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 iroyuki Nakano's "Red Shadow" is a rather
oddball picture. It's not exactly a samurai film, not really a ninja film, and
sure as heck doesn't try to be an authentic martial arts picture. So what it is?
I guess you could call it parts slapstick and parts…something else.
The point is, it's very hard to categorize "Red
Shadow," a film set in feudal Japan and concerning 3 ninjas (two men and a
woman, with one of them being the Red Shadow of the title), that go on various
missions to stop feuding lords from, well, feuding. And along the way, there is
comedy, action, betrayals, deaths, torn loyalties – and oh yes, a large
helping of techno music that towards the end starts to resemble the theme from
"Mission Impossible" way too much for a litigious lawyer's
taste.
It's very obvious director Nakano and writer Mitsuteru
Yokoyama weren't going for realistic here. The film's first 40 minutes is played
exclusively for laughs, with a mild love triangle between the 3 ninjas – Red
Shadow, Blue Shadow, and the female Aska – that inevitably comes up when you
put two male and one attractive female character in the same locale for too
long. Of course Yokoyama and Nakano are as comfortable writing believable
romance and any sort of adult situation as I am speaking Japanese – which is
to say there's zero believability.
What you have here is a movie drenched in instrumental
techno that, although it's odd to hear at first, actually becomes an integral
part of the film. The music works, and I'm as surprised as anyone that I
liked it. The action, on the other hand, is a little unbalanced. Red Shadow and
his ninjas have abilities that range from superhuman skills like scaling walls
and disappearing at will to being thrown around and beaten down by other ninjas
without much of a challenge. It's all done very erratically, which might explain
why the film ended on such a weak and less-than stellar note. To say that the
climactic swordfight is lacking would be too kind – it is laughable.
And I can't help but still wonder why Aska, the female
ninja, is required to wear fishnet stockings, a very short mini-skirt
that rides up her thighs, and leave her face exposed while her male counterparts
wear what looks like futuristic versions of army commando fatigues with masks to
hide their identity. I guess in feudal Japan a female ninja is supposed to look
like a slut. Aska does use her sexuality in an early scene, but that, too, is
played for laughs. And if Aska is supposed to be a ninja, why is her first
combat instinct always to kick a man in the crotch? That strikes me as the first
"combat move" of a non-skilled female fighter, doesn't it?
Of course, "Red Shadow" is much too silly and
off-the-wall to worry about such inadequacies anyway. The major plot involving
the feudal clans are rather timid and uninvolving, and for the most part we
watch the 3 ninjas climb walls, duke it out with other ninjas, and look, well,
ninja-like.
There is a twist around the 40-minute mark that threatens
to turn the movie dark and somber, but this never happened – or at least the
filmmakers didn't have the heart to go through with it. The movie quickly
returns to its don't-take-this-seriously-because-we-aren't mode, which at this
point seems like the appropriate way to go.
As an action film, "Red Shadow" doesn't quite
work. Yes, the ninjas seem to be able to fly at will, but they all seem to be
lacking in ability at crucial moments – say, when they're fighting other
people. Red Shadow in particular doesn't seem to be much of a fighter, as he's
constantly being beaten, trapped, ambushed, and knocked around. "Red
Shadow" is definitely not for anyone expecting an all-out
samurai/ninja/swordplay fest. Although there are quite a number of swordfights,
they are choreographed more as stunts. Elaborate stunts, but stunts (re: fake)
nevertheless.
"Red Shadow" is definitely a new kind of ninja
film. Rather this is a good thing or a bad thing is open to an individual's
interpretation. I wasn't especially blown away by the film's strange vibe,
although I did enjoy my stay. The visuals are very nice to look at, and the
ninja scenes are very smooth and fluid. The comedy, as well, is mostly funny.
Although I still have to question why a female ninja,
despite being trained since birth to be a trained assassin, is still required to
wear a mini-skirt and what looks like fishnet garter belts…
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