It has to be said that although the idea of adapting a kids cartoon comedy set in Ninja Academy to a live-action feature appears to be a sound enough proposal, it's hard to imagine that the wayward talent of the bad-boy of Japanese underground cinema would be the first choice in mind when it comes to the handling of directing duties. But then again, perhaps not, since the only consistent and predictable feature of Takashi Miike's prodigious output is indeed its inconsistency and unpredictability.It also has to be said that at first sight, the young students enrolled in the first year of Ninja Academy here don't look the kind of stuff that silent, deadly assassins are made of. Shinbei, for example, is a little overweight, has a tendency to fall asleep at inopportune moments, but he does have a surprisingly hard head, even if about 90% of it appears to be made of snot. Another student, Kirimaru, has to share baby-sitting duties with class time, and you probably can't execute too many elaborate manoeuvres with a baby on your back. As for Rantaro, the diminutive hero of the comedy, he has a lot of pressure placed on him by his poor farming family. Formerly ninja's themselves, Rantaro's parents have placed all their hopes on their son becoming the greatest ninja ever. That doesn't really look likely at the start.Ninja Kids!!! does however look promisingly funny as a film, Miike entering fully into the spirit of the comic adventures with cartoony exaggeration, cheap-looking prosthetics, snooker-ball bumps on heads, explosive CGI action effects, pools of snot and inconvenient piles of dog poo lying around for the unwary ninja assassin to slip around in. If nothing else, the film is assured some measure of success for the idea alone, as the only thing cuter than Asian kids in movies is Asian kids doing comedy. Other than perhaps cute Asian kids doing ninja comedy. Set them lose on some mishaps involving shuriken and caltrop needles and it really doesn't get much better than that.Which is why it's disappointing that Ninja Kids!!!, and the anarchic possibilities afforded by the combination of kiddie ninja adventures and Takashi Miike, never really lives up to its full potential. There's really not enough room in a feature-length film to include all the funny little incidents and wacky characters without it coming at the cost of sacrificing any unifying plot development and character progression. The attempt to build up a world of competing rival ninja groups based around an incident involving singing hairdressing ninjas is certainly off-the-scale in terms of colourful bizarreness, but the rivalry between one of the ninja groups and the first-year academy students is resolved by a ninja "Wacky Races" competition involving traps, pits and rolling boulders that never generates much excitement and feels a little bit anti-climatic.Consequently, there's little solid character development - weird characters and egg-headed villains are only briefly introduced, and few of Rantaro's classmates make any kind of impression - with the result that the film feels a little bit episodic and the humour tends to be somewhat hit-and-miss. There are however enough laughs and cuteness guaranteed in the premise for Ninja Kids!!! to be more than a little divertingly entertaining.

It's hard to believe, with all the Western otaku out there, that very few reviews online have noted that this film is a live-action version of a popular kids animation called Nintama Rantarou. It's little wonder that most of the reviews seem as disjointed and unsure as they believed the movie to be.The film itself has a threadbare plot that mostly serves to pay fanservice to those who grew up watching the series and/or have children who've seen it. The costume designers, make-up crew and set directors have made pinpoint recreations of the artwork of the original series. The make-up is the equal of the work on Takashi's somewhat similar film The Great Yokai War.It's rife with sight gags, slapstick and deadpan humor, some that will be lost on those without the reference point of the animation in their heads going in.My very young children have seen Ninatama and chuckled and laughed through most of the goofy fun of Takashi's version. They tended to drift as the film ran on; it's probably too long to hold their interest all the way through. For adults looking for Takashi to live up to his reputation as Mr blood and guts they should probably look elsewhere. However, if you're interested in a vibrant slapstick comedy that doesn't reference thousands of American comedies, Ninja Kids is a spectacle to see.

I went to see this film with my daughter, with little expectations, but a bit of hope, as Miike is always original. I actually watched this movie in Miike's home town, just a bit away from where he was born, and only add this to inform some of the English fans out there how interesting it is, that not only do most Japanese not know who Miike is, even the people in his home town don't know him.But, to stay on topic, I enjoyed many of the childish fun of this film, along with the great use of ridiculous over the top special effects and make up.However, I can't really say I enjoyed this film, as I found it very unfocused. This had a charm for a time, but I felt it wore thin eventually, and the fighting for the middle 40 minutes or so of the movie lacked any reason or possibility of resolution. During this middle part, so many characters were introduced, who, although stylistic in appearance, were unnecessary, especially in a children's movie.Most of the bad guys could have been pushed into one characters, and most of the good guys too. (If you have a chance to see this movie, try and explain why Miike chooses to introduce all the students from 1st to 6th grade, despite the fact that we know, from all that has come before that part, as well as from the Japanese title, that this movie is about Nantaro and the 1st graders) I also really felt that a lot of the FX style was influenced by Stephen Chow's films, and in comparison, not as good.So, I don't mean to come down too hard on this film, which is appropriate and good enough for 4 - 10 year old to enjoy, with some very anime influenced make-up and costume designs. With the near 2 hour running time for this one, I would bet a 90 minute cut might be good enough to really recommend.I do hope more people in Japan, and Yao city learn about Miike, but this will not be the movie I show first.

When I saw Ninja Kids!!! at a sold-out screening at NYC's Japan Society, I was surrounded by a cluster of viewers that was about 25% 10 years old or younger (including a couple as young as 5), about 50% 20 years old to 30 years old, and about 25% 40 and older (including a couple approaching 60 years old).I can tell you every one of us was completely enthralled from beginning to end. Children and adults alike were howling at the abundant scatological humor, gasping with amazement at the feats of dexterity, and cheering the heroes on to victory.Pure cinema, with something for everybody and excluding no one.Is there nothing Takashi Miike can't do?