The Ninja Hunt
Director: Tetsuya Yamanouchi
Year: 1964
Rating: 7.5
Ninja vs Samurai! The best kind of Japanese action
film. The tricky elusive ninjas against the honorable and stalwart samurais.
Normally, I would put my money on the ninjas with all their skills and hidden
weapons, but this time may be different because of Wadakura, now a ronin
after his clan was destroyed by the ninjas. He wants revenge and redemption
for his entire clan and his failure to save them. Now he has another chance.
Ieyasu, the third Shogun is slowly finishing off the clans that were loyal
to the Toyotomi (the second Shogun) family. Ieyasu has been using the Koga
ninjas under the command of Kurando (Bin Amatsu) to destroy them through
any means - not necessarily violence but in ways to diminish them enough
that the Shogun could order them to disband. Only the Gamo Clan is still
standing, but their elderly leader is dying and his successor is a young
male child. To make it official a letter from the Emperor has to be sent
and received approving this change. If the letter is not received by a certain
date, it will give the Shogun the reason he needs to break up the clan. And
they want to make sure that letter doesn't arrive so the Koga are called
in.
Ieyasu like his two predecessors was trying
to strengthen his hold on power but also trying to unify the country. Unifying
the country was an inevitable step towards modernity but in most films he
is the villain while the clans that want to stay independent to some degree
are the heroes fighting off tyranny. That is the case here. The Gamo Clan
needs to first get the letter and then hold on to it till the Court Official
arrives in a week. The Councilor doesn't feel his own men are up to the task
and so hires four ronins who all lost their clan to the Koga. This is redemption
for all of them. Heading the group is Wadkura, a gruff tough samurai who
has learned the strategies of the ninjas. He is played by Jûshirô
Konoe, a veteran of many samurai films - in particular playing Yagyu Jubei
in a series of films.
The film turns into a tense and suspenseful
back and forth between these four and Kurando and his band of ninjas - trying
to be a step ahead, trying to trick each other, trying to kill each other.
Kurando is a master ninja who has a never-ending supply of darts and needles
- which he spits out of his mouth like a machine gun into the eyes of opponents.
Wadkura's first step is to look at the registry of hires and everyone who
has been hired within the past two years is suspect of being a Koga because
that is always their long-term strategy - infiltrate, deceive, dissemble.
The final duel between the two men in the dark chamber of a shut off tomb
is brilliant as they move silently in the dark for the kill.
It is directed by Tetsuya Yamanouchi
who only directed about ten films - one being Na Sha and the Seven Devils
for the Shaw Brothers and another is The Magic Serpent which has gotten some
play in the West thanks to a dubbed version. I also want to mention the score
from Toshiaki Tsushima, who has over 100 composing credits - Green Slime,
Street Mobster and Wandering Ginza Butterfly among many samurai films. It
is terrific - discordant, jangly, screechy using strings, flutes and drums-
it ratchets up the feeling of constant danger.
