| Shinobi - Heart Under Blade (Special Edition) [Blu-ray] | ![Shinobi - Heart Under Blade (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TNcZjpR6L._SL160_.jpg)
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 47 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1562
Category: DVD
Actors: Yukie Nakama, Jo Odagiri, Tomoka Kurotani, Erika Sawajiri, Kippei Shiina
Director: Ten Shimoyama
Publisher: Funimation Prod
Studio: Funimation Prod
Brand: FUNimation Entertainment
Label: Funimation Prod
Format: Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: Japanese (Original Language), English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Running Time: 102 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 09564
UPC: 704400095641
EAN: 0704400095641
ASIN: B0014567U2
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Equal parts Romeo and Juliet and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Shinobi offers breathtaking cinematography, appealing actors, and ninjas. What more could a movie fan ask for? Released in 2005, Shinobi is set in 17th century Japan, which is dominated by two powerful clans. Oboro is a member of the Iga clan, while her lover Gennosuke is the son of the leader of the Koga clan. Both groups are comprised of expert ninjas who have developed skills unknown to most mortals. When Oboro and Gennosuke meet, they are unaware that by their birthrights, they are meant to hate--not love--each other. When the nefarious Shogun--eager to increase his own power by doing away with both clans--announces that each faction will send in five ninjas to fight to the death, Oboro and Gennosuke are sent in to battle against each other for the honor of their clans. Filled with action (including some computer-generated images to enhance the actors' warrior-like qualities) and romance, Shinobi has the makings of a sweeping epic. Though based on an anime series, the film succeeds as a stand-alone piece of work. Beautifully filmed and well-acted, the film is exciting and heartbreaking, and the viewer senses both hope and doom all the way through the finale. --Jae-Ha Kim
Product Description
FUNimation Entertainment Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (Blu-ray)
The year is 1614. Japan has been united under the Tokugawa Shoguns and the land is begining to feel at peace. Two remote ninja clans, the Koga and the Iga, are ancient enemies but have long been bound by a peace agreement forbidding them to fight. The heirs tothe leadership of both clans have fallen in love but a tragic fate awaits them. A cruel plot is setby the Shogun to wipe these two clans from existence by breaking the peace agreement and forcing the two clans to battle. Five Ninjas of each the Koga and Iga clans will battle against each other to the death. As a great war begins it brings the twoyoung heirs together again. But this time as enemies.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
Decent Martial Arts movie July 5, 2008
In all this movie was worth watching once or twice. I'm not that big of a Kung-Fu type movies, but I don't mind watching some senseless violence every once in a while. The computer animation was mediocre to good depending on the brightness of the background at any given time ( on bright you could really notice how fake it looked). The story line as a whole was a little iffy, but I suppose it's tough to make a believable ninjas with superpowers movie. The fight scenes were well choreographed, and I do like how they weren't afraid to kill off some characters unlike many American films.
 Lurking emo, missing action June 25, 2008
I got this because it was one of the cheaper blu-rays that I hadn't seen and might care to see. Not a great choice as it turns out. Shinobi is, for me at least, a pretty dull movie.
Camera : many quasi-still shots showing the characters' faces to best effect. Forlorn and wistful being their usual facial expression. Their destiny (big capital letters implied) is calling, cue ponderous music. The male lead looks especially haunted (but with an amazingly trendy Japanese haircut). The female lead is pretty and... haunted. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes Shinobi's character development section. Visuals similar to House of Flying Daggers, but not as beautiful or subtle. Nice, but somewhat dull.
Plot? Meh. Others have already reviewed it and there is little more to be told. It doesn't help that the viewers are let in on the Shogun's big secret desire to wipe out the Shinobis at the beginning. If you need movies with super inventive plots, martial arts movies aren't necessarily the place to look. Shinobi is not one of the better ones, despite its melodramatic Romeo & Juliet pretensions.
Action? Well, the director is not Ang Lee, that's for sure (and yes, I know Ang Lee didn't do martial arts movies before you know what). There are some good special effects, but again little in the way of camera dynamics. The fights manage to be somewhat boring as well. No Ong Bak, Shaolin, Jackie Chan or Jet Li here. Not Fight Club either. Not thrilling, not playful. Whereas those other films get their actors sweaty with in-your-face action, almost everything here is resolved by various super-powers of dubious interest and CGI wizardry.
