Shinobi: Heart Under Blade Dvd Review

This movie was an official entry into the Fantastic Film Festival in Austin earlier this year and i wanted to see it so bad but i couldnt fit it into my schedule. Fortunately its been released on dvd soon after so i didnt have to wait too long. I love ninja movies and Revenge of the Ninja and Shoguns Ninja are some of my favorite action movies ever. Azumi was the last samurai/ninja movie ive seen in awhile so i had been jonesing bad to see another.

The movie is about these rival ninja tribes in the mountains of Japan feuding with one another. By imperial decree they are ordered to get 5 of their best warriors and fight each other to the death. Its all just a plot to get them out of the way and keep feuding with each other while the Emporer does his own thing. The situation is a little sticky because their is a budding romance between a ninja from each tribe. They keep it secret from everyone but are forced to split up once the decree is made.

The movie has little wirework because it is mostly cgi. The cgi is for the most part is seamless and fit the movie perfectly. Even though the movie is barely an hour and a half the orchestral score and the epic cgi shots try to make it look like its trying to be more than it is. It falls flat as an epic but viewed as a "little" ninja movie it quite succeeds. There is one battle between a ninja that throw spikes and knives and another that uses his sleeves as a whip and tentacles that is classic. One of the best choerographed, cgi fights ive ever seen. Other than the one fight most of the other battles are very short.

I wished the fights would have been longer and i wish we could have had more time with the romance part of the story. For some reason i didnt believe in depth of the love between the two main characters mainly because not enough time with them was spent for the viewer to be emotionally attached to them. I recommend the movie just on the merit of the great cgi and cool ninja moments just dont expect a great epic such as a Hero or Crouching Tiger.

Heres the trailer