Once in a (sadly, increasingly seldom) while, an old ninja movie never before available will surface out of Japan, and man do we have a shiny new toy to play with this month!!! Daiei’s Koga no Misshi — coined “Wrath … Continued
I have great appreciation for a new worthy cause to wipe out some trees, and as an author, book designer and marketing pro myself, These Fists Break Bricks hits me in all three of my hearts! For starters, this 330+ … Continued
So here you are, thinking you’ve seen and collected it all, and between decades of official releases, budget box sets, bootlegs and streaming rips, you’ve nigh-completed the finite genre that is the 80’s ninja film. Then labels like AGFA and … Continued
At over 50 pages and even more titles (with more to come on the to-be-entered stack), loaded with visuals and recommendations, here’s your singular resource on Japanese ninja movies and TV from the silent era to the booms of the … Continued
“Aloha friends, another beautiful day in paradise.” It’s how Mike Stone begins every post on Facebook from his home in the Philippines, where he’s currently working with a writer on an extensive biography of his storied life and career(s). He’s … Continued
Today marks the 12th anniversary of VN‘s first ever post, and coincidentally I was 12 when the 1980s ninja craze more or less ‘officially’ kicked off with the release of Enter the Ninja in 1981. I bring up Enter because … Continued
It is the summer of 1984, and I am baffled. Hiroyuki ‘Henry’ Sanada has been with me through every phase of my ninja fandom. Desperately hungry for ANYTHING ninja in the mid-80s and as pasted to HBO as any other … Continued
The advent of the 80s ninja craze saw all sorts of established martial artists from the 1970s transition from various arts to the explosively profitable and high profile modern ninjutsu of both dojo and screen — Sho Kosugi and Mike … Continued
If there’s one speck of light in the dark months of the pandemic shutdown, it’s been some great quarantine reading for fans of Cannon Films, and that continues with Austin Trunick‘s The Cannon Film Guide Volume 1: 1980—1984. After an … Continued
Years in the compiling, months in layout, and updated a few times now via feedback from fans around the globe — VN‘s now famed timeline has been updated again with some corrections, additions and newly discovered goodies. From the 1960s … Continued