This film is about two Ninja tribes, Manjidani and Tsubagakure, who have been at war for 400 years. Due to a restriction to fight, the tribes have been hiding out in the mountains. They are called by the shogun to have a competition, the 5 best fighters from both tribes will have a duel until one is standing.
Many people may have thought that the film was based on Shinobi the video game made by Sega, and were very disappointed at the film. However, the film itself is aweseome. I really liked the concept of the film, I'm not sure how true it is historically, but the cinematography, the music, the special effects, the action sequences, and the story were all well done. The actors were pretty good for the most part, costume design is cool as well. It seems as if the director had borrowed many ideas from anime or other ninja like films. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or maybe I don't know enough about Japanese history, but some of the characters were very similar to animes such as Ninja Scroll or Ballistik. Yes, even Kagero was in this film. Also as a bonus, Ayumi Hamasaki sings her song "Heaven" for this film. One of the rare action/drama films from Japan that I would recommend. B+
