African movie posters
Some of the ninja-centric paintings from Ghana ‘movie theaters’ that were on display at last year’s Movie Mojo shows at Chicago gallery Primitive:
Vintage Toei studio lot prop room pics!
I have a program from the 1981 Toei Studios version of Baian the Assassin that features a 2-page spread on the backlot prop room. The photos are frustratingly small, but I’ve done my best to blow them up for what … Continued
Kick-ass pressbook stills of Sonny Chiba’s Jubei in MAKAI TENSHO
There are plenty of versions of Makai Tensho (aka Samurai Resurrection, Samurai Reincanation, and more), but my absolute fave adaptation is the 1981 Kinji Fukusaku-directed Kadowkawa effects epic. Spanning the decades and various actors, Jubei Yagyu has been portrayed as … Continued
Euro lobby cards for 9 DEATHS
European (and other French-language market) lobby cards for Sho Kosugi‘s 9 Deaths of the Ninja, known abroad as American Ninja (where American Ninja was known as American Warrior). The 1984-85 span was a trying one for the ninja craze. Sho … Continued
SUPER NINJAS press stills
The garish and gory Shaw Bros. shinobi slaughterhouse Five Element Ninjas (aka Chinese Super Ninjas or in this case just Super Ninjas) is a familiar to readers of this site – we spent a week on the film a while … Continued
So where do YOU store your ninja wares?
Y’know what’s awesome about publishing this site? Having readers that go by monikers like “The Silent Cutter.” Check out this video he sent of some mat cutting, but mostly be like me – JEALOUS AS FUCK – of the fantastic … Continued
ENTER THE NINJA press kit
Cannon’s 1981 press kit for Enter the Ninja featured newspaper-ready B&W ad mats and a 30-page document heralding, and I quote: …the first Western film to deal solely with the mysterious and elusive art of Ninjutsu. It will set the … Continued
Re-enter ENTER THE NINJA
(REVISED) There’s almost 30 years spanning the two home video releases of the movie you see above. THREE DECADES! Just as we’re facing the death of DVD and brick-and-mortar video retail in general, we finally have Enter the Ninja commercially … Continued
The Credits that Launched a Craze
Slammed as I’ve been, I just now got around to watching the MGM DVD-On-Demand of Enter the Ninja. Full review and some other ETN bonuses going up later this week, but in the meantime let’s just take a moment to … Continued