Ninja commandos inflicted some pretty serious damage during Japan’s feudal age, but the damage they’ve done to home video shopers’ wallets in the modern age is probably worse. Video packaging subterfuge — throwing the word NINJA on any non-shinobi-oriented film … Continued
We finally have the original Cannon Films Sho Kosugi ‘ninja trilogy’ on good home video formats! Sure, its a couple decades later than it should have happened, and at a time when the public is giving up physical media in droves, … Continued
A review of Samurai Reincarnation (Makai Tensho — 1981) by guest columnist Tenebrous Kate __________________________________________ EDITOR’S NOTE: While Kinji Fukasaku’s version of this surreal epic, starring Sonny Chiba, Kenji Sawada, Akiko Kana, and Hiroyuki Sanada isn’t an outright ninja movie, between Chiba’s shinobi-pedigreed … Continued
Let’s all help some readers ID some great old newspaper and magazine clippings: Ryan Jones runs a great tumblr called Oldtype/Newtype — archiving old issues of Newtype magazine, and ran across this article from September of 1987. Neither of us … Continued
Sonny Chiba made his American convention debut the last weekend in March at a show called Monsterpalooza in Burbank, CA. This once intimate, now massive, gathering of visual effects artists and Monster Kids is known for making history with guests … Continued
SEVENTEEN NINJA (JUSHICHININ NO NINJA, 1963) is the typical 60’s Japanese boom film in that: 1.) It’s GREAT. 2.) It’s noir-as-hell — painted in gorgeous chiaroscuro cinematography. 3.) It’s also noir-as-hell because (from the gospel of James Ellroy) pretty much everybody in it is fucked. And… … Continued
Scored this odd publicity still, which is not in the usual press kits I’ve found from Enter the Ninja. It’s kind of a dingy, soft pic that may have been left on the cutting room floor somewhere. But while the quality is … Continued
Dateline: Hollywood, CA — 9-14-2014 It’s not often I talk ninja cartoons with college educators, but today was the exception. Jonathan M. Hall, a Japanese film scholar from Pomona College screened three episodes of Shirato Sanpei shinobi TV treasures at the … Continued
In the face of the death of physical media, DVD and Bluray packaging continues to be, let’s say… inventive… in its methods of persuasion. Hey, deception was a legit ninja skill, right? As ninja movie fans we’ve all been duped … Continued
If you’re a dinosaur like me, then you still dig physical media and package art when it comes to your video library. To that end, I’m a regular customer of the Warner Archive DVD-On Demand service. Tons of great titles, … Continued