Review for Kamui: The Lone Ninja

Introduction

We only get a small fraction of Japanese cinema in the West, so it's hard to tell just what is a trend, and what is the way of things. Of late, I have been seeing many more live action adaptations of manga and anime. It may be that it has always been thus in Japan, but I get the feeling that it's the recent revolution in digital filmmaking and special effects that has made many of these adaptations possible. After all, manga is replete with fantastic visual ideas, letting imaginations run riot, and I'm sure that even just a few years ago, there's no way that purse strings could accommodate ideas like Dororo or Kitaro. Also, the audience for manga has broadened and fragmented, and recent titles with adult, complex stories like 20th Century Boys or Death Note seem ideal for cinema, whereas something more simplistic like Dragonball Z has difficulty.


With anime and manga being a 'now' thing, we usually aren't aware of those titles that were popular in Japan thirty or forty years ago, just like the recent Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler release. Manga now turn to Kamui: The Lone Ninja for a little live action anime fun. You probably haven't heard of Kamui before, but it was a popular manga in Japan running from 1964-1971, and it begat a 26-episode anime series in 1969. If you've seen an episode or two of Naruto, you'll know what animated ninja are capable of. So it's no wonder that there had to be a digital effects revolution before Kamui could come to the big screen. With the popularity of Naruto, I've always wondered why they don't make a live action version. Having seen Kamui: The Lone Ninja, I now know why.


Kamui was born into a poor family in a poor village in the 17th Century Tokugawa Era. His dream was of being free, but the only way out of his shackles of poverty was to become a ninja, and he became an exceptional one. But as he learnt when his clan had to hunt down the rogue ninja Sugaru, the only way out of the clan was death. Nevertheless, tiring of all the killing that he had to do, Kamui eventually grew to desire that freedom again, and he rebelled against the clan. Now he flees from their assassins, having adventures on the way. As the film begins, he's locked in battle with his former friends, while in the same forest, an itinerant fisherman named Hanbei is about to commit a grievous crime. He's about to slaughter the horse of the local Lord Gumbei. This confluence of events lead to the two of them fleeing together, as Hanbei invites Kamui to shelter with his family. It's an idyllic, isolated island to hide on, but their freedom will be short lived. Gumbei still wants crucified the man who attacked his noble steed, while the ninja of his clan still are hunting Kamui down. If that isn't enough, Hanbei's daughter Sayaka develops a crush on Kamui, while Hanbei's wife has a secret that she's willing to kill to protect.

Picture

Kamui gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that is really quite pleasant, clear and with vivid colours throughout, and mercifully a native PAL transfer at that. It is a little soft though, and darker scenes are a tad indistinct. I don't know how much of that is down to the transfer, and how much of it is the inherent sneakiness of ninja though. This is a CGI heavy film bringing all the various ninja abilities to life, and you'll have to meet the film more than halfway when it comes to suspension of disbelief. The digital effects aren't all that effective.

Sound

In terms of audio, you have the option of DD 5.1 Surround, and DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with optional English subtitles. The dialogue is clear; the music suits the film well, if it is immediately forgettable, while the surrounds are put to good use conveying the action and effects. The subtitle translations did raise my eyebrow on more than one occasion, as some distinctly British colloquialisms crept in, 'grassed up' instead of 'betrayed' a glaring example.

Extras

The disc gets nicely animated menus. It also gets an hour's worth of PR junket as extra features. The cast and crew get together at various locations, grab microphones and sell the movie to all and sundry.

The Press Conference of Upcoming Film "Kamui" lasts 16 minutes, and sees the Director and three or four of the Japanese cast members get together on a stage and sell the film. They also answer a few press questions as well.

Premiere Screening lasts 14 minutes, and sees the director, screenwriter and star in front of the screen, presenting the film to an eager audience.

Special Event at Roppongi lasts 13 minutes, and takes place during a celebration of Hong Kong cinema. The stunt co-ordinator, director, and Hong Kong actor Ekin Cheng go through the motions in a mutual admiration society.


