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Ninja Battle

Stars: Aiko Ito, Shuji Kashiwabara, Daisuke Nagakura, Kentaro Shimazu, Ben Hiura | Written and Directed by Seji Chiba

“When a small group of Iga ninjas find their comrade Yoshimori lying dead in a cave next to a bound a gagged girl, they immediately suspect her of somehow being involved in his murder. The girl, Sawa, is revealed to be a low-ranking Koga ninja from the distant Kashiwagi village and claims she was forced by Yoshimori to work for him as a traitor against her own clan. Sawa is believed to be in possession of a secret document containing information that could lead to the Iga’s successful resistance in the conflict with the Koga. But all is not as it appears.

As the Iga ninjas start to unravel the mystery surrounding Yoshimori’s death and continue their search for the missing vital document, Sawa proves that even tightly bound...

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

Drive Angry – Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner

Hall Pass – Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate

Shelter – Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jeffrey DeMunn (limited)

Movie of the Week

Hall Pass

The Stars: Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate

The Plot: A married man (Wilson) is granted the opportunity to have an affair by his wife.

The Buzz: I’m happy to see, after a four-year hiatus, the Farrelly Brothers are back (Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, Shallow Hal) — it’s also nice to see Owen Wilson back to his regular Hollywood hard-working self. I didn’t think the red-band trailer for Hall Pass was as funny as the green-band, but I am still holding out hope that the Farrelly’s and Mr. Wilson are as good a match-up in reality as they are on paper. The supporting cast looks solid, with Jason Sudeikis,...

Alien Vs. Ninja

Stars: Mika Hijii, Ben Hiura, Shûji Kashiwabara, Masanori Mimoto | Written and Directed by Seiji Chiba

Alien vs. Ninja is that latest low-budget straight to DVD production from those purveyors of Ott filth Sushi Typhoon. Packed with the type of action, gore and frankly ridiculous ideas we’ve come to expect from the company, the film tells the story of a group of ninjas who witness a blazing fireball roaring across the sky before crashing to earth in the distant forest. Rushing to the scene to investigate, they are caught completely off guard when they discover and are besieged by a pack of brutal and extremely ravenous extra-terrestrials and their slimy offspring – unwelcome visitors who most definitely have not come in peace. Quickly realising their swords, knives and throwing stars are ineffective against these intergalactic predators, the fearless ninja find themselves facing their greatest challenge ever in a mammoth fight for survival.

Action, horror, sci-fi and comedy all blended into the New Year DVD package 'Alien vs. Ninja'. Seiji Chiba's exploitation Japanese flick hits DVD shelves next February both in the UK and the Us (see dates below). Mika Hijii, Ben Hiura, Shuji Kashiwabara, Masanori Mimoto, Yuki Ogoe and Donpei Tsuchihira all star in this gory action-laden serving from the 'Evil Ninja' writer and director....

Grimmupnorth 2010 is coming to Manchester for a second time this Halloween! Readers may remember last year’s coverage from the first Grimmfest last October ‘09. Well, we’re going back for more this year too. Festival director Simeon Halligan and his crew have spent all year finding some amazing new titles to screen at Manchester’s biggest horror film festival, including Evil: In The Time Of Heroes, which I missed at Eiff so am well up for seeing. There’s also the inventively named Canadian shocker, Dead Hooker In A Trunk, the Japanese genre mash-up Alien Vs Ninja, Thai thriller Slice, Zombie mock-u-mentary Reel Zombies and a horror doc featuring all kinds of industry insiders, The Splat Pack. There’s also a ton of activities and seminars for festival goers to participate in too. Personally I’m looking forward to the special screening for my favourite Argento film, Deep Red.

Alien vs. Ninja takes us on the journey of a young, fearless, and often over-ambitious warrior by the name of Yamata (Masanori Mimoto). Yamata was orphaned as a child and has always felt like an outsider in his own village. Nevertheless he has proven himself as the greatest ninja in all of Asia. During a brutal battle with neighboring ninjas Yamata and his companions Shuji Kashiwabara and Donpei Tsuchihira see a flying ball of fire fall from the sky. Upon the Masters request the three warriors seek out this source of the fireball, hoping to protect the village from whatever dangers lie ahead.

While searching for the fireball, they meet up with another group of ninjas. This group includes Rin (Mika Hijii), the only female ninja and Yamata’s romantic interest. As the groups discuss the fireball they are ambushed by a pack of ruthless, blood-thirsty aliens. Several ninja’s...

The UK's most amazing horror film festival Film4 FrightFest has released what could very well be another one of the best horror line-ups we've seen ever for its latest show taking place from Thursday the 26th of August to Monday the 30th of August, brimming with films we've been salivating over Stateside!

From the Press Release

This year there are eight British films in the main programme (another record) including Monsters, Gareth Edwards’ sensational post-Apocalyptic debut, The Ford Brothers’ Cannes-hyped African Zombie flick The Dead and Johannes Roberts F – in which a school gets a lesson in horror! Other home-grown titles are Dead Cert (East-End gangsters meet Eastern European vampires), Isle Of Dogs (nasty gangland horror), Paul Andrew Williams’ harrowing Cherry Tree Lane and werewolf thriller 13Hrs. Plus, Jake West will be presenting his in-depth documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape, which will be followed by a Q & A panel discussion.

The complete lineup for the 2010 edition of the Film4 Frightfest has just been announced and, as usual, it is a quality selection of the best in horror film from the UK and around the world. The program splits into two programs - the main lineup and sidebar Discovery program - and you'll find both below!

Programme = Screen 1

Thursday Aug 26

6.30pm Hatchet II  (World Premiere)

FrightFest continues its strong relationship with Adam Green by hosting the world premiere of the sequel to his 2006 slasher sensation. Picking up right where the splatter-tastic original ended, Marybeth escapes the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling iconic killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family's connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher. Delivering unapologetically unrestrained gushers of gore,...

A trailer for Seiji Chiba‘s Evil Ninja recently popped up on YouTube. Like Chiba’s “Iga no Ran” series, the film stars Masashi Goda of the long-running TBS historical drama “Mito Komon” and Shuji Kashiwabara as members of the Iga ninja clan around the time of Oda Nobunaga’s final assault against them in 1581.

In this alternate version of history, the leader of the Iga ninja decides to employ an early form of bioterrorism by using a group of low-ranking ninja infected with a deadly disease against Oda’s Koga ninja allies.

Chiba recently directed the sci-fi/chanbara mashup AvN: Alien vs. Ninja for Nikkatsu’s Sushi Typhoon label, but it looks as though this one will be coming out first. It will begin screening at Shibuya Theater Tsutaya on June 19, 2010.

Source: Official website...

Facets/Tidepoint Pictures

Higuchinsky absolutely blew me away with Uzumaki in 2000 and this hour long made for TV production was made at the same time and was written by the creator of the Uzumaki manga, Junji Ito, so checking it out, despite reports of how uneven Higuchinskys work has been since then, was a given. But unfortunately the results are well…uneven. I liked this when I wanted to love it. But I did like it enough to heartily recommend it to anyone who, like me, wishes there were a surrealistic companion piece to Uzumaki. It brought to mind Lars Von Triers The Kingdom because of its hospital setting but ultimately this was a Lovecraftian immersion into the mystery of human identity, and the fear of cosmic chaos.

A doctor dealing with a deformed patient who is afraid of sleep is astonished to learn of the existence of long dreams...