Take the X-Men, combine them with Romeo and Juliet and mix in a little Richard Chamberlain Shogun and what do you get? Shinobi: Heart Under Blade. This Japanese production is indeed a hybrid of those three creations and caught my interest some time back. It wasn’t until recently that my friend Goran reminded me of the movie and let me borrow his copy. So, I kicked off my New Year’s Blu-ray-watching with this foreign film (English subtitles included). Shinobi is set in Japan in 1614 where peace seems to finally be at home across the land. Meanwhile, small pockets of people continue to go about their daily lives, living in hidden villages, far out of sight from the Shogun ruling Japan. These are no ordinary folk, however. These are the Shinobi…individuals born with extraordinary powers who are trained for nothing more than the ultimate fight (not all that dissimilar from mutants in the Marvel Comics universe).
Though there are only two remaining Shinobi clans in Japan, the Iga and Kouga, the ruling Shogun demands that the two choose their five best ninjas to fight to the end, his intent to eradicate their kind. Since both sides are trained in such deadly arts, there would normally be little hesitation for all parties to get down to business. Enter Gennosuke of the Kouga clan. A young man with an unintimidating, skinny build, he is chosen to lead his faction into the heat of battle against the opposing Iga clan. Yet it is here where his very visible hesitation kicks in. While his comrades are initially unaware of his true intentions, we the viewers discover Gennosuke to be helplessly in love with Oboro of the Iga clan. Oboro, a petite lass who escapes on midnight jaunts to meet her beau, eventually realizes that their love is forever doomed, limited to brief meetings in secret. Marriage is not a reality for their situation.
Shortly thereafter, the two young lovers meet up with their respective clans and the pursuit begins. Some of the mutant…I mean Shinobi abilities seem a bit borrowed from the X-Men (one character in particular appears to be what you’d get if Wolverine and Sabertooth had a baby). Another character who roams the forests in what appears to be an oversized Adidas track jacket shoots these hair-like vines from his sleeves while another has the power to shape-shift his face. The one attribute that takes the cake is Oboro’s piercing gaze. One look into those eyes and she will release all hell on your insides if she really wants to. All the acrobatic jumps, flips and shuriken throws didn’t do much to save one poor sap from a look into the Asian beauty’s stare. The next thing you know, a shockwave enters through his pupil which rapidly travels throughout his body, snapping bones and popping blood vessels along the way. I hate when that happens. So what clan prevails? What happens to the ruling Shogun? You will just have to get your hands on a copy of the film and find out.
Video
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade comes to us in a 1080p High Definition 16×9 presentation with an AVC encode. Let me be the first to say that if there was any grain to speak of in this film, it certainly did well to escape my visual grasp. Some of the landscapes shown along Japan’s countryside were absolutely incredible, truly showing off the talents of high def. Flesh tones were varied but accurate. It was intended that while one warrior was tan in appearance, his counterpart in battle was normally more pale. Such display is consistent throughout. The pale-looking warrior was always pale, the tan fellow always tan, etc. Character close-ups did very well to show every little detail from fabric to skin..
Audio
The audio of Shinobi is offered in both Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 6.1. Neither is all that inspiring. The sub-woofer only talked to me once during the film and that took place during the collapse of a watchtower. Outside of that rumbling crash, the sound isn’t bad; it just leaves you wanting a bit more. There were so many opportunities for throwing stars or airborne spikes to whiz past my ear from one speaker to the next like audible dominos. Sadly, this was not taken advantage of. Should that have been utilized, I can only imagine how much better the viewing experience would have been.
Special Features
There are a plethora of special features on this disc. Unfortunately, they are all offered only in standard definition. My thought on such presentation has always been, “What’s the point?” You wouldn’t build a Cadillac with plastic seats so why produce Blu-rays with standard definition extras? Anyway, the extras are numerous and varied but watching them can be a painful experience.
- VFX – A 41-minute presentation on the visual effects and digital doubles of Shinobi.
- Storyboards
- Storyboard Collection – 38-minute journey comparing storyboard to its corresponding scene in the film (no narration).
- Director Storyboard Collection - 3-minute narration (in Japanese with English subtitles) comparing storyboards of Gennosuke to a few of his scenes.
- Weapons Introduction - Just under 9 minutes, this walkthrough covers a few of the more prominent weapons in the film and how they relate to the characters using them.
- Shinobi Art Manjidani – Also just under 9 minutes, this extra shows viewers the actual construction of the village known as Manjidani.
- Shinobi Action Sunpu Castle Fight – A 4-minute, 41 second look into the stunt work, choreography and overall logistics of the castle fight early in the film.
- Original Trailers and TV Spots
- Shinobi Theatrical Trailer
- Shinobi Theatrical Trailer #2
- Shinobi Preview
- 60-second spot
- 30-second spot
- Action Theme
- Love Theme
- Popularity Theme
- Coming Attractions
- Dragon Ball Z (anime)
- Hana (a live action film about a reluctant samurai)
- Black Blood Brothers (anime, vampires)
- Origin (anime)
- xxxHolic (anime)
- Samurai 7 (anime)
- Full Metal Alchemist (anime)
- Witchblade (anime, similar story to U.S.-based TV series)
Final Thoughts
Shinobi is definitely worth a look if you’re a fan of films like House of Flying Daggers or the X-Men franchise. There are a few cases of over-acting which I find not to be common place in Asian films, but certainly not a rare occurrence either. Also, the special effects in the movie left me scratching my head at times. You will find that most of the visual talents in Shinobi are spot-on with a lot of what you would see from anything Hollywood can produce. Then there are times when it looked like the director was running low on budget and used a laptop to finish up on some of the visuals; specifically the face-transforming ability of one of the Shinobi warriors. The technology used to relay this on the screen looked more like something borrowed from Michael Jackson’s Black or White video. Eighteen years ago that morphing effect may have been cutting edge, today…not so much. Regardless, I do recommend Shinobi: Heart Under Blade for at least a rental. If you do enjoy it enough to buy it, you are in luck as it can be found for as low as $11.99 on Amazon. Suspend disbelief for 102 minutes and enjoy this fantasy martial arts film for what it is worth.
