Thanks to the Japan Visualmedia
Translation Academy (JVTA), we were
treated to a rare screening of the full length version of Nagisa Ōshima’s “motion comic” Band
of Ninja (忍者武芸帳/ Ninja Bugei-chō, 1967) at Nippon
Connection 2014 with new subtitles by JVTA.
A shorter version on 35mm with an English narrator has played
occasionally at Ōshima retrospectives, but as the film is only available on DVD
in Japan (without subs) it was wonderful to see an HD transfer of the film with
JVTA subs. The subtitles had a black outline to make them stand out against the white background.
Ōshima (大島渚, 1932-2013) is
best known for his innovative, and often controversial, feature films that turn
an unflinching eye onto social issues often ignored by mainstream cinema. From bigotry and xenophobia (The Catch, 1961) to state execution (Death By Hanging, 1968, read
my review), and from exotic asphyxiation (In the Realm of the Senses, 1976) to torture and war crimes (Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, 1983), no
topic was out-of-bounds for this filmmaker whom Maureen Turim called a “Japanese Iconoclast” (The Films of Oshima Nagisa, 1998).
Band of
Ninja stands out from Ōshima’s
other work because it is neither live action, nor a documentary, but a filmed manga. Adapted from the popular epic manga
series Band of Ninja aka Tales
of Ninja (忍者武芸帳/ Ninja
Bugei-chō, 1959-62) by Sanpei
Shirato (白土三平, b. 1932), author of the legendary Garo series Kamui Den (カムイ伝, 1964-71), Ōshima’s film is often wrongly
called an animated film. There are
actually no animated sequences in Ōshima’s film. Instead
he has brought the manga to life by actually filming the original
illustrations.
Although this sounds potentially very dull, Ōshima
and cinematographer Akira Takada (Violence at Noon, Sing a Song of Sex), know
just how to sustain visual interest. They use varying camera distances
including many close-ups for character reaction shots. A sense of movement is created by the camera
itself moving across the page and frequent cutting. The story is quite a fast-paced one, packed
with changing locales and a wide swathe of characters, so there is hardly a
chance to catch one’s breath. A lot of
the cinematic techniques used by Ōshima are commonplace in limited animation –
particularly the way in which backgrounds are filmed. The only difference is that the characters
themselves are not moving at all either.
The soundtrack makes up for the lack
of animation with its use of professional actors and a narrator (Shōichi Ozawa),
a lively soundtrack by Hikaru Hayashi
(Onibaba, The Naked Island, Kuroneko,
Postcard), and excellent special
effects. The film does feel a bit on the
long side at 118 minutes, but when one considers that the original manga runs
to 17 volumes, it’s clear that they streamlined the story quite a bit. Long-time
Ōshima collaborator Sasaki Momoru (佐々木守, 1936-2006) helped write the screenplay and
would later to go on to work on a number of popular series such as Ultraman Taro (1973) and the Isao Takahata directed Heidi of the Alps (1974).
The story begins in 1560 (Eiroku 3) during a prolonged time of
great upheaval in Japan known as the Sengoku Period (c.1467 - c.1573) or the “Warring
States” period. The central characters
are Kagemaru (Rokko Toura), a
dashing but mysterious ninja who seems to have the ability to magically appear
and save the day when a situation seems impossible; Jūtaro Yūki (Kei Yamamoto), who seeks to avenge the
slaughter of his father and restore himself as master of Fushikage Castle;
Akemi (Akiko Koyama), Jūtaro’s love
interest and secret sister of Kagemaru; and the baddie, Oda Nobunaga (Fumio Watanabe), the evil daimyō and nemesis of Kagemaru, who
seeks to unify Japan through violence and oppression.
The cast of characters is quite vast
and it is hard to keep track of exactly where one is, which battle is taking
place, and what year it is because the pace moves so quickly. It is hard to imagine the manga being made as
a live action film in the late 1960s because of the extreme violence and
complicated special effects. The ninja
employ Kagemusha (影武者), “Shadow Warriors” or “body
doubles” which could be achieved with today’s CGI but would have been difficult
in 1967. It occurred to me during the
screening that Band of Ninja could
easily be adapted as a kind of Japanese version of Game of Thrones. It may seem
hard to believe but I believe I saw more gruesome deaths and heads on spikes per
minute in Band of Ninja than in a
typical episode of Game of Thrones.
If you are a fan of manga and have a
chance to see this film, I highly recommend it.
The two highlights for me where the rollicking opening Kagemaru theme
song and the way the camera lovingly shows off the original artwork by Sanpei
Shirato. A must-have for any fan of
ninja manga. To learn more about the
manga, I recommend: Keith J. Rainville’s vintageninja.net and Ba
Zi (aka Nicholas Theisen)’s What
is Manga?
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014
CREW
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Original Story: Sanpei Shirato
Screenplay: Mamoru Sasaki, Nagisa
Oshima
Cinematography: Akira Takada
Editor: Keiichi Uraoka
Music: Hikaru Hayashi
Sung by: Sumito Tachikawa
Hideo Nishizaki
Producers: Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji
Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima
Production Company: Sōzōsha
Distributer: Art Theatre Guild
VOICE CAST
Shōichi Ozawa (Narrator)
Kei Yamamoto (Jūtarō Yūki)
Akiko Koyama (Akemi)
Kei Satō (Shuzen Sakagami)
Noriko Matsumoto (Hotarubi)
Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Mufū-Dōjin)
Hideo Kanze (Nobutsuna Kamiizumi)
Nobuo Tanaka (Munetoshi Yagyu)
Juro Hayano (Boss of the Ikazuchi
Band)
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi (Mitsuhide Akechi)
Fumio Watanabe (Nobunaga Oda and
Kennyo)
Hikaru Hayashi (Tōkichirō Kinoshita)
Rokko Toura (Kagemaru)
Hōsei Komatsu (Onikichi [Zōroku])
Mitsuhiko Shibata (Ramaru Mori)
Keisuke Nakai (Takezō)
Ikuko Yamazaki (Chiyo)
Hideaki Ezuki (Head of the Village)
Kōichi Itō (Kyōnyo)
Yūko Hisamatsu (Kokemaru)
Minoru Matsushima (Girl)
Aiko Konoshima (female beggar)
Ikuyo Morita
(another female beggar)
Tsuneo Sanada
(Saizō)
Tadayoshi Ueda (One-eyed man)
Hatsuo Yamatani (farmer)
Sumiko Shirakawa (vagrant boy)
