Thread: Ninja Assasin

Just saw this movie and it is everything the title says it is.I read a bunch of reviews describing it a a bad film because of the story line not having much depth.I figure these people do not know much about ninjas or maybe I don't.Ninjas are killing machines hidden in darkness. They have no time for philosophy like the samauri.I took my son and my brother to see this movie and all three of us felt the violence in one scene imparticular.quote"I'd rather get curbstomped than have that done"said my boy.You'll understand what scene it is when you see the movie.If your not into ninja violence then you will not like this movie.If you do like ninjas then this is the greatest ninja movie of all time.

I thought the plural of ninja is ninja not ninjas?

Originally Posted by dannywonderful

I thought the plural of ninja is ninja not ninjas?

More importantly, there has never been a person alive to witness one ninja, let alone many.

More importantly, people who actually practise ninjutsu in one of the actual legit systems understand that
a) the fighting in the movie bears little resemblance to actual ninjutsu.
b) ninja were not trained killing machines waiting in the darkness.

Fighting was considered the least important skill of the ninja. The ability to run 100 miles per day, jump from great hights, disguise themselves, be able to heal or poison, get into hard to penetrate places, ... that sort of thing was the main thing. If you got into a situation where you needed to fight, then you had already screwed up.

What you describe is the hollywood pop image of ninja. It may come as a shock to you, but it is far from accurate. And yes on this topic I know what I am talking about, being a Genbukan member and having done a significant amount of research on the topic of ninjutsu, and the various legit organizations that exist today.

+1 to most of what Bruno said except for a couple of points

That image is actually a carry over from the pulp culture at the start of the Meiji era. Ever wonder why the ninja always wear black pajamas in movies? It's a leftover from the puppet handlers of bunraku theater...

Ninjutsu is actually a relatively modern reconstruction from the cursus of older fighting schools/styles. Every major kobudo has or had "special warfare" techniques that integrated less honorable techniques, disguise, moving large amounts of troop in a discreet way, ... The first school/style dedicated entirely to those techniques would be one of the Yagyu ryu that was founded after Sekigahara on the express demand of the Tokugawa clan, after a Yagyu retainer successfully got the Tokugawa army to safety under the nose of an enemy army.

A ninja army would be useless due to the inverse ninja theory.

Originally Posted by MichaelP

That image is actually a carry over from the pulp culture at the start of the Meiji era. Ever wonder why the ninja always wear black pajamas in movies? It's a leftover from the puppet handlers of bunraku theater...

Cool. I didn't know that.

Originally Posted by MichaelP

Ninjutsu is actually a relatively modern reconstruction from the cursus of older fighting schools/styles. Every major kobudo has or had "special warfare" techniques that integrated less honorable techniques, disguise, moving large amounts of troop in a discreet way, ... The first school/style dedicated entirely to those techniques would be one of the Yagyu ryu that was founded after Sekigahara on the express demand of the Tokugawa clan, after a Yagyu retainer successfully got the Tokugawa army to safety under the nose of an enemy army.

What is taught today as ninjutsu today is an amalgamation of various traditional systems which include ninjutsu ryuha as well as many others. The percentage of actual specific ninjutsu content in our curriculum is small. Most of the content originates from other ryuha which originated in the same regions but which was not recognized as a ninjutsu ryuha. Which makes sense, since fighting was not the primary ninja skill.

Oh and to dispell another ninja myth: the ninja sword as protrayed in movies (the straight single edge blade with the square tsuba) was a modern invention. Ninjutsu does not include roundhouse kicks or axe kicks either

Originally Posted by Bruno

Oh and to dispell another ninja myth: the ninja sword as protrayed in movies (the straight single edge blade with the square tsuba) was a modern invention. Ninjutsu does not include roundhouse kicks or axe kicks either

The most likely special weapon would indeed have been a wakizashi-length blade in a katana-length saya... huge advantages in close quarters, such as actually being able to draw the sword. But even that would have been problematic due the long weapon ban for non-buke during the Bakufu era... so most probably just a wakizashi in wakizashi saya.

they also completely left out the part about how pirates are the natural enemies of ninja. you'd think if they were gonna make a movie about ninja, they would do their research and document the pirate-ninja bloodfeud that's been going on for millions of years.

Let me guess.You guys probably don't think transformers are real either.