Ninja Kids!!!

Screened at the 2011 Fantasia Film Festival.

Note to self: do not attempt to be a Takashi Miike completist, not just because it’s impossible (dude makes like 10 films a year), but because for every 13 Assassins there’s a half dozen Ninja Kids!!! (exclamation points in original). A gonzo martial arts parody set in a ninja academy for 8 year olds, it’s a mish-mash of slapstick violence, self-referential spoofery, and fart jokes. Occasionally a clever idea pops up (a father and son play catch with ninja stars; one of the villains shows up at the academy to assassinate someone and keeps getting pestered by a guy with a clipboard to please sign in), but mostly this is like a Stephen Chow movie without the visual poetry and sly sense of humor. Also it refuses to end.

-- Eugene Novikov

Released:	2011
Genres:	Family, Comedy, Action
Starring:	Susumu Terajima, Hiroki Matsukata, Seishirô Katô
Directed by:	Takashi Miike
Screenwriters:	Yoshio Urasawa
Rated:	UR