Worth a watch for the intro battle alone. This is a hugely ambitious far-future samurai flick filled with awesome effects and goofy sentai- esque villains.The plot is okay. It is very convoluted and confusing, but it does make sense. The main draw here is the action, the design of the world, and the surprisingly likable cast.I see it compared to Star Wars here, and I can see some similarities, but it didn't FEEL similar to me. It's a revenge flick about a robotic ninja clashing against Ultraman-style monsters. You're gonna see something you won't see anywhere else.Enjoyable, weird, and entertaining.

i first watched this in the late 80s when it first hit video in the UK.i only saw it once but i never forgot it-no matter how i tried i couldn't find a copy but then after learning its original title i managed to locate a us release on video.its still as good i just wish it would be released on DVD and even in its original Japanese audio. i thought about this film every few months for nearly 20 years until i found a copy on amazon which cost me a lot more then i would normally pay for a video. I've since shown the film to several mates and they all think the same,a brilliant samurai sci fi film which yes does borrow from tons of films but it still works and needs to be seen by more people.

Gosh.. I first watched this movie when I was ten and own a bad quality copy of VHS. Fortunately though, it has original Japanese soundtrack. Having not seen the English dubbed version, I am little puzzled by other reviews because overall I thought this was a quite decent film. Although I have to admit that 7/10 rating was somewhat based on nostalgia. In any case, I like the concept of Cyborgs and robots fighting with swords, wearing samurai armors, and knives shooting out from hands. Plus you have to admit that putting ammos into katanas is kind of cool. Not to mention different types of robotic ninjas. There were actually action figures of shiranui(main character) and shouki(badass white ninja)!!

I liked this. Granted, the Godzilla-like sfx are laughable at times...but I kind of like that part about it too. Regardless of what a previous review has said, this IS a little like Star Wars. The original three movies especially. However it is also like Godzilla, Krull, Tron,Dune and any number of science fiction movies made in the eighties. you have your laser blasts, your enemies wearing strange costumes, your princess that needs saving etc. What's cool about this movie is that it's from Japan and so its ALSO like anime and you have all these shinto symbols and what not. The first scene of the movie looks an awful lot like the movie Ran, (the samurai version of King Lear)and if you take away the scifi elements its stylistically extremely similar. In fact, one of the actors worked in both movies!Anyway, maybe this movie isn't for everybody, but if you like Godzilla movies, or eighties scifi, or if you've ever enjoyed an episode of mystery science theater 3000, you'll probably like this movie.