Movie Review- Shinobi: Heart Under Blade

Take 1 parts political intrigue, 2 parts romance and 3 parts fantasy Ninja action with mystical powers and what do you get? Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, that's what. This 2005 movie, the latest in many adaptations of the novel Koga Ninpocho by the author Futaro Yamada, avoids the common pitfall of many epic fantasy novel-to-movie adaptations- that of being overly densely plotted and impossible to follow without prior knowledge of the original work- by stripping down the story to it's bare essentials.

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is set in the early days of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu's rule and tells the story of 2 Ninja clans, the Iga and Kouga. These 2 clans have been at war for 400 years, for reasons that nobody's quite sure of anymore. Certainly not the movies heroes, Gennosuke (Joe Odagiri) and Oboro (Yukie Nakama)- the lovers of this piece. Oddly enough, for a movie that's billed as a romance, surprisingly little screen time is given to developing the lovers' relationship. Perhaps the director thought that a few shots of the beautiful couple (and indeed, the 2 lead actors are extremely beautiful) would be enough to convince audience's of the gorgeousness of their love. It didn't work for me, though. I couldn't empathise with their Romeo and Juliet romance without even knowing how or why the 2, ostensibly enemies, fell in love (we get to see their first meeting at the beginning of the movie, but it stops just as the 2 see each other for the first time).

It's a good thing, then, that the 2 other parts of this movie work better. Said political intrigue revolves around a plot by the Shogun to get rid of the 2 clans, who he (perhaps rightfully, it is implied) sees as dangerous remnants of the age of conflict that he just ended by unifying the country. Basically, both clans are told to choose 5 warriors to enter into combat with each other. The outcome of this battle is meant to determine the succession of the Shogun. It's quite an obviously transparent plot to have the clans kill off their most powerful members, but the Ninja are either too bloodthirsty or duty-bound to care (except for Gennosuke, who argues against more bloodshed).

Of course, Gennosuke and Oboro are part of the chosen 5 from each of their clans. In fact, both of them ascend to the post of clan leader after, in a brief aside scene, their predecessors- who also appear to have been starc-crossed lovers- kill each other. A good part of the rest of the movie is taken up by a series of spectacular Ninja battles between the superpowered combatants. This is one of the highlights of the film as each character has an unique and inventive power. The character Yashamaru (played by the awesome Tak Sakaguchi of Versus fame), whose slying sleeves enable him to grab onto people and places and fight Spider-Man style, was particularly cool. Even the pacifist Gennosuke displays his incredible powers in one brief scene. To the movie's credit, the action doesn't overpower the main theme of the movie- embodied by Gennosuke's struggle to overcome the clans' bloody past and find a solution to enable them to survive into the future.

Despite enjoying the movie quite a bit, I still felt a bit disappointed at the end. The movie's good, but not great. What holds it back is a curious lack of ambition- it does everything solidly, but attempts nothing beyond that. A more wordy script, more powerful love scenes, more characterisations for the supporting characters- any one of these things could have pushed the movie to a higher level. As it is, it's still a worthwhile movie- just don't expect too much and you will be entertained.