Just as a note, I only watch foreign movies in their natural language with subtitles, and so should you. If you aren’t doing that then you need to correct yourself! Also, I use the foreign title as the main title, but I do put the English title in parentheses so that those not aware of the movies actual title will know what I’m talking about. I will also refer to shows by their English title when listing what other shows the actors have appeared in to avoid all kinds of confusion from the Gringos. Now that all the pleasantries are out of the way, bring on your devils, your ninjas and your hot naked Japanese chicks! Also bring on your exploding dead bodies and weird electrical wires, but don’t bring your hot molten gold, that will get you nothing but scorn!

Written By: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Directed By: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Bare Essentials:

A Plot – Kibagami Jubei is a roaming ninja who was once betrayed by his clan and was forced to kill his own leader. Years later he is drawn into a conflict between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Toyotomi Clan that reveals his old leader, Gemma Himuro, somehow survived the beheading he received at the hands of Jubei. Not only did Gemma survive, but he is now the leader of the Eight Devils of Kimon, powerful and mystical assassins that do his bidding. Jubei is helped by a female ninja from the Mochizuki Clan and from the old trickster Dakuan from the Tokugawa Shogunate. Although unwilling partners they manage to topple the Eight Devils of Kimon, until the only one left alive is Gemma and he is killed in a titular battle with Jubei.

B Plot - The Eight Devils of Kimon are delivering a shipment of gold to the Toyotomi Clan, but the last two remaining Devils, Gemma and Zakuro, reveal to the Toyotomi that they plan to keep the gold for themselves and build an unstoppable ninja army to rule all of Japan. Their plan is stopped by the arrival of Jubei and Dakuan, who together sink the ship of gold to the bottom of the river and kill Lord Gemma.

C Plot - The female, kuniochi, ninja Kagero is the only surviving member of her ninja troupe, the Koga. She served the Mochizuki clan as a poison tester, and as a result her body was riddled with poisons and could not be touched by any other person. Because of that she has never known true love, but she eventually finds true love in the form of Kibagami Jubei, whom she saves from a poison inflicted upon him by Dakuan before she dies from wounds sustained at the hands of Lord Gemma.

D Plot - Jubei has been poisoned by a member of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Dakuan. To ensure that he will help the Shogunate end the machinations of the Eight Devils of Kimon and the Toyotomi Clan, Dakuan has promised Jubei an antidote to the toxin at the end of their journey. Jubei finds the antidote in the form of the kuniochi ninja Kagero, and leaves Dakuan behind after killing Lord Gemma and stopping the Eight Devils Of Kimon.

Idiosyncratic Musings:

Jubei Ninpucho is a film that is true to its time and in being truthful it must keep a faithful portrayal of its female characters. All the women in Jubei Ninpucho are shown to be powerful in their own right, but at the same time they are shown to be the objects of men and beneath men. Some people would view this as somehow being wrong and unjust, but the reality is that the women are where they need to be in Jubei Ninpucho. The story takes place in feudal Japan and as such you can’t take present day views & values and try to apply them to a story from the past. The women were objectified by men, they were viewed as being beneath men, and they were willing to capitulate and take a back seat to men. Jubei Ninpucho manages to create cool and interesting female characters while staying true to the roots of its time period.

Another area of interest in Jubei Ninpucho is how it wants to appeal to humanities carnal side. Jubei Ninpucho doesn’t pull any punches and is over the top with violence because it wants to appeal to the people that are interested in graphic brutality. Undoubtedly there are people that seek out and crave that brutality in a very real world sense. But, there are also people that are interested in violence and brutality in a pure entertainment sense. They enjoy watching over the top violence and brutality on film, on TV, in video games, and Jubei Ninpucho appeals to that type of person. Jubei Ninpucho goes out of its way to present stylized and brutal violence because it wants to enthrall the viewer with said violence.

I think This Might Be Based On Something:

Jubei Ninpucho is a homage to the Ninpocho series of Ninja novels by Futaro Yamada.

The character of Kibagami Jubei is based on the Japanese folk samurai hero of legend, Yagyu Jubei.

Jubei Ninpucho plays on various Japanese legends and archetypes, most notably the characters of Tessai and Utsutsu Mujuro. Tessai is based on the stone golem of Japanese legend, while Mujuro is based on the classic Japanese archetype of the blind swordsman.

You Look Might Familiar:

Koichi Yamadera, Kibagami Jubei, voiced the character of Togusa in the Ghost In The Shell franchise. He also most famously voiced Spike Spiegel in the excellent series Cowboy Bebop and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.

Emi Shinohara, Kagero, voiced Sailor Jupiter in various incarnations of the Sailor Moon series.

Final Ticket:

Jubei Ninpucho exists and thrives in a very dark place. It lives and breathes in the dark of demons and humanity. It is grounded, interestingly enough, by the fantastic abilities of the human heroes, who aren’t actually heroes at all. Jubei Ninpucho’s world is a fantastic one, but it is one that is completely believable. There aren’t any moments where you doubt the blind swordsman or the reptile lady, you buy into them completely. The relationships are short and terse on both sides of the coin, as are all of the conversations. There aren’t any gray areas in what people want or how they treat each other. Every action and reaction is straight forward and to the point. This brings us back to the darkness that Jubei Ninpucho bathes in. Jubei Ninpucho drips with this darkness, it permeates every scene, every line of dialogue, every bit of animation, every death, every moment in the movie. The only thing that separates the good from the bad is the idea of honor that the “good guys” extol. Jubei Ninpucho isn’t a movie for the faint of heart, it is violent, it is barbaric, but most of all it touches a very dark place inside all of us. It is a movie drenched in evil and horror, but it is a very good movie that everyone should see.

The animation in Jubei Ninpucho is simply stunning. There isn’t a moment in the film where anything appears clean or bright. Every cell is dirty, grimy and even during scenes in the middle of the day there is dark around the edges of everything. There’s a very late eighties feel to the animation. The eyes are small, the bodies are realistic and there’s a simplicity to all the line and textures. Sometimes animation can be clunky or distracting, but that’s not the case with Jubei Ninpucho. In Jubei Ninpucho the animation is some of the best you will ever find.

The only real knock against Jubei Ninpucho is its plot. At times it is simplistic and it works quite well. Other times the plot becomes very muddied and is hard to follow. When the plot becomes muddied the flow of the movie really suffers and it takes a little bit of time for the movie to get back on track and into a good rhythm every time this happens. Luckily the problems with the plot only happen a few times and don’t do any major damage to the film.

Finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning the two coolest aspects of Jubei Ninpucho, the characters and the music. The characters are larger than life and mesmerizing in their abilities. But, they’re also very real. They use strategy when in battle or when laying out their plans for the battle to come. Jubei is even extremely lucky, he succeeds more than once on pure luck as opposed to any abilities he may have. For as fantastic as all the characters may be, we can relate to the “heroes” because of how grounded in reality they are. The music may even supercede the characters when it comes to coolness. The music is foreboding, tense, thrilling, everything you could ask for from a movie score. The animation creates a certain atmosphere and tone for the movie, but that atmosphere only comes to life and that tone is only set when the music brings them both to life. The characters and music not only help Jubei Ninpucho to be a good movie, they make it a cool movie.

Rating:

88/100

B+

That ends our romp with demons and ninjas. Next time we’ll be back to Vorlons and Shadows as I kick off the second season of Babylon 5 with Points Of Departure.

Cheers,
Bill