Three Short Seiji Chiba Reviews

Rogue Ninja (2009, d: Seiji Chiba) – original title: Nukenin – C: Mika Hijii, Masayuki Izumi, Kentarô Shimazu.

 

The Iga ninja clan has more than its share of problems. Their rivals, the Koga clan, have allied themselves with the ambitious Nobunaga Oda and are threatening the Iga’s existence. Moreover, the current leadership has implemented a strict regime over its ninja, executing them for the slightest infraction. Finally, certain unknown assassins, probably within the clan itself, are murdering its strongest members one by one.

Ukagami (Mika Hijii) is a kunoichi is one of the strongest ninja in the clan, although she naturally feels looked down upon for being a woman. Compounding that is the fact that her immediate superior is not only more ambitious than the general leadership of the clan, but he’s a psycho rapist-woman murderer on the side, too. To make things worse, he has set his sights on Ukagami. Ukagami and her partner, Kamari, will find themselves caught between the varying internal conflicts that threaten to destroy the Iga from within.

Director Seiji Chiba can be depended upon to deliver in the martial arts action, which he does quite handily. Takahito Ôuchi, who also choreographed the Rurouni Kenshin films, handles the fight choreography here and delivers some solid fight sequences. The best scenes, unfortunately, are the first two fights, including Mika’s introductory scene against some Koga ninja. The other fights are good, but not as good as the openers. Kudos to Chiba for hiring Mika Hijii (whom Western viewers may recognize as Scott Adkins girlfriend/wife in the Isaac Florentine Ninja movies) on account of her martial skills and physicality and not her kawai factor or willingness to disrobe.

As most martial arts films coming out of Japan these days are low-budget affairs, you can expect this one to bear all the hallmarks of such a production: forest setting, lots of talking, limited action sequences, short running time. This movie has all of that. The movie feels like it grinds to a halt whenever the characters stop to spout out exposition. There is a lot that is talked about and not shown, like Nobunaga and the Koga plotting against the Iga, or even the supposed “Iron Grip” that the Iga leaders hold over their own. As far as we know, the only problems that the Iga have are the woman-killing chief and the inside assassins. I think the plot could have been scaled back to something more “intimate” and the non-fighting sequences would have become more compelling.

Alien vs. Ninja (2010, d: Seiji Chiba) – C: Masanori Mimoto, Shûji Kashiwabara, Donpei Tsuchihira, Mika Hijii, Yûki Ogoe, Ben Hiura.

I watched this at the same I watched the kitschy, hyper-gory The Machine Girl. So color me surprised when I actually had fun with this one, despite it having much of the same sensibilities as TMG. This one has more of a sense of humor about itself, and while some of these movies tend to be better when they are pretending that they are not absurd, this one plays well with our expectations and thus makes us laugh out of sheer surprise. My favorite scene is when the Odious Comic Relief finally bites it. The alien (which looks like a xenomorph with dolphin genes) cocks it is claw back, ready to deliver the death blow. It lingers for a few moments, making us think that the other ninjas will suddenly jump in and save him. Nope. His head goes flying off and lands on a decorative shrine, where a bird immediately starts pecking his eyes.

It is hard to explain the difference between this and TMG. The Machine Girl, while absurd and gory, treated the gore like an end in itself and felt like it introduced bizarre situations as an excuse to show more gore. This one is extremely gory, but it also follows a consistent internal logic in how the violence is portrayed and how the characters are affected. Moreover, the end is to be bizarre and fun, and the violence is one of the means to that end. The other means include well-choreographed fights courtesy of Yuji Shimomoura. There are lots of "ultimate ninja antics" and macho ninja posturing, like when a ninja throws a shuriken at the main protagonist from behind, and the latter slightly unsheathes the sword on his back, which deflects the iron star into the former's head. The climatic fight with the ninja zombies (shades of The Hidden here) has the best choreography and should leave most fight fans pleased.

Finally, some moments of subverting genre clichés help achieve a level of fun weirdness. Few people will argue that the facehuggers in the Alien films have a rape-y subtext to them. Future rip-offs like Galaxy of Terror and the Shaw Brothers' Inseminoid transformed that subtext into real text. So this movie subverts that by having a fight between the resident kunoichi (who's pretty hawt in her skin-tight ninja garb) and one of the aliens, who desperately wants to grope her boobs. The entire fight revolves around the girl using acrobatics and fisticuffs to avoid that scenario, ending with her defeating her attacker by stabbing it in the crotch. Ouch!

Kunoichi: Ninja Girl (2011, d: Seiji Chiba) – original title: Kunoichi – C: Rina Takeda, Mickey Koga, Masanori Mimoto, Yûichi Satô, Mayu Onomura, Shiho Fujisawa, Kotono.

No-budget ninja tomfoolery from Seiji Chiba, one of the few directors in Japan who still takes martial arts seriously. Sadly, this 64-minute potboiler has little to recommend it beyond Rina Takeda’s natural cuteness and a good fight sequence at the end. Three Koga ninja kidnap four girls with the intention of making them sex slaves for their clan. One of them is Kisaragi (Takeda), a female ninja (of the Iga Clan?) who escapes and fights off her captors, one by one.

The Kunoichi is mainly talk, talk, talk, occasionally broken up by a quick fight scene or torture sequence. In one scene, a sex slave is sodomized by the Sengoku Period equivalent to “The Gimp” from Pulp Fiction. The movie barely makes it to feature length and even then, it pads out the opening credits—which are set to synth music appropriate for a late 70s Italian horror film--just to cross the finish line.

The only saving grace is when Takeda faces off with one of the ninja, played by Mickey Koga. Koga has a strong action pedigree in Japan, having shown up in films like Ichi; Hard Revenge Milly; and the title character in the “Kamen Rider Kabuto” series. Godzilla fans will remember him as that asshole Akiba in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. Anyway, their fight is the only sustained one in the film—there are two previous dust-ups that are rather quick. Under the action direction of Kensuke Sonomura (The Machine Girl; Hydra; the Gantz movies), the two have complex exchange of punches, blocks, joint locks, and throws. Takeda even does some muay thai-inspired clinching and knee smashes. In the second of the fight, the two have an elaborately choreographed sword fight, Hong Kong-style. The choreography here is top drawer, and it’s a shame that it’s the only moment in this movie that the filmmakers’ intentions are somewhat realized.

This review is part of the "Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!" series (click the "banner" below):