Kamui: The Lone Ninja tells the story of a young breakaway ninja portrayed by Death Note star Ken’ichi Matsuyama. Constantly under the threat of assassination, Kamui flees from his clan in search of freedom, something other meaning to life.

He chooses to resides at a sleepy fishing village ran by the Watari clan, although trouble seems to be following Kamui in the form of an old rival from his childhood.

Blood & Bones director Yoichi Sai delivers his vision of the legendary multi-volume manga series created by Japanese artist and essayist Sanpei Shirato.

My overall impression of the movie is mixed, the movie does have some good points and some very poor points.

My personal highlights in this movie and most Ninja movies is the action! Ninja movies are always pretty badass! The duel on the beach where we get land-shark ninjas, throwing stars, explosions and Ekin Cheng! Yes, Ekin Cheng does makes a surprise appearance throughout different times of the movie as some form of spiritual guidance for Kamui. The sights and scenery of the movie is amazing too, the beautiful blues skies and oceans maybe visually enhanced, but damn it looks quiet bonny.

The personal letdowns include the shoddy low budget CGI effects, thankfully most of the computer use is taking place of the insane animal violence, so thankfully it doesn’t look like any animals were hurt during the production. The story is decent, but with the two hour running time the story is very dry for the first hour.

Overall if period Japanese Ninja movies is your bag, I think you’ll enjoy this flick!