Bullet Points: KAGE
The 16th century was pretty crazy in Japan. Warlords were fighting each other for nearly every single speck of dirt and the legendary and notorious ninja were fighting right alongside them every step of the way. People often think of the classic Japanese samurai films of the 1950-60’s when they think of that period. One would be insane to argue that it wasn’t the preeminent period for filmmaking when it comes to ‘chanbara’ (essentially sword fighting movies) but each decade since then has attempted to return to the tragic and action-packed nature of the films that proceeded them. KAGE is short film released back in 2007. Coming in at around 23 minutes, and filled to the brim with action, KAGE unleashes a brand of ninja action that we rarely get to see anymore. Let’s take a look.
Synopsis: Two clans of ninja clash amongst a backdrop of betrayal, kidnapping, and murder. When a powerful new enemy invades the lands of Jin and Riku, kidnapping the lovely Mai in the process, it’s left up to Riku to chase down the outlaws and rescue her before she’s killed.
- Bring the Pain: KAGE doesn’t waste any of its time getting to the action. A short opening text gives us enough historical background to know who and why these ninja are fighting each other, then it’s on to the fighting! The master is quickly axed, leaving Riku in charge of what I’ll call the Ninjas in Black (NIB). He receives what I can only assume is some sort of honorary headband of sorts, puts it on, and then runs off to join in on the fight that’s about to go down.
- Ninja Combat: If you’re watching ninja movies for anything other than seeing ninjas fight each other than you’re doing it wrong. I think it’s an old saying that “only a ninja and take down a ninja”. And why Steve James has proven that wrong many times, I think it still means something when it put it in the perspective of a spy vs spy situation. Westerners are much more familiar with spies, and just think about how many times we’ve seen James Bond getting almost killed by another spy! So KAGE gets us to the fighting pretty quickly, but it may not be the absolute Sho Kosugi awesomeness that I was hoping for…cause instead, we get his son, Shane Kosugi!
- Fight Already: As much as I wanted the ninja fight to last the entire 23 minutes of the short film, it’s over relatively quickly. Too quickly, in fact. It actually makes the NIB look like a bunch of pajama wearing pansies! Thank God for Riku and his new headband because Mai looked to have a one-way ticket to rape city.
- The Killing: The sword fights, once they get past the 5 second mark, are actually pretty cool to watch. They’re done in a slightly different way than you would normally see in a big budget flick and the biggest thing you’ll notice is that these are done with no wire stunts or CGI. Just good old fashioned ass whoopin’s! Modern audiences will also lose their shit over the girl on girl fight. That seems to be the way things are heading these days. You can’t have an action film without a scene where two chicks clumsily punch past each others faces. Well, this one is much better than that crap you’ll see in a Michelle Rodriguez film as these two ladies can actually swing a sword.
- Flashback Insanity: You can only fit so much into a 23 minute runtime but KAGE slaps together enough flashback scenes to make you wanna slap yourself back into reality. I was actually okay with just thinking that these were two separate clans of ninja who didn’t like each other and wanted to kill some fools. But a considerable amount of time in the third act is used showing us exactly what the hell is going on with these guys.
The Verdict: I’m a big time fan of ninja movies and I’ll never turn down a film where people are swinging swords at each other and you can’t beat something that clocks in a little more than a Seinfeld episode. Hell, I’ve taken dumps longer than 23 minutes and have yet to get in one single sword fight while doing it. KAGE isn’t going to change your world at any level but if you’re a fan of old school Kurosawa stuff like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo or you get your kicks by watching Shinobi-No-Mono or Sho Kosugi slice and dice some fools, you should most definitely check out the official KAGE page and watch the short film on their site.
