Ninja Wars (1982)

During the warring states era, samurai warlord Donjo Matsunaga plots with an evil sorcerer and his five black magic-wielding monks to fulfill a prophecy that whoever marries princess Ukyo will rule. All that stands in their way is a young ninja (Hiroyuki Sanada) who vows to avenge a lost love and save her twin sister.

Sonny Chiba and his Japan Action Club hit an exploitation peak with Ninja Wars, a grind house samurai flick with gratuitous sex and violence packaged in glossy, big budget wrapping paper. Chiba is rarely seen onscreen, leaving his protege Hiroyuki Sanada, flavor-of-the-month pop starlet Noriko Watanabe, and a pageantry of devious and bizarre villains to dominate. Falling in-between fellow New Wave fantasy jidai geki like G.I. Samurai and Legend of the Eight Samurai, Ninja Wars is probably the most outrageous, but also the most convoluted.

Historical figures of fact and legend collide when an infamous sorcerer named Kashin Koji (Mikio Narita) comes to warlord Donjo Matsunaga (Akira Nakao) with an offer too good to pass up. He has divined that that whoever marries princess Ukyo (Noriko Watanabe) will rule the country. Donjo leaps at the chance since he already desires both. Kashin assigns him five warrior monks who practice black magic and a plan to craft a love potion to capture Ukyo’s heart. They begin by kidnapping the Ukyo’s long lost twin sister Kagaribi, who is now a ninja trained by Hattori Hanzo. Being in love with her, fellow ninja Jotaro (Hiroyuki Sanada) runs to her rescue, but too late to save her life. Using their dark arts, the monks use her tears to craft the potion and Kagaribi’s likeness to aid their cause. When Donjo has a Buddhist Temple burned to the ground by attacking monks in order to steal the princess away, Jotaro rescues her. The two fall in love as Jotaro takes on the seemingly immortal monks and eventually their master with something stronger than black magic.

The latest English title is misleading. Ninja Wars isn’t a war between ninja clans, but a battle between ninja and sorcery. Based on stories from author Kazetaro Yamada, the ninja in this film take on superhuman ability and their adversaries take on supernatural ability. This may not amount to much in the way of authentic action, but it does lead to some entertaining scenes where Sanada scurries up a tree like a squirrel or swings in from nowhere to do battle. The monks have the best tricks though like vomiting quick-drying yellow mucus, performing head transplants, shape-shifting, and literally flying through the air. This absurd fun is matched with headless torsos spurting fountains of blood and lots of breast-baring from women petite and large, very large.

This excess isn’t surprising from Sonny Chiba whose infamous Street Fighter films epitomize Japanese exploitation cinema, but this should rank as one of the more extreme big budget jidai geki that certainly flies in the face of stately Kurosawa films from this period. Yet moments such as when a throng of torch and spear-wielding monks storm a temple and battle with defending footmen can make it easy to forget that this is just an exploitation flick. There is much to see production-wise and Chiba keeps things lively when it comes to the thrilling action choreography. More ninja action would have been nice, yet the monkish warrior combat with magic, staves and scythes is terrific.

There is something missing however, like a cohesive narrative. Sanada’s character is all over the place and generally dwarfed by the broad events he finds himself in. Chiba’s character is meant to play a small, but crucial role. Yet, there simply isn’t enough screen time from him to appreciate his vital entry towards the end. The love angle, first between Sanada and Watanabe as Kagaribi and again between Sanada and Watanabe, but as Ukyo is too much of a fluffy feat of marketing engineering for my tastes and ultimately sinks the film in its final moments.

Ninja Wars is an oddball movie. Its part exploitation, part commercial sell out and part straight-up action. With a script that fails to pull everything together well, this combination doesn’t work so well. But still, with a strong emphasis on the exploitive, B-movie fans should be satisfied.