directed by Koichi Sakamoto
76 minutes
Japan
2 stars out of 5
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I'm going to be discussing spoilers here because I'm extremely salty about the ending of this movie.
Let's be real: most of the audience for Shogun's Ninja is probably tokusatsu fans. Directed by Koichi Sakamoto (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, a couple Metal Heroes and sentai titles, etc) and starring Himena Tsukimiya (Ultraman Blazar), Raiga Terasaka and Katsuya Takagi (Ultraman Trigger), Ayane Nagabuchi (Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga which was good and you can fight me about it), Kanon Miyahara (Kamen Rider Gotchard), and probably a few other people I'm not aware of, there is obvious appeal for anybody who has seen at least one tokusatsu series made in the last 10 years. Outside of the casting, however, there's really not a lot of appeal if you like the actual tokusatsu parts of tokusatsu; the practical effects are basically nonexistent, and the fight choreography is good, but nothing special.
The story, however, was unexpected. Two ninjas, reduced to taking odd jobs after the Fuma clan was destroyed, become involved in helping shogun Iemitsu avoid his court's attempts to get him to sire an heir, which he doesn't want to do because he is gay. I was vaguely aware of the idea that Iemitsu was attracted to men, but I wasn't ready for it to be a factor in this movie, nor for it to be relatively - key word, relatively, there's heavily implied kissing but it's mostly done just offscreen - explicit. Moreover, even the villains in this movie don't have a problem with him being gay specifically; none of Iemitsu's family or retinue are actually homophobic, they just hate that he can't have a child if he doesn't take a concubine. It's always really refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't feel like it hates gay people... well, that's what I thought, anyway.
I'm kind of conflicted about how hard to be on this movie because I know that a lot of movies involving a gay romance subplot face immense pressure to not be accused of depicting homosexuality as, like, 100% a good thing. It is unfortunately still controversial to have a gay love story where the couple ends up happy together at the end. That being said, though, there's no shortage of BL out there and I just don't understand why this movie had to end the way it did. Again, it does feel very much like the ending was tacked on so as to not stir the pot too much, but it was disappointing to watch 70 minutes of ass-kicking in defense of Iemitsu and boyfie only to have him end up having a child with a woman he didn't love - the thing that the entire movie was structured to prevent him from being forced to do. I know it might not be historically accurate to see Iemitsu successfully evade his obligations to the shogunate, but I'm pretty sure none of the Fuma ninjas had supernatural powers, so that isn't historically accurate either, and it still happens in this movie.
Ugh. This movie is just... so good, up until it's not. One thing I really enjoyed about it was how many of the characters were women and how none of them really had a "reason" to be a woman: a lot of movies like this with women as both the heroes and the villains will give them some kind of special backstory while their male counterparts get to just exist for no reason, but it doesn't feel like any of the women in this movie had to justify their existence. There's no uncomfortable sexualization either, which is nice considering that Sakamoto's Sharivan movie was gross. All in all this was an unexpected movie where a bunch of women band together to protect a gay guy and his boyfriend from his manipulative family right up until it became a predictable disappointment. At least there's a gay couple in it at all, though. I recognize what a positive thing that is.