Zipang

Zipang is a rather strange movie that throws a lot of genres into a blender and comes up with a mixture that isn't entirely tasty.  It's kind of a shame because a lot of the individual ingredients are great; it's hard not to love a movie that has hordes of ninjas, a cute pistol-wielding female bounty hunter, and a hero that has his henchmen carry around nine swords for him so he can pick the right one for each occasion.

The film starts off with a bang.  We're introduced to the female lead, the cute and deadly Yuri the Pistol—a bounty hunter who always gets her man.   After she proves that she can kick some ass, we're quickly introduced to her next target, Jigoku Gokurakumaru.

Jigoku, a wanted criminal that travels around with a group of circus rejects that include a midget elephant, gets attacked by an absolute horde of enemies.  This fight scene is ridiculously entertaining; Jigukou fights everyone from dozens of ninjas to a French swordsman who seems to be Cyrano de Bergerac and a blind swordsman spoof of Zatoichi.

The ninjas, who appear on and off throughout the movie, have some amazing (and amazingly silly) technology that will probably have viewers chuckling.  Binoculars with throwing-star shaped focus, cameras and slide projectors, robotic arms, implanted rib blades—these guys are nuts.  They are led by Hanzo Hattori, ninja badass extraordinaire, who appears to be wearing a ninja suit assembled from either garbage bags or PVC.  In any case he eventually gives Jigoku and Yuri a run for their money as being the coolest character in the movie.

This all sounds pretty awesome, and it actually is in a goofy way, but partway through Zipang seems to lose focus and decide that it wants to be a different and more serious kind of movie.  It gets bogged down in telling the story of an ancient warrior trying to get revenge and rescue his queen, a task he has repeatedly attempted and failed at.  The ancient warrior, Jigoku (and his henchmen) and Yuri enter the land of Zipang to try this quest once again.  At the same time the ninjas are trying to take over the land of Zipang in order to bring its riches to their master the Shogun.  And Jogoku and Yuri fall in love.

The story isn't all that complex or hard to follow, but it's a lot less interesting than Jigoku fighting with hordes of ninjas and the crazy stuff that was happening earlier.  This problem is compounded by the fact that there is never really another fight scene that comes close to the frenetic fun offered up in the beginning of the film.

Zipang isn't a bad movie; it's got some pretty great moments.  It's just too bad that the whole isn't equal to the sum of the parts.  If you really like hordes of ninjas with crazy gadgets you may want to give it a look.