SHINOBI - HEART UNDER BLADE

Gennosuke & Oboro

I watched this in parts over the weekdays so I could have missed some action.

Movie starts off with Gennosuke (Joe Odagiri) of the Kouga clan meditating at a waterfall, when Oboro (Nakama Yukie!!) of the Iga clan approaches the stream for a drink. Then it sparks off a forbidden romance as the Iga & Kouga clans, who produces extraordinary ninjas armed with powerful skills & techniques, do not see eye-to-eye with each other for the past hundreds of years.

The then-leaders of the Iga & Kouga clans were summoned in front of the ruler of Japan (Tokugawa Ieyasu) in a bid to see which clan is stronger and to be chosen to serve as bodyguard to the ruler. In the display of skills, both representatives were rather equally matched and Tokugawa requested the leaders to write down their 5 best ninjas for a duet the next day. Secretly, it was a plot to lure the strong ones out of the village while Tokugawa sends his troops in as he recognises the threat posed by these ninjas.

On their way back to their villages, the 2 leaders fought and were delivered back to the villages dead with the 5 names they had chosen. As the names were read in the presence of the dead leaders' bodies, Gennosuke and Oboro were nominated to be the next leaders for their respective clans and were among the 5 names that had to duel with each other. Thus despite their relationship, they were forced to accept the situation. While Gennosuke sets off to the grand palace to question the motive for the meaningless & brutal fight between the 2 clans with his contingent, they were intercepted by the Iga clan and the ninjas slowly fall to each other, leaving only Oboro and Gennosuke.

A lonely figure walking in the desert, Gennosuke notices Oboro in the distance, waiting for him. Oboro was not able to activate her Eyes of Destruction, which is able to incapacitate the opponent in a glance, probably due to her love for Gennosuke. She then pulls out her dagger and attempts to kill Gennosuke with it. Gennosuke, on the other hand, chooses not to defend himself with his ability to react and move at very high speed, letting Oboro stab him in the heart and allowing the Iga clan to win.

Gennosuke learnt of the motive behind Tokugawa's request from Tenzen, the undying parasite man of the Iga clan, and told Oboro of the army invading the villages before dying. Oboro, upon being the sole survivor of the duel between the 2 clans, requests an audition with Tokugawa and pleaded with him to save the villages. As a show of sincerity, she blinds herself with her fingers, destroying her Eyes of Destruction and eventually Tokugawa sends a message to the armies to stop the conquest.


Gennosuke

That's how the story plotted out. Aesthetically, its rather pleasing with all the beautiful nihon backdrop of forest, waterfalls, deserted temples, etc. Martial artistry, not much. Some skills are too exaggerated, whereas others, like Gennosuke's skill with the katana when moving at high speed slow-mo-ed, isn't action-packed enough. (He actually looks weak wielding the katana somehow..) Plot-wise, already summarised the whole show above, minus most of the supporting characters. Overall, ok. The typical lovers-forced-to-become-enemies plot.

I'll probably give it a 3 out of 5, thou Nakama Yukie's eyes are still mesmerizing as ever.