Owls' Castle

Underrated and often unappreciated, but a hidden gem of recent Japanese cinema, starring the inimitable Kiichi Nakai - with a grasp for comedy and hamming up some moments; acting sublimely at others.

Patience and a better understanding of the period concerned (about to crossover from Nobunaga Oda into the Tokugawa/Edo period in the late 16th Century, when Japan was on the cusp of civil war) also go far.

While some of the background effects are not particularly convincing (the early attack on Iga, for instance, and the decapitated head that spits across the screen), most of the sets are appropriate backdrops for some often inspired dialogue and innuendos.

Musically, too, the movie rings true, opting for traditional instrumentation rather than the J-Pop sounds that have hallmarked a lot of other Japanese period pieces.

Andrez Bergen

This is an extraordinary film. As you will see if you read the other comments here, it is not to everyone's taste. It is not an action movie. However, it really isn't quite the sober "realistic" movie that others have described either. THAT movie would be Ninja hicho fukuro no shiro, Castle of Owls (aka Samurai Spies), also based on Ryotaro Shiba's novel and a fine piece of work in its own right.

Castle of Owls does sport some over the top ninja action, but Owls' Castle actually has a lot more. There is magic, wire fu, impossible appearances, and quite a bit of heroic swordplay. It is just that these things don't jump out at you: they are part of the fabric of the film: the wonderfully fantastic way it looks and the exciting way the story is told.

This movie was made by Masahiro Shinoda, who is one of the greatest living film directors. It is an amazing summing up of his concerns, and I think it may be the crowning achievement of his career.

This movie was highly enjoyable for me. Most people i know didn't care for it because there wasn't as much action as they expected, and the action wasn't really high flying super ninja like. But to me it seemed realistic and the action was really good. The movie included ninja weapons, ninpo (ninja magic), stealth, underwater fight scenes, and from what i hear from another review was choreographed by someone who knew how to actually kill peopl. All in all I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes Japanese ninja movies with some history in it without expecting crouching tiger-like action. After all, these are ninjas not string work kung fu martial artist.

Shiba Rytoaro is a historic novelist. The reason why ninjas in this movie don't make use of James Bond gadgets to make their way through booby-trap castles and end the story in a big explosion is because this movie isn't the 2001 ninja-flop Aka Kage, and those things never happened. Don't give me the They-totally-messed-up-history-in-the-Gladiator-but-still-made-a-Russel-Cro we-movie-out-of-it look, Shiba Ryotaro's work is interesting because it is historically plausible. That said, the amount of action they did manage to put in the movie is realistically good. Realistic is the key word, because ninjas really did exist, so why don't you give them a break for once and try to look at them for what they were. This isn't about turtles living in the gutters, nor kids left home alone. I know it's hard to imagine, but these people were real, and that's why this movie deserves to be watched. The color palette of the movie is really beautiful, and the action is shot seriously--they actually had a mercenary choreograph the hand to hand combat scenes, he wasn't a fancy martial arts expert, but he did know how to kill people. Nakai Kiitsu is adequately stoic as the survivor of a clan, determined to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Mako's cunning eyes and sneer recreate the crafty strategist who unified Japan.

This is a serious film made for Japanese people, not an action-drama made for Americans. When will Americans stop thinking that we have an inherently superior culture? We don't. No one does. Life imitates art, and the Japanese people are a serious people, but know how to play hard too. This movie has both serious elements throughout, and a playful morality play some of the time, and part action too. Fukurou no Shiro has many deep elements of drama and film greatness- too many to cover in such a short review. A few of these deep elements are intense art, intense scenery and props, and an intense subliminal story of great depth. Even more than all these, the film and its story reveal a great deal about Japanese people and culture. Some reviews keep repeating "too reserved", but this is one of the most crucial aspects of real Japanese culture in existence. If this movie is for the Japanese people to enjoy fully, then it will have to be a reserved story. The pace is also slow. So what? That is to tell a story, not to produce a fast plot. The art of storytelling is the oldest and most refined art in existence. It takes time to tell a good story. The art in this film is fabulous, as is the scenery. The meticulous detail in many of the outdoor scenes is astounding. No other country could do this- I am sure of this. It would take too much time. Here is a revelation for those in the west: art has no time limit. Art is limitless, as close to eternal as any human endeavor can be- so it can sometimes best be expressed not in a rush. The same goes for people's personalities. While it can be said that most of the characters are somewhat two dimensional, at the same time, some of the core characters portray layers of complexity, and a few of the political leaders are able to do this as well even given only a few minutes of screen time. The morality plays are kept subdued and minimal, but the core elements of those are persistent as the determination of the lead character to complete his job. Two of these lessons are: traitors are not forgiven, and a person with integrity will stick with a task if an important one, or if he or she has given a commitment to do it. Loyalty to the clan is also important (a component of lesson no. 1). This film from the late 1990s is perhaps a culmination of a proud people that long ago completed a major rebound after a long emergence from feudalism; and has realized there are core elements of Japanese culture that are impossible for others to imitate, but if they could it would benefit them. The need to imitate western culture has passed. With art and drama this good, Japan culture is accurately portrayed as fully relevant to itself, complete, something profound and significant in the world, and an example of integrity for other cultures.