Shin shinobi no mono (1963)

Shin shinobi no mono: Directed by Kazuo Mori. With Raizô Ichikawa, Ayako Wakao, Saburô Date, Chikako Hosokawa. When we last saw the intrepid ninja Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), he was about to be boiled alive. But a good ninja is both hard to find, and even harder to kill. With the help of the enigmatic Hattori Hanzo, Goemon lives to skulk another day, and sets his sights on bringing down the warlord who tried to turn him into soup — Toyotomi Hideyoshi. And as always, in the background, the suble hand of Tokugawa Ieyasu is pulling strings as he plots to rule all of Japan!

“The third film in the Shinobi No Mono series begins with Goemon escaping execution and a double taking his place. Although now officially u0026quot;dead,u0026quot; Goemon cannot resist aggravating the local government, even stealing the head of his double, which is on public display as a warning to the people. All of this is enjoyable and probably the best section of the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSoon the intrigue gets rolling. Goemon is still swearing vengeance on Hideyoshi, who has united Japan and now has a foolish plan to invade Korea. Meanwhile, an ambitious schemer waits in the background to wrest control away from Hideyoshi. There appear to be only three ninjas left. Goemon wants revenge. Another wants success, and the third wants to follow Goemon.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eShinobi No Mono: Resurrection is an okay film, about equal to the first film. Those wanting a lot of swordplay should look elsewhere. Viewers interested in the historical aspects of ninjas and of Japan will probably enjoy the film the most. The film builds to a nice ending which resolves all the plot threads and brings the story arc to a fitting close. The AnimEigo DVD collection has one more film, but I cannot see where the Goemon series is going to go from here.”