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To defend light & peace, the Ninja Shadow Clan was founded
centuries ago, dressed in armour & wielding swords made out of invincible
steel, a metal from a meteorite. Now (which is sometime in the
20th century), they are employed by Lord Togo (Masahiko Tsugawa) to
fight his rival clans, that of Lord Rokkaku (Toru Kazama) & the
Kyogoku Clan. To wield this war, 3 young ninjas are chosen, Akakage
(Hiroyuki Nakano), clumsy Aokage (Jun Murakami) & lovely Asuka
(Kumiko Aso), & while the attack on Rokkaku-castle goes quite
alright despite many a trap & even a rival ninja clan having picked
the same night for attack, the attack on Kyogoku castle ends in desaster
as our 3 heroes did not only fail to fulfill their mission - find out
about the clan's new secret weapon - but also Asuka is killed in the
line of duty. At Asuka's grave, Akakage & Aokage, who were both in
love with her but the ninja code would forbid a reltionship, start a
fight that ends in Aokage quitting the Shadow Ninjas. Time didn't
stand still within the Kyogoku-clan either, as their leader is killed,
leaving responsibilities in the hands of his young daughter Koto (Megumi
Okina), who is strongly opposed by her Lord Chamberlain, who has longh
planned to take over the clan. Akakage soon gains Lady Koto's trust
though in his other identity as Sanshiro Kamioke, & becomes her
bodyguard, while Aokage hooks up with a masseuse who is also a
professional thief, & by coincidence this duo & Akakage choose
the same night to break into Kyogoku castle again - Akakage for the
weapon that turns out to be a hoax, Aokage & the masseuse for the
castle's treasures. On his escape, Aklakage is wounded though & can
only make a getaway with the help of Aokage & the girl. A short
time later, Akakage is ordered to kill Lady Koto, instead though -
having since fallen for her - ends up saving her from the Lord
Chamberlain's assassins. In the end, he teams up with Aokage again,
& together with Lady Koto & her soldiers they fight & beat
the Lord Chamberlain, & with Lady Koto again in power, peace is
finally made between her & her rivals ... On the plus
side, the movie does not take itself too seriously, being meant more as
a parody, & at the same time it boasts a very slick, action-oriented
direction. This however is no excuse for the film's very episodic
structure which more resembles a video-game, where the characters have
to fight adversaries with different techniques & survive all kinds
of fiendish traps (& most of the traps in this movie do look like
directly lifted from a game). The framing story meanwhile is incredibly
feeble but at the same time ridiculously complicated, with many of the
characters introduced into the story way too late (like Lady Koto) or
thrown out of it way too early (like Asuka), & telling little above
cliché-level (e.g. 2 ninjas being in love with the same girl but the
ninja code forbids the relationship, a ninja falling in love with the
enemy but being forced to kill her). |
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