Release date: May 16, 1965 / May 8, 1968
Director: Tetsuhiro Kawasaki
Studio: Takarazuka Motion Picture Co. Ltd.; distributed by Toho
Cast: Kiyoshi Atsumi, Makoto Satō, Juro Sasa, Yuki Nakagawa, Ichirō Arashima, Akihiko Hirata, Susumu Fujita, Toshio Chiba, Kyoji Kusakawa, Makoto Kawaji, Jotaro Togami, Haruya Kato, Junji Sakai et al.
Availability: No home media or streaming release. Semi-infrequent theater screenings and television broadcasts within Japan.
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We all like ninjas, right? Let's look at a movie with ninjas in it. Two movies, actually, since I'll be covering both the first film and its sequel. (Disclaimer: I wrote the majority of this post on a large dose of caffeine.)
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| This is a lewd gesture that basically implies having romantic liaisons with a woman. |
Both of these films were based on a novel by Fūtarō Yamada. Yamada was a very prolific and popular novelist who wrote extensively within the jidaigeki genre. From the mid-50s up to as recently as last year, film studios couldn't seem to get enough of him; Toei, NTV, Kadokawa/Daiei, King Records and Takarazuka - just to name a few - have all dipped into Yamada's back catalogue. (His work was also the basis for the acclaimed Samurai Reincarnation.) Yamada was known for the elements of eroticism within his work, something that really was not emphasized until the rise of V-Cinema, when directors could get as nasty with it as they wanted. Once Yamada's novels began to be adapted to V-Cin, directors and writers would actually start inserting even more eroticism and grotesquerie into their adaptations than had been present in the original material. But the films we're talking about today came out of Takarazuka/Toho in the mid-60s, so while a lot of the humor may be on the racy side, there's no way it's going to approach, say, pinku eiga territory.
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| The book. |
The specific work that Fūrai ninpōchō and its sequel were based off of was the ninth installment in Yamada's long-running Ninpocho series, published in 1963. This series is, in essence, Now! That's What I Call Ninjas. It features a who's-who of famous jidaigeki frequent fliers. Continuity is optional: the setting is somewhere around the Sengoku and Edo period, but characters who factually were not alive in the same era are depicted interacting with each other.
How many Ninpocho works are there, you ask? An ungodly amount. Yamada's Wikipedia article claims 28 full-length and serialized novels, but also mentions that Yamada himself stated that there were 31. There are more short stories than I can count.
Our films are set during the reign of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Several other real, historical personages are featured in the film: Kiyoshi Atsumi plays the Heian-period military commander Minamoto no Yoshihira, who is here called Akugenta; Juro Sasa plays a warrior-monk who may or may not be based on the historical Benkei; Makoto Satō plays a character named Jinkyobei whose historical basis (if there is any) I am uncertain of. All three are generally rascals and cheaters who get themselves into various mishaps; I should mention that these are comedies, which should be apparent from Atsumi's presence as the lead.
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| Satō, Sasa, Atsumi and somebody's underpants |
Akihiko Hirata has a distinguished role as Kotaro Fuma, leader of the legendary Fuma clan of ninjas. From what I have heard his performance as Kotaro was "good". There is no shortage of Kotaro Fumas on film given that the Fuma clan are some of the most famous ninjas; a very select few appearances include Lupin III, Ninja Captor, Sukeban Deka III, at least one CLAMP manga, and a good deal of Naruto. This isn't dusty old history - this is just Japanese pop culture. As with many historical figures, impossible legends grew up around Kotaro Fuma, such as the rumor that he was 7' 2" and had fangs. I'm presuming Hirata plays him as a normal guy, but as is usually the case with pop culture ninjas, he does have supernatural powers.
Since these movies aren't actually that obscure within their home country, I've read some impressions written by people who have watched them. One reviewer praises the miscellaneous jokes in the first film such as Ichirō Arashima speaking Nagoya dialect in his performance as Hideyoshi, but overall calls it a "bad work". Another reviewer says the color and analog filming looks nice, but the story is incoherent. On the whole, people don't seem that fond of either of these movies, but it sounds like they are at least entertaining.
The sequel, subtitled Happō yabure1, was produced in 1966 but shelved due to poor reviews until another film starring Kiyoshi Atsumi became a runaway hit in 1968. Although the Fuma clan seems to have taken a beating in the first film, Kotaro sticks around, since Hirata is in the sequel. From a detailed plot summary, I can infer that Kotaro does die at the end of the second film, but gives a sort of "you haven't seen the last of me" speech as he does. (There would be no further films; I'm unsure if Kotaro returns in further installments of the source material.)
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| I've only seen this poster once, being used at a 2016 screening of the first film. |
That's about all I can give you. Vintage Ninja has some screencaps of the opening credits. A DVD was available for purchase within the U.S. at some point, but I did some poking around in that regard and was unsuccessful at obtaining a copy. Who knows what the future holds, though. Maybe someday.
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1 Galbraith gives the sequel's English title as "Homeless Ninja Trick Book: Lost in All Directions", but happō yabure is a term that means "full of holes"/"vulnerable to criticism" (as an argument), so make of that what you will.
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