Shinobi no Mono 1962 AnimEigo   Buy It Now

Back in the 1980’s, the ninja became pop culture thanks to an onslaught of movies like Enter the Ninja and American Ninja. Every kid wanted to be a stealth assassin, and if the films weren’t enough, every carnival and third rate gift shop started selling cheap shuriken and nunchaku. Since then, the concept of the ninja has never been too far away, and while you don’t see them in cinematic form too often these days, video games still help fuel the first with games like Ninja Gaiden. The tradition of the ninja however isn’t necessarily like Hollywood would want you to believe, and Japanese cinema has been more accurate in the life and times of the assassins that once stalked the countryside.

Shinobi no Mono isn’t the type of ninja film that you might be accustomed to seeing. Instead of some modern age tale of revenge, the film is set in the late 1500’s during what is known as Japan’s Sengoku period, and more specifically, the Azuchi Momoyama era. If you’ve played enough video games or watched enough anime, there is one name that should stand out, aside from Oda Nobunaga that is; Goemon Ishikawa. Goemon isn’t just some fanciful name made up for games like Legend of the Mystical Ninja or anime like Lupin, but Goemon was in fact a real person. While there isn’t a great deal of documentation of him, what is known is that Goemon is the Japanese equivalent of Robin Hood and was known to steal from the rich and give to the poor, though Shinobi no Mono shows different reasoning that I will cover later. Goemon also met a horrible fate and was boiled alive, definitely not the way that anyone wants to go out.

Instead of an action packed, slice n’ dice movie, Shinobi no Mono is a dramatic historical piece where we find Goemon Ishikawa (Ichikawa Raizo) who is a rather low ranking ninja, but one that many feel may someday surpass his master, Sandayu Momochi (Yûnosuke Itô). Goemon’s however has been having an affair with the masters wife, Inone (Kyôko Kishida) and their tryst is soon discovered. While the two try to flee, Inone falls into a well and dies but instead of killing his disciple, Sandayu gives Goemon a mission that will lead to his forgiveness if he’s successful. Goemon is to kill Oda Nobunaga (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and there is growing fear that with his growing power, Nobunaga will soon crush the ninja once and for all.

Goemon leaves to follow Nobunaga’s trail, stealing money along the way that he is to turn over to another member of his clan in hopes of financing the ninja even further. Goemon soon become well-known thanks to his clan, though the descriptions of him don’t match the true Goemon. Soon however he forgets about his mission as love takes over his life after he meets a prostitute named Maki (Shiho Fujimura) and buys her freedom, but Sandayu has eyes everywhere and Goemon’s abandonment will soon be dealt with.

The art of ninjitsu plays only a minor role in this movie and instead the primary focus is on the characters themselves. Sandayu for instance, another real figure form Japanese history, is aid to have been the master of three different schools of ninjistu and used disguise to pass himself off as different heads of the schools. It is said that he even went to the extent of pitting the schools against one another and Goemon learns much later that his master may be the one behind even more dastardly crimes and actually set Goemon up to follow this path.

Shinobi no Mono really follows two different paths. Primarily we follow Goemon and his activities after leaving his clan on his mission. Goemon however isn’t the usual, faceless ninja that we usually see in film and instead is painted as a much more human character. While he may be an assassin, he’s also just a man, not some superhuman individual, though the stories surrounding his burglaries become more and more outlandish. Goemon is just like anyone else, and being a ninja, it is shown as being somewhat like being a part of the Mafia. Even though he tries to leave the life behind, it still follows him even when it comes to love and romance. Nobunaga of course is the other person of interest, and while he is known for doing a number of good things for Japan, we see him for what he truly was; a ruthless leader who was more than willing to sacrifice and kill all who stood in his way. Of course, that was usually by employing others to do it for him, but the results are the same.

Being that Shinobi no Mono is from the early 60’s, it isn’t a movie that is the pinnacle of filmmaking or lighting technology. When the scenes are set at night, it can be difficult at times to see exactly what is going on, but I feel it does help to set the mood a little more. Although technology for cinema isn’t what it is today, director Satsuo Yamamoto does a fantastic job at capturing not only the look and feel of Japan but also provides some extraordinary setting and even some battles, the showcase piece being the final confrontation between Goemon’s clan and the forces of Nobunaga. There are some outstanding bits of Japanese architecture that are found within the movie and Yamamoto also went to the extent to make sure that his ninja were as close to being the real thing as possible, the only thing that isn’t seen that I can think of are the ninja walking on their hands to remain silent (a bit of information I obtained from the Japanese show Spring of Trivia.)

The DVD includes plenty of notes not just on the movie itself, but on some of the historical accuracies that are found within it. There are also bios on the characters that appear within Shinobi no Mono because, as you may have determined by now, many of the are in fact based on true figures from Japanese history and folklore that have lived on not just in cinema but anime, kabuki, and virtually every other form of entertainment that you can think of.

Shinobi no Mono may disappoint those expecting epic martial arts battles, gore, excessive violence and just about any of the other things that became a part of American ninja cinema. Keep in mind however what happened when we got our hands on Godzilla and tried to make our version. Shinobi no Mono is more true to the art of ninjistu as well as this particular point of Japanese history than what you will normally find, and if you can come to terms with that, you may find that just like the true life counterparts, Shinobi no Mono will sneak up on you and before you know it, you’re caught up in an interesting and intriguing drama.

-mike-