Been absolutely swamped with secret shadow work in the ninja field since the start of the year, no time for new features alas, but I did want to throw flowers at some superb disc releases of late.
CHALLENGE OF THE LADY NINJA
You will not find a deluxe disc release with more personal love put into it by its label than Error 4444‘s package of the 1983 Taiwanese psychotronic romp known as Challenge of the Lady Ninja. Set in the 1930s but without the budget to actually do a period piece so it all just looks like the early 80s, the gorgeous Elsa Yeung plays a kunoichi trained in Japan, returning to China to find her family killed during the Japanese occupation. She vows revenge and recruits a squad of floozies to be female spies and assassins. Their training takes the form of historical ninjutsu fare like bikini mud wrestling and sexy aerobics. Loaded with naughty flesh and flashy fights in equal amounts, plus weird villains galore, this genre bender is the perfect companion to the same crew’s Deadly Life of a Ninja — a personal fave and hopefully coming one day from a label like this.
This is one of those situations where you’re so used to a movie in its cropped, pan-n-scan, fuzzy, inky VHS bootleg form, that finally seeing it wide and pristine feels like an entirely different experience — almost disorienting, its not supposed to look this good… BUT thanks to a painstaking 2K restoration it does now! There’s two commentary tracks that will give you a PHD in genre-bending Taiwanese sleaze, an interview and intro from director Lee Tso-Nam, trailers, multiple language and subtitle options and more.
Error 4444’s deluxe limited edition includes slip covers and reversible inserts with original and newly commissioned art, a 20-page booklet, a two-sided fold out poster and a set of mini lobby cards, stickers, all sorts of maker-stuff. There is just a ton of love for this material here, and we should support such an effort in full!
Get the goodies direct from the label HERE
THE DAGGER OF KAMUI
The oft-forgotten OVA that was NINJA SCROLL before NINJA SCROLL
Stuffing a five-novel epic by Tetsu Yano into a single animated film, this globe-spanning ninja yarn takes many of the conventions set by Shirato Sanpei in the likes of Kamui Gaiden in wild new directions you never see coming. Jiro is a young lone ninja on the run who inherited a dagger housing the location to a vast secret gold treasure. Pursued by Tenkai, a Shogunate onmitsu, and a cast of beautiful and bizarre shinobi, he discovers his Ainu roots, detours to the American old west where gets life lessons from the likes of Geronimo and Mark Twain, then returns to Japan with his wolf sidekick to kill a crap ton of ninja. What starts out as just another hounded teen in a colorful tunic fighting ninja in the treetops with a reverse-gripped short sword (and yes, there are many examples of such) goes intercontinental, winding-up with a nigh-magical super-powered ninja duel amidst a Meiji-era explosive naval battle.
Director Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999, Doomed Megalopolis) really nails the action scenes, and everything else is gorgeous — the Ainu aesthetics being particularly fascinating. The unforgettable score from Ryudo Uzaki is way out of the box. Kadowkawa produced this in 1985, around the same time as equally experimental live action fantasies like Legend of the Eight Samurai and Ninja Wars. Hiroyuki Sanada, star of both of those films, provided the original voice for Jiro too.
The first time I saw this film was on the American VHS release under the title Revenge of the Ninja Warrior, which cut 20+ minutes of run time. Subsequent releases in the 90s returned it to its full 132-minute length, but now newly remastered in 2026, I finally have a full appreciation for its accomplishments. AnimEigo‘s new Blu edition has a new commentary from the director, storyboards for the entire film, art galleries, Japanese and English audio and subtitle options and they’ve published a hardcover art book you can purchase separately. If you haven’t seen this since back in the day, give it the same fresh look I did, and if you’re unfamiliar with(and want more Ninja Scroll) jump on this now.
Dagger of Kamui has always suffered confusion with the outright legendary Shirato Sanpei Kamui manga and anime series, and now we’ve got Ninja Kamui to further cloud the waters. They’re all unrelated, other than everything in the entire ninja genre was just cribbing from Sanpei no matter what decade you’re looking at.
Purchase directly from the label here.
DUEL TO THE DEATH
88 Films absolutely KILLS IT with this Blu of the genre-bending Duel to the Death, one of the most indescribably bizarre treatments of ninja ever. Director Ching Siu-tung (Chinese Ghost Story) starts with an excellent premise — once every decade China and Japan’s two greatest swordsmen meet to decide which bladed tradition is best. What’s different this time around is Japan really wants to win and has sent over an army of super-powered ninja as insurance.
Flying ninja carry a palanquin through treetops, a legion of shinobi on big flying kites battle on the beach, a twenty foot ninja attacks a monk, but it’s not really a giant ninja it breaks apart into a bunch of regular sized ninja, but they’re not just ninja they’re naked lady temptress ninja and this is now a giant run-on sentence and I’m out out of breath what the honest hell is on my TV right now?!?!?!
If you think you’ve seen it all in the likes of Five Element Ninja and Ninja in the Dragon’s Den, Duel to the Death is the ‘hold my beer’ of demented Chinese takes on ninjutsu. But that’s not the sole appeal here. The core story is superb — the Chinese and Japanese champions (Norman Chu and Damian Lau) are both honorable, neither wanting the interloping ninja or Shaolin monks to spoil their perfect encounter, and each is also trapped in their obsession with martial supremacy to the point of ruin. Their brutal and beautiful final showdown is one of the most impressive displays of arial sword choreography ever filmed, absolutely grisly as they shred each other to the point of no return.
This film should be a universally-known classic, it should be legendary, it should be recognized as the birth of the talent that went on to choreograph Crouching Tiger, Hero and the like decades later. Its reputation suffers, however, from some of the goofiest ninja gags of all time. Judge for yourself, this movie has never looked or sounded better, and a wealth of extras make this disc a no-brainer for your library.
A big ninja project I worked on last year has cleared some legal hurdles and is approaching a release window, so I hope to be announcing that sooner than later.
And I should have a big new offering in the works for the fall if things keep moving as they are now, all I can say is stay tuned, it’ll be worth it.
Stay safe and sane out there everybody!
Keith J. Rainville — April 2026