Ninja vs ninja in a shadow war where your sister's the mole and everyone's wearing too much black.
A wave of terror is threatening to unseat Shogun Yoshimune. Police stations are erupting into flames, convicts escaping from prison, houses robbed and vandalized, streets teeming with panicked citizens. Is Ijyuin Tanomo, highly-placed official of Owari clan, secretly using deadly ninja to foment riot and rebellion? Narumiya Shinbei, a lone samurai spy adept at ninjutsu must uncover the hidden hand orchestrating these shocking crimes. Shinbei enlists a small band of dedicated ninja to lay siege to the enemy’s stronghold, where his own sister works as an undercover agent. Now, ninja must fight ninja in a last desperate battle to save the shogunate.
Practical Effects
Real wire-work and smoke bombs, zero CGI nonsense.
Production
1963 Toho scope photography making every rooftop look epic.
Director
Junji Kurata
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was part of Toho's 1960s ninja boom, capitalizing on post-war Japan's fascination with shadowy resistance fighters as allegories for hidden political dissent.
Hiroki Matsukata would become a genre staple, but here at 22 he's already doing his own cliff-leaps because Toho's insurance barely covered 'ninja falling off pagoda.'
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