Egyptian poster for NINJA IN THE USA
Amazing Arabic market poster for Alexander Lo-Rei’s Ninja in the USA. Wow… I mean, WOW!
Amazing Arabic market poster for Alexander Lo-Rei’s Ninja in the USA. Wow… I mean, WOW!
So-called “Motion Comics” released on DVD and partially-animated graphic novels adapted for tablet devices are familiar now, but go back a few decades and experiments in using still art in moving media are less frequent, and with mixed results at … Continued
If you’ve missed the evolution of the ninja sword discussions day-by-day, here’s an easier way to read them all in order: Part 1.) Origins of the 80s Ninja-To – in which we looked at the earliest American magazine ads we … Continued
One thing you hear over and over from the anti-‘Ninja-To’-sword-haters-club is the blade is “pure Hollywood.” Before this recent spat of research and over-scrutinizing swords in old movies, I used to argue against that notion; the Japanese studios got ninja … Continued
No major theme today, but I wanted to throw some notes out there before a busy weekend. I’ll start with a rather strange score from LA’s Chinatown: Found this statue/plaque/display thing at a shop in the Dynasty Market complex, which … Continued
Kaiketsu Kurozukin (The Black Hood) is one of Japan’s most enduring hooded hero properties, with cinematic origins in the silent era and a retooling about once a decade since. We did a brief overview of the property a while back here, with … Continued
The Revenge of the Ninja OST is one of the finest pieces of action movie synth released in the 80s, if not the best. Nothing will inspire your fog-shrouded weapons chest power-up montage like the soaring Asian-y keyboards of prolific … Continued
Shinobi-esque jobbers in LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY Ninja, and ninja-like, costuming affords a tremendous advantage to action directors – you can hide the stuntmen very easily. How many times per picture can an anonymous hooded fight double get killed? A … Continued
Takao Saito‘s rather fun manga Kage Gari was turned into a veeeery grim, nigh-emo film in 1972. Whereas the trio of vengeful “Shadow Hunters” in the books are sort of a jaunty, anti-shinobi three musketeers, in the film they are … Continued
Sangre Yakuza is an excellent Spanish-language blog full of Japanese gang-war movie posters, topless sukebans, tattoo’d girls in bondage (like the above kunoichi-esque bandit about to get abused), and karate-kickin’ honeys. And lo-and-behold some sword-slinging shinobi once in a while… There’s … Continued