So, if you have an action movie with uninteresting action, nice-ish pix, and a warmed over plot, what's left? A nice showcase for blu-ray technology at cut prices.
Many positive reviewers seem to be anime fans. I am not. I like animation movies in general, but dislike most Japanese anime besides Miyazaki and a few others. That may explain my reaction to Shinobi, but it also means my review is probably irrelevant if you love anime.
 Shinobi - Heart Under Blade June 24, 2008
Smooth, dynamic and visually stunning scenery and special effects. Story line is a bit predictable but if you look for first class action and the mood for a samurai film, this is what u r looking for. Encoding for video and audio are first class rate. A reference for Blu-Ray high definition video. Film transfer is astonishingly better than many U.S.films esp.on dark scenes.
Live action Anime Ninja romance mash up June 21, 2008
Take the story of Romeo and Juliet, mix in elements of The X-Men and Ninja fantasy and you get 'Shinobi - Heart Under Blade'. Two ninja clans, the Koga and the Iga are long time enemies who have formed a truce. The heirs to the leadership of both clans fall in love, but since this movie is similar to Romeo and Juliet you can guess that a tragic fate awaits them. The shogun, who sees both clans as a threat devises a plot to get rid of them by pitting both clans against each other. What follows is a rather enchanting story that is marred by the occasional shoddy CGI effects and some truly questionable acting.
Don't get me wrong, 'Shinobi' is a great film with some truly awesome cinematography and some great action scenes; it truly feels like a live action Anime. Sadly though, dialogue delivery feels rather forced at times, and rarely authentic and some of the charaters in the film exhibit rather cheesy qualities. Couple that with the most predictable of story lines and you get a decent film that could have been something amazing. The majority of the characters seem almost like cardboard cut outs; the script makes no motions to flesh out their back stories or motivations. Though the intentions of both clans are never really explored, the clans are polarized with one seemingly 'good' and the other seemingly 'evil', though it is never really told why this is. I could totally be missing the mark, but these were my observations.
It may sound like I didn't enjoy the film, but as you can see by the star rating I gave I did enjoy it a lot. Despite all its flaws 'Shinobi' is an entertaining film with some stunning visuals. One of the things that hurts this film the most is that it tries to be both a romance and an action film, and sadly the romance portion gets somewhat lost in the fray. The romance between the two clan heirs is never fully developed and hardly gets any screen time. The battle scenes are pretty clever and entertaining. All of the characters have some form of special power, and there are duels aplenty to enjoy.
This Blu Ray features a pretty gorgeous picture, albeit some spikes in grain and the occasional soft, two-dimensional looking frame. 'Shinobi' doesn't have that 'pop' that is found in the best of HD titles, but it won't disappoint and is certainly a step up from the Standard DVD version. Colors can be vivid (especially in the forest scenes), however it is very inconsistent. Black levels are pretty bad as well, with crush overcoming most of the night scenes along with a drop in contrast. The special effects suffer greatly under the HD spotlight; there were numerous effects that looked too fake (I'm guessing this is due to the enhanced clarity of the picture).
The audio quality is pretty impressive, offering up the most minute of audio details in stunning clarity. The battle scenes especially benefit from this; 'Shinobi' takes on a very Anime-like soundtrack that truly compliments the film.
This Blu Ray edition ports over all of the standard DVD special features, making of featurettes etc. I was somewhat disappointed that FUNimation didn't transfer the features into HD, but this seems to be a common trend for Blu Ray titles.
Overall I was pretty impressed with this film, despite the few arguments I presented earlier. While 'Shinobi' isn't the best of Asian dramas, its certainly a great ninja flick with many Anime like qualities.
Movie Quality - 4/5
Picture Quality - 3.5/5
Audio Quality - 4/5
Special Features - 3/5
Great Movie, Awesome Visuals! June 21, 2008
Shinobi is a visually stunning movie in all it's Blu Ray glory. A must own for kung fu enthusiasts.
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