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Ninja Assassin Thoughts
Surprisingly I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly because I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. Sure there was a lot of gore and blood which I could have done without but the fight scenes were excellent, the acting was fair, the storyline was okay, and most importantly I loved the two main characters a lot.
+ I was not expecting Mika to have such a large role (in fact I didn’t know if there was a female role in the movie) nor that she would be such a great character. She’s stubborn and tenacious, she keeps digging, and she cares about doing to right thing. She calls herself a librarian, and she has no fight skills, and so her not physically kicking ass left right and centre was just fine with me. She also never gives up, she shoots at the ninja on her car (and tries for her gun in her apartment), and she gets to save Raizo with the car during the fight. Plus I loved her using Raizo as bait to learn the location of the Ozunu Clan (via the transmitter) because that was pretty bad ass. I also like how she doesn’t just stay safely hidden in the back but multiple times risks her life to save Raizo – possibly foolhardy, yes, but I like it. I just really love her.
+ I’m choosing to believe that her going back to her apartment knowing everything she knew, and the danger she was in and the fact that all the lights were out, was her foolhardy side peeking out again and she went back in to retrieve all the proof (and not because she was stupid enough to go back for her clothes).
+ I also really like Raizo – I like his competence, his compassion, him trying to close himself off but being unable to, his wry sense of humour.
+ I love Mika and Raizo together – I love the trust and friendship that builds between them over the course of the movie and I admit I totally ship them. I was all ready to be pissed at the movie when it appeared that they were going to kill her off but I loved how they tied her heart difference in to the tattoo artist at the beginning.
There aren’t very many female roles in this movie – Mika, Kiriko, the politician’s wife and the kunoichi/female ninja at the laundry mat. But I do like that there were female ninja’s who received the exact same training as their male counterparts.
+ Nick and I did disagree about the kunoichi from the laundry mat and just who she was. Nick thinks she was from a different clan while I think she was from the Ozunu clan. Nick pointed out that Raizo and she appeared very close in age and so they would have been raised together and thus Raizo should know her. That is a really good point. But I don’t understand the purpose of bringing in one ninja from another clan to assassinate Raizo and then not bringing up the other clans again. If they did want him enough to send an assassin after him wouldn’t they have continued? Unless... I suppose all those ninja’s Raizo fights throughout could have been from multiple clans? Hmm.
+ One of Raizo’s weapons is a version of a Kyoketsu Shoge, a knife at the end of a rope/chain, and was pretty cool.
+ After finishing the movie I went and looked for fic but alas there is barely any. Nothing good. Damn. I wish this movie had done better at the box office or was a cult hit.
+ I was not expecting Mika to have such a large role (in fact I didn’t know if there was a female role in the movie) nor that she would be such a great character. She’s stubborn and tenacious, she keeps digging, and she cares about doing to right thing. She calls herself a librarian, and she has no fight skills, and so her not physically kicking ass left right and centre was just fine with me. She also never gives up, she shoots at the ninja on her car (and tries for her gun in her apartment), and she gets to save Raizo with the car during the fight. Plus I loved her using Raizo as bait to learn the location of the Ozunu Clan (via the transmitter) because that was pretty bad ass. I also like how she doesn’t just stay safely hidden in the back but multiple times risks her life to save Raizo – possibly foolhardy, yes, but I like it. I just really love her.
+ I’m choosing to believe that her going back to her apartment knowing everything she knew, and the danger she was in and the fact that all the lights were out, was her foolhardy side peeking out again and she went back in to retrieve all the proof (and not because she was stupid enough to go back for her clothes).
+ I also really like Raizo – I like his competence, his compassion, him trying to close himself off but being unable to, his wry sense of humour.
+ I love Mika and Raizo together – I love the trust and friendship that builds between them over the course of the movie and I admit I totally ship them. I was all ready to be pissed at the movie when it appeared that they were going to kill her off but I loved how they tied her heart difference in to the tattoo artist at the beginning.
There aren’t very many female roles in this movie – Mika, Kiriko, the politician’s wife and the kunoichi/female ninja at the laundry mat. But I do like that there were female ninja’s who received the exact same training as their male counterparts.
+ Nick and I did disagree about the kunoichi from the laundry mat and just who she was. Nick thinks she was from a different clan while I think she was from the Ozunu clan. Nick pointed out that Raizo and she appeared very close in age and so they would have been raised together and thus Raizo should know her. That is a really good point. But I don’t understand the purpose of bringing in one ninja from another clan to assassinate Raizo and then not bringing up the other clans again. If they did want him enough to send an assassin after him wouldn’t they have continued? Unless... I suppose all those ninja’s Raizo fights throughout could have been from multiple clans? Hmm.
+ One of Raizo’s weapons is a version of a Kyoketsu Shoge, a knife at the end of a rope/chain, and was pretty cool.
+ After finishing the movie I went and looked for fic but alas there is barely any. Nothing good. Damn. I wish this movie had done better at the box office or was a cult hit.