Eyes" where a quick stare can mean instant death by the rupturing of a person's internal body structure. Unlucky enough, only Koshiro in the movie had a taste of this gruesome technique.
These pawn ninjas think they've got strength in numbers. Well, not if they're facing Gennosuke whose eyes have the power to slow down time and make him move at lightning speed.
People who have read the manga or the TV series where this movie was adapted from (Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls and Basilisk respectively) might be disappointed since the characters in this one were heavily altered from the original characters. Though many elements in the plot remain in this live-action adaptation, the alteration in the characters and the plot altogether might have mixed things up just to squeeze a far awesome TV and manga series (although I haven't watched or read both but judging from some reviews) into one movie. Nevertheless, if you haven't seen or read both like me, the movie would appear with its own solid plot and storyline, and with a great romance-tragedy story to boot. Definitely is one great must-see for action, especially, ninja fanatics.
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