Satsuo Yamamoto: Zoku Shinobi no mono aka Ninja Band of Assassins Continued (1963)

Cast: Raizô Ichikawa, Shiho Fujimura, Saburô Date, Mikiko Tsubouchi, Sô Yamamura
After destroying the ninja schools, the evil despot Nobunaga Oda (Tomisaburo Yakayama) proceeds to track down and crucify the remaining ninja fighters. Goemon Ishikawa (Raizo Ichikawa) escapes with his new wife Maki (Shiho Fujimura) but is unable to remain neutral. He joins a rebel faction in a new province and sublimates his personal desire for vengeance to the will of its leader. Using stealth, false messages and other forms of trickery, Goemon plays three enemies off one another – Oda, another high born feudal leader and a warrior lord (So Yamamura) cruelly mistreated by Oda. The payoff comes when the warrior lord is maneuvered into attacking Oda. Goemon sneaks into the battle to finally extract his personal revenge. But disaster soon follows. The new feudal leader steps aside to let two warring lords fight over who will attack the rebel fortress. Goemon and Maki elect to stay with the rebels, as a siege forces them into starvation.
Exceptional samurai movies abound but enough mediocre examples have been released on Region 1 DVD to take the edge off the genre. These Satsuo Yamamoto ninja films have refreshingly innovative storylines carried by clever strategy and subterfuge. The actual fighting is like icing on the cake. Even with a judicious helping of dismemberment and gore, the accent is on story, not swordplay set pieces. The ninja techniques seem like a magic act amid the usual mayhem. Flying shuriken (ninja throwing stars) leave trails of smoke, and Goemon penetrates a fortified castle by distracting the guards with various tricks. Of course, leaving a corridor's floorboards loose and squeaky is a simple trap that even a ninja can't evade. The Daiei studio must have had unlimited access to beautiful rural castles, for the film never lacks for convincing settings and large-scale action.
Goemon contains his rage for vengeance (I won't say what ignites it; it's pretty extreme) and instead inflames Oda's most loyal subordinate into turning traitor. So Yamamura shines as a good man finally swayed by injustice. A couple of carefully placed rumors are all that it takes for Oda to dish out intolerable insults to the noble warrior. We know the movie is working when Yamamura rebels. He can withstand having his own mother crucified by his superior, but snaps when Oda relieves him of official host duty at a formal reception!





http://rapidshare.com/files/356970681/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part9.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356986287/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356987086/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/356989187/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/357003774/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/357004747/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/357007781/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/357018819/zoku_shinobi_no_mono.part7.rar
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