Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [uncut version…

Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [uncut version].

1967. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima, based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato. Voices of Shoichi Ozawa, Kei Yamamoto, Akiko Koyama. MoMA presents the uncut version of one of Oshima’s rarest and most groundbreaking films. When budgetary constraints prevented him from making a live-action version of Band of Ninja, the legendarily epic 17-volume manga about the son of a defeated warlord who joins a peasant rebellion to avenge his father's death, Oshima simply used camera movements and voiceover dialogue to bring Shirato’s original drawings to life. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.