Over the years there have been several adaptations of the works of manga legend Sanpei Shirato, none of them fully successful, so here's another one to get in line.
Ninja Bugeicho was a highly influential ninja-themed manga originally released in the late fifties, early sixties, of which this is a rather mediocre version. The problem right off the bat in adapting such an influential work is that so many of its defining elements had already crept into every other form of ninja media over the years. Viewed on their own they seem rather stock. Stock might be the best word to describe this film in general. If this is your first samurai film you might enjoy this a bit more, but for 1980 this feels incredibly outdated, barely on par with the better movies that came out in the late sixties. At this point you really had to add something unique to the formula.
There is some fun silly ninja-y stuff here and there and the fight scenes as choreographed by the under-utilized main antagonist Sonny Chiba himself are mostly good but they are both denied their impact by the sluggish, uneven pacing and the distractingly unfitting score.
Having watched some of director's Norifumi Suzuki's other films, mainly Shorinji Kempo, the Truck Yaro series and some of his pinky violence stuff I can safely put the blame of the former on him, as they all shared that exact weakness. Only his early Ocho films seemed to have escaped that curse mostly unscathed.
It's a shame that a film with this much promise ended up being so boring and uninvolving. Looking at trailers from back then this was obviously meant to kickstart the movie career of Hiroyuki Sanada (who is so crazy underrated still it's just saddening) by showcasing all of his many talents. There's also some pleasant synergy with Hong Kong action movies of the time that I appreciate. Fittingly enough Sanada would get his real claim to fame through Hong Kong director Corey Yuen soon after in the infinitely superior Ninja in the dragon's den, that you should watch instead.
If you really feel like you have to watch this just skip to the fight scenes, although you can easily skip most of the finale without missing out on anything.
