Ten Shimoyama’s Shinobi, with its story of two warring ninja clans in the early days of the Tokugawa era (1600-1867), has the structure of a game movie, but is several cuts above the genre run (as well as being based on, not a game, but fiction by Yamada Futaro). A king-of-all-media type who has directed everything from TV dramas to a theme part attraction, Shimoyama aspires to the epic, mythic quality of Zhang Yimou’s Hero or Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - and attains it surprisingly often. I say “surprisingly” because most Japanese films in this genre settle for surface flash and dazzle. Shimoyama takes his material a bit more seriously.
Also, CG supervisor Hayashi Hiroyuki puts the effects in the service of the story and characters, not simply for eye-popping display. Some are dazzling, as when the hero, Gennosuke (Odagiri Joe), uses superhuman powers of concentration to see every drop tumbling over a waterfall in ultra-vivid slow motion. Or as when the heroine, Oboro (Nakama Yukie) pierces a foe with her glance and shorts out his synapses, in a sequence that resembles an animated medical drawing in 3-D.
These and other feats derive from the ninjas’ training and abilities, not simply cartoon-like super-powers. Also, they defeat each other more with their smarts and skills than brute supernatural force.
Nakama Yukie, a TV drama queen whose film work has been mostly on the light comic side (G@me,Trick), reveals a new dynamism and sensuality. She never abandons her femininity, even as a fiery warrior. Conversely, she never loses her ninja spirit, even as a woman in love.
She plays Oboro, a granddaughter of Ogen (Lily), the matriarch of the Iga clan. Early in the story, she meets and falls in love with Gennosuke, the son of Danjo Koga (Terada Minoru), the leader of the Koga clan. Living in the remote mountains, these two clans have perfected the arts of ninjutsu or “shinobi” for centuries. They are also ancestral rivals and, under the order of Hattori Hanzo (Matsushige Yutaka), chief ninja to Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, are forbidden to exchange secret techniques - not that they would anyway.
Seeking to consolidate Tokugawa rule - and seeing the two clans as a threat to it, a powerful Tendai priest and Tokugawa advisor, Nankobo Tenkai (Ishibashi Renji) schemes to set them against each other. He commands the two clans to each choose five champions who will battle to the death in a tournament. The clan of the survivor will be elevated in rank and power.
Both Oboro and Gennosuke are selected as champions, but Gennosuke doubts the shogunate’s good intentions. When his comrades begins to fall, however, he is forced into action.
The ten contestants in this ultimate death match are manga-esque types, such as Saemon Kisaragi (Kinoshita Hoka) of the Kogas, who can change faces without an operation, and Yashamaru (Sakaguchi Taku) of the Igas, who is the ninja equivalent of the Incredibles’ Elastigirl.
The most memorable, however, are ones with the closest relationships to the two principals, including Kagero (Kurotani Tomoka), who is poison to her enemies, but sweet on Gennosuke, and Tenzan Yakushi (Shiina Kippei), a silver-haired ninja master who knows all and sees all, including the secrets of Oboro’s conflicted heart.
Shinobi also has much to offer beyond the usual wirework leaps and bounds. Action director Shimomura Yuji has created new variations on familiar ninja stunts that will have hard-core genre fans doing “did I really see that?” takes.
Shinobi ends, after all the mayhem, with a poignant moment of remembrance and hope. Even super ninjas may not be forever - but love endures.