Ninja in the USA
Ninja in the USA is a fine example of the muscle-bound Alexander Lou‘s kung-fu-ninjutsu, and is notable for his couture-esque golden chain mail costume. There’s a nice French-language page dedicated to it here.
Ninja Attack San Francisco!
Alright San Franciscans, get your asses on down to Viz Cinema Saturday for a little shinobi seminar. From the release: Now you see them, now you don’t! The ninja – Japan’s famed shadow warriors of legend – are the subject … Continued
Another generic 80’s ninja
Manufacturer: UNKNOWN Date of Production: UNKNOWN Lone Marking: “CHINA” Gotta think he came with a few gold-colored plastic weapons of ludicrous design and scale, and possibly a cloth cape, plastic parachute or some other type of trendy 80’s mode of … Continued
Shinobi blogs abound!
Want to congratulate Wildgrounds for what turned out to be a J-Cinema blogathon of extraordinary magnitude! Couple of good ninja bits in the mix, some great poster art and phenomenal articles covering a wide array of Japanese cinema past and … Continued
9 Essentials of 60s B&W Shinobi Cinema
Part of Wildgrounds’ 2010 Japanese Cinema Blogathon The first cinema-based ‘Ninja Craze’ in Japan is pretty well defined by the decade in which it took place – the 1960s. Yes, there were enormously popular manga, highly rated anime on TV, … Continued
Prepare to be Blog-a-thon-ed upon…
VN is happy to join Japanese cinema bloggers from all over the globe November 3rd through the 10th for Wildground’s 2010 Blogathon. Yeah, that’s a word nowadays. Take that English! I’m finalizing an epic length look at essential black and … Continued
Oh ALIEN VS. NINJA, I knew you wouldn’t let me down…
I’m delighted – DEE-LIGHTED – to wrap up Monsters and Masks Month 2010 with an early review of Sushi Typhoon’s Alien vs. Ninja from action auteurs Seiji Chiba and Yuji Shimomura. This thing’s been a big hit at film festivals the … Continued
Ancient Astronauts and Stone Age Samurai in ZIPANG (part 2)
Alright, so Japan’s burliest sword goon and the cutest pistol-packin’ bounty huntress EVER have been whisked away to the magical land of gold along with a hundred ninja, their spy master, a circus troop and a lunatic cave man. Time … Continued
Ancient Astronauts and Stone Age Samurai in ZIPANG (part 1)
Colorful, crazy. Ambitious as hell. All over the place. Fun. Frustrating… All describe Kaizo Hayashi‘s 1990 epic Zipang, a positively wacked-out genre bending inter-dimensional adventure littered with exotic warriors and fantastic costumes. This thing is either hitting on every beat … Continued
JAGUMA in depth
The hit of last year’s Monsters and Masks Month was the aging collection of press stills from the 1961 Toei programmer Strike of the Jaguma (Kaiju Jaguma no Moshu). So this year I thought we’d take an in-depth look at the … Continued