Cyborg Ninjutsu...

Cyber Ninja (1988)

Keita Amemiya is a director that has fascinated me for years, yet, during the bulk of this fascination, I was blissfully unaware of his name, and just being sucked into the visuals of the handful of his films that I just happened to see. The first Amemiya movie I ever saw was Kamen Rider Zo and it riveted me. Oddly enough, I was leant a copy of it by a Japanese friend, and it was in the original language, with no subtitles, and I was still sucked into it, and I loved it.

Sometime later, I saw some of the scenes from Kamen Rider Zo edited into the first couple of episodes of Saban’s Masked Rider, and despite the fact that the show generally sucked, I still found myself stopping, and staring at the TV screen to see the stolen Kamen Rider Zo footage again. Yet, at the time, I had no idea who the director of that footage was, and I didn’t really care, because it was brilliant, it was cool looking, and it made a heck of an impression on me.

Many years later, I caught Moon Over Tao: Makaraga on cable, and I really enjoyed it. But, I still wasn’t aware of whom Keita Amemiya was, and I didn’t start to seek out more from this talented director until I saw the movie Mechanical Violator Hakaider. Hakaider blew me away, it was like a dark take on Kamen Rider, and it was excellent. Suddenly, I wanted to know everything about this director, and I started to search for more of his work.

Cyber Ninja was the first theatrical piece that Amemiya ever did, before this film he was working only on television productions; and mostly superhero related stuff at that. You can easily see the influence of superhero programs on this movie, as well as the influence of anime, and any number of different science fiction films too.

The title character was once a human, he was a warrior involved in a war that pitted humanity against a demonic force that lead an army of robotic ninjas. The hero was horribly wounded on the battlefield, left within inches of death, but the demons saved him. They erased his memory, used cybernetic robotics to repair his body, improve it even, and turned him into the Cyber Ninja. The Cyber Ninja is used to fight the war against the humans, but once his memories begin to return to him, he switches sides, and begins fighting the robots. He also joins forces with the humans to help them save a princess who has been captured by the demons.

Wonderfully imaginative, incredibly fun, Cyber Ninja is a real gem of a movie. Watching this made me wish that I still had that copy of Kamen Rider Zo. Keita Amemiya makes excellent use of an obviously low budget and he’s a man of immense talent. Check this movie out, you won’t regret it.