Around 15 years ago I scored some souvenir movie programs and marketing flyers from Japan, mostly to get ahold of a Ninja III: The Domination piece. While it didn’t present any sort of new imagery or info, I was fascinated by what a Japanese audience thought of this demented American take on their long-established black hooded icons. Experienced largely through VHS releases, the American 80s ninja craze being imported into Japan was certainly a snake-biting-its-own-tail situation that must have produced some real head scratching. Our version of ninja wore the same feudal-era costuming and used the ancient weapons, but in the modern day world. The logic was shuriken vs. machine guns in broad daylight, our version of shadows and stealth had red headbands and family crests the size of superhero chest logos interrupting the black garb. The arsenals were chrome and gold plated and weaponry hailed from whatever country’s traditions were represented at the local martial arts supply store. I imagine the reactions of Japanese fans reared on more strictly historical (and solely Japanese) aesthetics ran from amused to disgusted to confused. But also maybe there were even feelings of validation that American companies would be so interested in Japan’s old idioms.
More light was just shed, when I recently got ahold of a genuine rarity — THE NINJA MOVIES, a book dedicated to 1980s shinobi-cinema generated outside of Japan.
Published in April of 1987 by Tokuma Japan, this 82-page ‘mook’ (square bound deluxe magazine format books) this is a curious assessment of 80s ninja movies from everywhere but Japan, primarily fueled by Canon’s output and Hong Kong’s reactionary efforts.
A variety of writers do full essays and short pieces throughout. I haven’t delved into translation efforts too much yet, but the tone seems to be all over the map. They are complimentary of Sho Kosugi, hyping him as “the first Japanese million-dollar superstar” with pride of this prodigal son out making good in the West.
An up-front section of color pages dedicated to Ninja III: The Domination and American Ninja (getting the most real estate), Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja and 9 Deaths of the Ninja (in that order) is bookended by Ninja Mission — so it’s essentially all the movies by white folks grouped together. International mixed bags like Sakura Killers follow.
Oddly there are omissions from the Shaw Brothers, and I wonder if this merely reflects films not being available on VHS in Japan at the time. Heroes of the East gets a lot of love, having prominent Japanese cast members and getting a theatrical run there, but other giants like Five Element Ninja don’t. The era’s other Japanese export/expat, Yasuaki Kurata, is the second most featured actor after Kosugi, from his work in Hong Kong and other Asian markets.
You Only Live Twice, despite it’s historical significance, only rates a single page, same with The Killer Elite — I chalk this up to them being from previous decades, and having ninja scenes but not being dyed-in-the-wool ninja movies.
There’s a who’s-who section of actors, stunt men, martial arts advisors and choreographers — great to see them throw some flowers to the behind-the-scenes folks. I also love that Lee Van Cleef’s photo is from a Spaghetti Western and not his ninja duds from The Master.
Speaking of behind-the-scenes folks, there are two shots of Mike Stone on the Enter the Ninja set I can’t recall ever seeing elsewhere:
Note on the far right below the localized translation of Eric Van Lustbader’s novel The Ninja. I wonder how that landed with Japanese readers???
Plenty of other obscure and outright unique images throughout, too…
Yuka Mizuno is adorable here in her Heroes of the East ninja gear.
Don’t recall this shinobi archer from 9 Deaths, either. The below shot is a real mystery. It’s part of a collage page for Ninja in the Dragon’s Den but those costumes are clearly from the Kage No Gundan theatrical film, but if that’s the case why are they on a modern rooftop?
The final essays in the book seem dedicated to contrasting the contemporary wave of foreign-to-them ninja movies with the pillars of the massive 1960s Japanese ninja boom, Shinobi no Mono in particular.
I just love this book… compiled by folks from the land of Raizo Ichikawa and Hiroki Matsukata, now weaving-in a global assortment of new ninja, from Lucinda Dickey to Alexander Lo Rei, it must have been an eye-opener to audiences in Japan.
I’d really love to get some anecdotal takes on these imported ninja movies from Japanese fans of the 80s. Was it a love/hate relationship like we had in the States with the Italian Westerns of the 60s? Were they a laugh riot, did they come off similar to how we see the Godfrey Ho/IFD fare, or were they just weird? OR was it awesome to see new American money thrown at an old Japanese tradition, and those foreign mutations now coming home to roost?
Endlessly curious…
Keith J. Rainville — December 2024
