Ninja, a Band of Assassins

Shinobi No Mono

Japan

1962

104 Min

Black and White

2.35:1

Japanese

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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CAST Raizô Ichikawa, Yûnosuke Itô, Shiho Fujimura, Saburô Date, Katsuhiko Kobayashi, Kô Nishimura, Kyôko Kishida, Reiko Fujiwara, Chitose Maki

In this seminal ninja film, young samurai Ishikawa (Raizô Ichikawa) is invited to study under ninja master Sandayu (Yûnosuke Itô). Little does he know that his training has a hidden objective: the assassination of warlord Oda Nobunaga (Katsuhiko Kobayashi). Exiled for an affair with his mentor’s wife, Ishikawa believes he’s free of Sandayu’s grip. But he can’t avoid his destiny as a ninja, and his new life once again makes Nobunaga his target.

Director

Satsuo Yamamoto

Satsuo Yamamoto (山本薩夫 Yamamoto Satsuo?, July 15, 1910 – August 11, 1983) was a Japanese film director.

Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima Prefecture on July 15, 1910. He dropped out of Waseda University to join Shochiku, where he worked as an assistant director to Mikio Naruse and others. He followed Naruse when he moved to PCL, and became a director in his own right after the company was reborn as Toho. During WWII he directed several pro-war propaganda films for them despite being a fervent member of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), and after the war he rallied against the company as a driving force behind the union during the 1948 Toho labour dispute (in which the JCP was heavily involved), after which was ultimately fired.

He subsequently worked on independent films and made numerous intensely rebellious and substantial socially conscious works. From the 1960s onward, he directed a succession of major films including the Toyoko Yamasaki adaptations “The Ivory Tower”… read more