Fantasia 2011: NINJA KIDS (NINTAMA RANTARO) Review
Abandon all hope of plot or character development, ye who enter into screenings of Takashi Miike's live action adaptation of popular comic and anime series Nintama Rantaro. It's not that the maverick director fails to deliver anything approaching a character arc, it's that he never attempts to deliver one, instead embracing the lunacy and manic energy of the story's comic book origin and channeling that fragmented nature into a movie that plays like demented sketch comedy. Put aside any though of the uber-cutesy trailers released in advance of this picture. Though it is indeed kid friendly Ninja Kids is also pure Miike, loaded with absurd characters, manic energy and sight gags piled on top of sight gags. And though the film suffers from a mid period sag it is also very, very funny.
Young Rantaro is the latest in a long line of failed ninjas, a young boy who is sent off to ninja school to learn and break a generations long streak of ineptitude. Judging from the quality of his school friends and the local faculty this will be a difficult task. One of his friends seems skilled only in eating, sleeping and the production of vast amounts of mucous. His other friend is an orphan who runs a babysitting business on the side to pay the bills. His teachers? Well, they've dubbed the class Ha because it makes them sigh so much.
Laced with poop and fart jokes and a number of sight gags that range of an aggressive lunch room server to the leader of a rival ninja school with a head so large he can barely stand up straight, Ninja Kids barrels through its first half at a manic pace bouncing from sight gag to sight gag with no concern whatsoever for conventional story. Miike paints all of his characters and scenarios in the broadest and silliest terms possible and hits the mark with a remarkably high percentage of the gags. The universe obeys a sort of Tex Avery logic, the characters clearly designed to look as if they had stepped right off the pages of the manga right down to the massive lumps that sprout whenever someone gets bumped on the head. Which happens a lot. Helping sell the silliness to a great degree is a cast that features a number of prominent - and usually very serious - actors who are clearly having a great time with the change of pace. Takeshi Kitano veteran Susumu Terajima and Red Cliff / Letters From Iwo Jima star Shido Nakamura are the most obvious examples but fans of Japanese film will spot a number of other familiar faces hidden away under layers of latex.
The film struggles some as it makes the transition from rapid fire gags to an actual story in the second half - the ninja kids must take on a rival, adult ninja clan in a race to save the lives of a pair of flamboyant hairdressers - but it recovers its footing quickly enough and ends with a renewed burst of energy.
As a result of being so incredibly prolific director Takashi Miike has an incredibly inconsistent filmography. His good films are frequently brilliant but for every burst of brilliance there are usually two or three other pictures that are barely watchable. The abysmal trailer campaign for Ninja Kids made it appear that this film belonged in the latter category. It does not. This is the funniest Miike has ever been and the film boasts impressive production values and a clever use of sets and makeup. Enjoyment of the film will depend one hundred percent on whether you share Miike's sense of humor and the sag in the film as it shifts into story mode keeps out of the true top tier of Miike's work but this is charming, entertaining and very funny stuff.
Young Rantaro is the latest in a long line of failed ninjas, a young boy who is sent off to ninja school to learn and break a generations long streak of ineptitude. Judging from the quality of his school friends and the local faculty this will be a difficult task. One of his friends seems skilled only in eating, sleeping and the production of vast amounts of mucous. His other friend is an orphan who runs a babysitting business on the side to pay the bills. His teachers? Well, they've dubbed the class Ha because it makes them sigh so much.
Laced with poop and fart jokes and a number of sight gags that range of an aggressive lunch room server to the leader of a rival ninja school with a head so large he can barely stand up straight, Ninja Kids barrels through its first half at a manic pace bouncing from sight gag to sight gag with no concern whatsoever for conventional story. Miike paints all of his characters and scenarios in the broadest and silliest terms possible and hits the mark with a remarkably high percentage of the gags. The universe obeys a sort of Tex Avery logic, the characters clearly designed to look as if they had stepped right off the pages of the manga right down to the massive lumps that sprout whenever someone gets bumped on the head. Which happens a lot. Helping sell the silliness to a great degree is a cast that features a number of prominent - and usually very serious - actors who are clearly having a great time with the change of pace. Takeshi Kitano veteran Susumu Terajima and Red Cliff / Letters From Iwo Jima star Shido Nakamura are the most obvious examples but fans of Japanese film will spot a number of other familiar faces hidden away under layers of latex.
The film struggles some as it makes the transition from rapid fire gags to an actual story in the second half - the ninja kids must take on a rival, adult ninja clan in a race to save the lives of a pair of flamboyant hairdressers - but it recovers its footing quickly enough and ends with a renewed burst of energy.
As a result of being so incredibly prolific director Takashi Miike has an incredibly inconsistent filmography. His good films are frequently brilliant but for every burst of brilliance there are usually two or three other pictures that are barely watchable. The abysmal trailer campaign for Ninja Kids made it appear that this film belonged in the latter category. It does not. This is the funniest Miike has ever been and the film boasts impressive production values and a clever use of sets and makeup. Enjoyment of the film will depend one hundred percent on whether you share Miike's sense of humor and the sag in the film as it shifts into story mode keeps out of the true top tier of Miike's work but this is charming, entertaining and very funny stuff.
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