Things we love: bad and misleading VHS art
SHINSO: SHINOBI NO MONO Thai press stills
More of the amazing hand-tinted, one-of-a-kind press photos from Thai cinemas, this time to the franchise prequel/reboot Shinso Shinobi no mono, sadly Raizo Ichikawa‘s last time under the hood. These individually colored photos are on a different paper stock than … Continued
More shadowy marketing
Here’s a vintage theater flyer sport an ad on the back for the 1979/1980 Eichi Kudo strangeness Kage no Gundan: Hattori Hanzo. I’d have been more convinced to see this film by this flyer image than I would have been by … Continued
OCTAGON press stills
Bought some press glossies from The Octagon blind, with the promise there was a lot of ‘the big red and blue ninja guy’ in them. SCORE! Richard Norton‘s “Kyo the Enforcer” was perhaps my single favorite ninja in an 80s … Continued
Masked swordsmen from the 1920s
This 1926 promotional flyer from the Nishiki-za movie theater in Kobe, Japan features some sweet hooded misadventure! From the text, this Nikkatsu production was called Teru Hi Kumoru Hi: Zenpen, (roughly Sunny Day, Cloudy Day: Chapter 1) based on a novel by Kurama … Continued
Happy 3rd Birthday to US!
Wow, VN’s big year three anniversary! I feel inclined to do the same thing we do every year, and revisit our first (and stil one of my favorite) posts, so enjoy: AKAI KAGEBOSHI – the other ‘red shadow’ (originally published … Continued
VN REVISITED – Sengoku Yaro (Warring Clans)
(originally published June 2009) Sword of Doom and Kiru! maestro Okamoto Kihachi‘s 1963 ninja classic Sengoku Yaro is a real blast – a superb mix of comedy and combat peppered with some rather outré fight scenes, a jazzy score by Masaru Sato that keeps you … Continued
New DEAD RINGO trailer
Check out the latest from Eddie Mort! And see a pile of imagery at the Dead Ringo tumblr.
JIRAIYA THE BRAVE: Ninja and toad magic in the roaring 20s
This 1921 silent movie might just be the first time the legend of Jiraiya was put on film. It could also well-be the first time giant toad and snake magic with special effects transformations appeared on screen, four decades before … Continued
Give us your TOP 5
Had a reader on the VN Facebook page (have you ‘Liked’ us? If not, SHAME!) post a great question: “If you had to distill your favorite ninja films into a grievously unfair list of only 5, what would they be?” … Continued