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1 – Film and TV

THE LAST NINJA is the last piece of the puzzle…
22 Jan 2018

THE LAST NINJA is the last piece of the puzzle…

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV | 0

What’s part Die Hard, part Kung-Fu, part Batman and obscure as hell for no logical reason? It is the 1983 made-for-TV predecessor to The Master, arguably one of if not the best 80’s American ninja craze films made, but virtually un-recognized, … Continued

Anthony Spinner, Ed Spielman, Mike Stone, The Last Ninja, The Master
Talking MAGIC SERPENT on “Nerd Lunch”
4 Dec 2017

Talking MAGIC SERPENT on “Nerd Lunch”

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV | 0

I take any chance I can get to turn folks on to the ninja / kaiju genre-bender Magic Serpent (Kairyu Daikessen, aka Dragon Showdown and many other retitles), so when the invite came from Paxton and Jeeg to co-chair the … Continued

Hiroki Matsukata, Magic Serpent, Ryutaro Otomo, toad magic
Check out this massive ninja dump!
25 Aug 2017

Check out this massive ninja dump!

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV | 0

Working two concurrent jobs plus helping friends with a wedding has slain my ninja-time like never before, friends. Apologies for the lack of updates. In times like these, I find it best to change clear the backlog folders of various … Continued

50 years of the 00-Shadow
12 Jun 2017

50 years of the 00-Shadow

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV, 3 - Toys and Merch | 2

The Samurai, starting in 1964, may have been Japan’s first shinobi export to the English-speaking world, but that phenom was contained strictly to Australia. So for the rest of us, the first ninja we saw on any screen were flanking … Continued

James Bond, Masaaki Hatsumi, Tetsuro Tanba, You Only Live Twice
New from Kosugi and Firstenberg
7 May 2017

New from Kosugi and Firstenberg

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV, 2 - Books and Manga, 6 - History and Martial Arts | 0

Sho Kosugi returns to home video with a series of training DVDs via Masters Magazine! An expansion on his 1980’s VHS release Master Class, The Art of Hollywood Ninja Action Film Making is a five part ‘course’ on ninja-centric choreography and … Continued

Cannon Films, Sam Fistenberg, Sho Kosugi
Hey SHADOW HUNTERS, lighten up a bit, will ya…
8 Apr 2017

Hey SHADOW HUNTERS, lighten up a bit, will ya…

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV, 2 - Books and Manga | 0

If you were a young devourer of manga and anime in the 1980s, creator Takao Saito will always be the man who gave us Golgo 13. However in the mid-2000s the good folk at Animeigo released two early 70s live action … Continued

Kage Gari, Shadow Hunters, Takao Saito
Kosugi and Van Cleef in Japan
20 Feb 2017

Kosugi and Van Cleef in Japan

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV, 5 - Art and Advertising | 0

One of the great head-scratchers of the 80s American ninja boom was the NBC TV series The Master, created by Michael Sloan but driven by the one-man craze-catalyst that was Sho Kosugi. On one hand its very existence spoke to the … Continued

Lee Van Cleef, Sho Kosugi, The Master
Wait… WHO rented Cannon their house?
31 Jan 2017

Wait… WHO rented Cannon their house?

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV, 5 - Art and Advertising | 0

If you weren’t able to make the Revenge of the Ninja CD signing event in Januar,y the score and exclusive event print are now available via mail order, all signed by ROTN director Sam Firstenberg, stunt coordinator and silver-masked ninja … Continued

REVENGE OF THE NINJA, Sam Firstenberg, Sho Kosugi, Steve Lambert
RIP, the first ninja I ever knew…
30 Jan 2017

RIP, the first ninja I ever knew…

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV | 0

   We lost Japanese screen legend Hiroki Matsukata this week. The son of jidai-geki’s first Jubei Yagyu icon Jushiro Konoe, he was pretty much born to play a ninja on screen, with starring roles under the black hood in such … Continued

Amber Skowronski, Hiroki Matsukata
SHINOBI-NO-MONO: The Lost Essential?
5 Dec 2016

SHINOBI-NO-MONO: The Lost Essential?

by Keith Rainville | posted in: 1 - Film and TV | 0

This week I was invited to be a guest on the NERD LUNCH podcast’s annual “Ninja Day” show. The usual panel of three hosts was well schooled in American ninja movies, but had never seen SHINOBI-NO-MONO, the ‘ground zero’ film of … Continued

Raizo Ichikawa, Shinobi no Mono

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Welcome to VINTAGE NINJA — dedicated to old ninja movies from Japan’s 60s boom to the 80s American exploitation craze and beyond, with a ton of vintage toys, comics, and sharp pointy stuff thrown in for good measure.

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