NINJA WARS (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*  

It's rather rare to have a film be both delirious and dull, but Kosei Saito's NINJA WARS managed it.

Based on a Japanese novel, WARS' thoroughly weird content feels undermined by Saito's pokey direction, though I must admit the English dubbing probably did the movie no favors. This is one of the few films I've seen in which Hiroyuki Sanada plays the lead role, as I've most often seen him in support-roles.

   

The viewer's forced to assimilate a whole lot of crazy in the first thirty minutes. The shogun's daughter Ukyo (Noriko Watanabe) is married to one of the local lords, but rival lord Danjo wants to make her his wife, at least partly because of her royal status. Evil wizard Kashin, leader of at least four other "devil monks," shows up on Danjo's doorstep and reveals how to do the dirty deed. Ukyo can be made to fall in love with Danjo if she drinks an aphrodisiac made from her own tears-- or, failing that, those of the twin sister that even Ukyo doesn't know about. According to Kashin, Ukyo and her sister Kagaribi (also Watanabe) were the result of a liaison between a Japanese father and a Christian (non-Japanese?) mother. Apparently, a different lord decides to adopt Ukyo but doesn't want a matched set, discarding Kagaribi in the wilds. To her good fortune (and sort-of that of the villains), a ninja clan finds and adopts the castoff, raising her as a ninja-- so that as an adult she finds love with fellow ninja Jotaro (Sanada).

 The devil monks kidnap Kagaribi and transport her to Danjo's castle. They plan to force the girl ninja to weep in a way that gives them all some jollies: to serially rape her. However, Kagaribi happens to have mastered the ability to conjure up a scythe of light, and with it, she decapitates herself. Nothing daunted, the monks take one of Danjo's courtesans, behead her, switch the heads of the two bodies, and then bring both back to life with their magic. If they could do that, why not just plant Kabarigi's back on her own body? Details, details. Then they rape the courtesan-body with the Kabarigi-head, so that they can siphon off her tears for the potion, which they brew in a special magic kettle. The Kabarigi-Head body then turns evil, and one of the villains dubs her "Lady Hellfire." The body with the head of the courtesan Chidori goes mad and runs off, whereon Jotaro comes across her when he's seeking Kagaribi. He naturally doesn't recognize her old body with a new head, though he's somewhat bemused by the fact that she wears a Christian cross like Kabarigi did. He fights with the devil monks and steals their magic kettle from them, which means they can't brew their love-potion.

The plot wanders to and fro, punctuated with some various listless swordfights, and at some point Jotaro encounters the married noblewoman Ukyo. By this time I believe he knows she's not his Kabarigi, but her resemblance to his true love causes him considerable disquiet. If I'm not mistaken Ukyo falls for Jotaro, showing that at heart she shares the romantic tastes of her sister. At some point Lady Hellfire suggests to her fellow villains that they don't need the love-potion. Because she shares Ukyo's face, the Lady can simply sleep with Ukyo's husband, set him up to be knocked off, and then remarry Danjo. At some point, though, Danjo does try to use the potion on Real Ukyo, but Jotaro intervenes.

Neither the metaphysical nor the psychological aspects of the movie are well-executed, and I suspect that a subbed version of WARS would have been no easier to follow. Sonny Chiba appears unbilled, and according to IMDB the semi-legendary sword-maker Hattori Hanzo was supposed to be in the story. I never heard the name but I will consider NINJA WARS a provisional crossover on that basis. But there's no "fighting femmes" here because the only lady ninja in the movie just uses her weapon to kill herself.  

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