Cine Festa Shinjuku Red Carpet (6 mins) and Cine Festa Shinjuku Cast and Crew Greetings (8 mins) offer one last chance for the cast and crew to get up on stage with microphones and do the junket thing.

The disc is topped off with the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer.

One or two of these junket featurettes would have been sufficient, as there's very little of value in them, little more than a back of DVD PR blurb, so what you get on this disc is very much a case of quantity over quality. A little variety, a making of featurette, or deleted scenes, or maybe just a music video would have made for some variety.

Conclusion

While Kamui: The Lone Ninja works as a standalone film, after all, there is a narration that tries to fill in as many gaps as possible, I do feel that it is more a movie that would appeal to fans of the original manga and anime. It's more a two hour snapshot into an ongoing property, we're dropped right in the middle of the tale, given a fair chunk of narrative, and then we depart before the overall story gets anywhere near a conclusion. The film's story may end, but this is still a movie that blatantly anticipates a sequel as the end credits roll. As you may have guessed, I spent a couple of ambivalent hours in the company of Kamui last night, and am finding it hard to categorise a film that I enjoyed bits of, but didn't enjoy overall.


From what I can tell with my acquaintance with the film, Kamui the series was something like the Fugitive, with Kamui a ninja Richard Kimble, always fleeing from those who want him dead, and winding up having adventures in a new locale with every story arc. The difference being that as a ninja, he was guilty of countless killings, and was fleeing that life rather than persecution, and he wasn't searching for a one armed killer, rather he left a series of limbless foes and would be assassins in his wake. The film appears to collect some of the more memorable story arcs together, and tries to present them as a single narrative. It doesn't quite work, and instead Kamui feels like a progression of vignettes, a series of stop-offs on an overall quest, and while certain bits of the story may appeal, indeed in Kamui practically all of them do, it's just that there's no solid entity that you can call a movie. It stays resolutely piecemeal throughout. It makes investing in a character, or trying to follow a story arc through the movie a thankless task.


But the movie just about hangs together long enough to hold the attention. Stick with it, and you'll begin to see the threads linking arc B to plot point D, and the narration certainly helps. It's also action packed, there's combat and swordplay enough to satisfy many an appetite. But it's also here that I realise that what inspires the imagination in a comic book, what astounds in animation, just doesn't work in live action, at least not at the sort of budget that the Japanese film industry can afford. You may have seen all manner of ninja antics in a Naruto cartoon, magic tricks and special moves that wouldn't look out of place in an X-Men cartoon or similar. When US comic books are brought to the big screen, they get mega budgets, oodles of computing power and a desire to make the fantastic look as plausible as possible. Kamui's budget is nowhere near as lavish, and the laws of physics take a hike for the duration of the film. There are plenty of effects shots that do work, cool looking fight sequences, and well designed stunts. But the majority looks cheap. Kamui has a Brush-Cut move that seems like the forerunner of Naruto's Shadow Clone ability, with Kamui distracting his foes with a mirror image of himself. That looks pretty cool on screen. But when you have hordes of ninja bounding across the landscape like Crouching Tiger on amphetamines, it's hard not to suppress a giggle. It's as daft looking as the Yoda Dooku battle in Attack of the Clones, the green pinball moment.


It requires a willing suspension of disbelief to work, and that is easier to accomplish if you have a history with the franchise, have read the manga, and seen the anime. Few in the UK will have managed that though. Fortunately, where the effects are lacking, the cast makes up for it, with some engaging performances, particularly from Ken'ichi Matsuyama (L in the Death Note trilogy) as the title character, and Koyuki as the renegade ninja Sugaru. It's the degree of respect and reverence for the source material that makes watching the film enjoyable, as no one approaches it with tongue in cheek. 


Kamui: The Lone Ninja is really for fans of the franchise, the effects don't quite do enough to make the film believable, it plays like a series of best bits from the manga rather than a single encompassing narrative, and it feels incomplete, demanding a sequel. Yet I managed to enjoy myself for the better part of two hours watching it. It's fast paced, action packed, with likeable characters, and it's probably as close to a live action Naruto as we ever will get. Kamui: The Lone Ninja is out on DVD and Blu-ray.