During the early Tokugawa era, two ninja clans from two different hidden villages, Iga and Koga, in the remote mountains of Japan are commanded by the Lord of the Lords to participate in the final battle which will determine the supreme village. These villages consist of so-called Shinobi, warriors born only to fight with skills of superhuman levels. They have been living in peace for a great number of years, but now the Lord of the Lords wants to rid the land of these dangerous Shinobi, for him to be able to dominate it, and so, he secretly wants this battle so that the Shinobi will finish each other off. Both clans have to submit the names of their five greatest warriors, those who will do battle, and the clan who wins will be the one to choose the next Shogun. Gennosuke and Oboro, both from different clans fall in love with each other, but are also chosen to lead their clans in the war against the other clan. Will their love bring peace instead of bloodshed or will they have to be forced to fight one another in the coming war?
Shinobi is a somewhat sensational Japanese film that has some truly beautiful scenery and some awesome fight scenes to offer. All in all, it feels like a mix between a great love story, watching an anime film with human characters, playing a videogame that brings the thoughts to Final Fantasy etc, and watching a stunning martial arts film with a lot of fantasy elements baked into it. It was long ago since I saw such an exciting and beautiful Asian movie, so Shinobi really came as a pleasant surprise. For a while it had some of the flying-through-the-air type of things in it, which brings your thoughts to movies such as Croushing Tiger, Hidden Dragon and similar stuff, although it felt different here, and what looked like it would become a drag actually never became a drag, and that I was truly thankful for since we've seen that type of stuff way too many times by now.
So yeah, Shinobi's different, and what I said before about that it feels like watching an anime movie at times, as well as it has all this videogame type of stuff in it as well were some cool additions that made the movie deliver something extra. Except for that, Shinobi features a love story, but even though it's there, hanging over your head the movie throughout, it never really feels like a proper love story, and the actual romance is just a very small piece of a much bigger cake. I liked the fact that they used a love story, but that at the same time it never took away focus from all the other things the movie had to offer. And trust me, it had a lot to offer.
 
We are first introduced to Gennosuke and Oboro, one man and one woman, one from the Iga clan and one from the Koga clan, who one day meet by a river and fall in love. They are so-called Shinobi, which are ninja warriors with superpowers, born to fight. Although their clans have lived peacefully for quite some time, the old hate is still there, so it's a bit like Romeo & Juliet if you know what I mean. Now, the Lord of the Lords wants total domination of Japan, but since the Shinobi can't really be defeated, he must find some way to get rid of them. So he order each ninja village to pick out five of their best fighters who will do battle against one another. And the village that wins the whole thing will get to choose the next Shogun. Of course Gennosuke and Oboro are picked, and not only to fight, but to both lead their clan as well, something that they don't want to do at first, but later have to do anyway.
Since all the Shinobi just serves one purpose that is to fight, they of course want nothing more than to just fight, so they are all very eager to participate in this final battle, clan versus clan. Gennosuke though is determined to find out the Lords real intentions to why he wanted the Shinobi to fight, so he heads for the Sumpu Castle together with the four other chosen ones from the Koga clan. The Iga clan finds out about this, which leads to that they follow the Koga clan into the forest on the way to the Sumpu Castle, and so the battle begins. But how it ends, I won't tell ya.
Shinobi has a lot of things going for it, it's played out in past time which gives it a certain feel and has all these great characters with different amazing skills. Now, don't think of this like a videogame title like Tekken or whatever because it's really not, even though it may sound like it. It's much more than that and has a helluva lot more to offer except hinting at different videogames. The story itself feels genuine and is easy to get into, while some of the fight sequences look truly amazing, and it was quite hard not getting excited at times when watched it. Although, it's not a shallow fighting film either, and even if it has its fair share of battles, it sure has a lot of other things to offer as well. The scenery is beyond beautiful at times, and the directing is absolutely brilliant. It has stuff in common with a lot of other martial arts films, played out in past time, but at the same time, it separates itself from them as well. My only complaint has to be that the character development wasn't that great, and we never really get to know the characters at all, something that makes it harder to feel anything for them. But other than that, it's pretty awesome.
Shinobi is a truly beautiful movie, with a solid story, amazing scenery, cool characters, and some brilliant fighting scenes. If you're into Asian Cinema, not just only horror, you should give this one a shot. Pretty spectacular and definitely highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Shinobi
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Ten Shimoyama
WRITING CREDITS: Kenya Hirata, Futaro Yamada
GENRE: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
CAST: Yukie Nakama, Jô Odagiri, Tomoka Kurotani
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 101 min
RATING: 9/10
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade Website/IMDB Click here
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade Trailer Click here
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