I was honored to do a guest spot on the HEROES THREE Podcast this week. These seven year vets covering all things martial arts cinema and Hong Kong action took a step out of their usual comfort zone this summer … Continued
At over 50 pages and even more titles (with more to come on the to-be-entered stack), loaded with visuals and recommendations, here’s your singular resource on Japanese ninja movies and TV from the silent era to the booms of the … Continued
I just can’t stop rescuing these from dealers in Thailand… And why not? I love hand-tinted antique photos, and these are from my favorite ninja film ever (and the one I’ve written about the most on this site, too). Some … Continued
I have three antique sepia-toned photos from Japan featuring ninja and hooded heroes that neither I nor the sellers I liberated them from can identify. Anyone who helps me out will get a giant toad’s worth of gratitude from both … Continued
I don’t believe all remakes suck. The ’78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Hammer’s 60’s reimaginings of the Universal monster films of 30 years previous, the Soderberg version of Solaris… all brought something new to the table and were worthy … Continued
CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK continues with some miscellaneous awesomeness centered on the the conflict between Juzo (Ryutaro Otomo) and Gohei (Minoru Ohki). As I’ve mentioned previously, this initially plays out like the old Sam the Sheepdog vs. Ralph the Wolf … Continued
While the overt conflict of Castle of Owls may be the wolf-vs-sheepdog of Juzo and Gohei, there is a deeper interior conflict in both men played out by their relationships to women, all of whom are deadly female ninja themselves. … Continued
The Japanese DVD of Castle of Owls has a modest gallery of B&W set-shot publicity stills: CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK continues with an in depth look at the ninja women of the film, and a side-by-side comparison of the photography of … Continued
Hey, that’s the rest of the image from the home-page header! Yep, yer right. It’s also perhaps the most striking image of Ryutaro Otomo from Toho’s publicity shoots. Those spike shuriken are just awesome. Otomo’s stern, strong eyes lend a … Continued
Inspired by Gobi’s awesome sketch from this post, I’ve declared this CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK at Vintage Ninja! I’m not saying the 1963 Ryutaro Otomo action-drama is the best ninja movie ever made, but damn if it isn’t my absolute … Continued